Calendly: From Frustration to Success

Tope O'etana, the founder of Calendly, struggled to find a compelling business idea until he encountered the difficulties of scheduling meetings. Inspired by the challenge, he decided to create a meeting scheduling platform that simplifies the process. The initial version of Calendly, built with the help of a Ukrainian development company, focused on integrating users' calendars and allowing them to specify their availability. With a strong emphasis on user experience and design, the product aimed to revolutionize meeting scheduling. Despite running out of funds during development, Calendly gained traction when a customer success team from another company discovered and started using it for onboarding calls. Adoption expanded as K-12 schools began utilizing Calendly for parent-teacher conferences. The product unexpectedly became free since the necessary billing features couldn't be developed due to limited funds. Despite this, Calendly's popularity grew, and Tope had to think about different revenue models to sustain the company's success.