Hi! I wrote a few drafts of this pre-amble but none of them felt right. On to the update…
ZmURL Numbers
We didn’t hit our goal of 1,200 event registrations per day this week. Event registrations were down 5%. But in good numbers, this week we processed > $25k and created events were up 7% from last week.
ZmURL’s Biggest Event So Far
On Saturday, we helped host the MBA Battle Royale, a Zoom game show that combatted different MBA schools against each other. They sold tickets for charity and ended up with 2,000+ tickets sold and $40k+ raised for Doctors Without Borders.
To support this event, we released registration questions and an ability for hosts to send an email to all registered guests. These two features were essential to the event and are now used by other events.
We also attempted to rush out two new features this week — live chat before the event and allowing hosts to accept tips / donations. We were able to release an MVP for both of these features but they were not used effectively and probably were not needed. It was a good reminder that we can’t discard our week plan and build something just because we are excited.
Dan and I attended the event for an hour on Zoom. It felt raw and like a new medium — an amateur game show hosted by people you know. But it was held back by too many hosts, a lack of interactivity, and a too-long introduction.
These real-time, small events have the potential to be a new form of media. But there’s a lot that needs to be built to make the events more interactive and engaging. Covering a similar event Li Jin wrote about the Zoom Bachelorette which coincidentally also raised $40k.
Features — Sign In With Email, Host Page Updates
We updated the ZmURL host page to allow hosts to:
add a photo
customize their name, bio, and a website
choose a vanity URL
We also launched the ability to sign in with email. Previously we required people to sign in with Zoom, but this hurt us when Zoom’s sign-in API was flakey for almost a week.
Goals
~ 1,200 event registrations per day
Improve core event flow — sign in, register for event, invite people
Write more about ZmURL (set up our blog)
Personal Life
I did 100 push ups in a row on Saturday! This came after a lot of Zoom workouts with friends. I started off with a max of 45 push ups in a row 6 weeks ago.
It has been really fun to do a push up workout every couple days with friends over Zoom. It takes just 15-20 minutes, but we all improved rapidly by sticking to one simple exercise and consistently pushing the limits. Hopefully I can take that insight and apply it to ZmURL…