Fête vs Startup Science

Easy as a text, classy as an invitation card!

Fête is a new mobile app that helps you and your friends send and receive “smart invitation cards.” The app provides a one-stop experience to discover and collaboratively plan social outings all through your mobile device.

Right now, over 10 billion digital invitations are sent out per year through Facebook, Evite, text message, and email. The problem is that less than 3 out of 10 people respond, causing very few invitations to actually materialize into real events. Fête aims to solve this problem.

To start, users create stylish invitation cards customized for their event. The card creator can choose to allow guests to suggest and vote for their favorite place and desired date without time-consuming back and forth conversation. With ratings, descriptions, and calendars readily available within the app, providing input is streamlined and simple.

Then, the invitation cards automatically and intelligently follow up with guests at the right time, with the appropriate message. Whether or not friends have the iPhone or Android app, everyone can interact with the cards over text message, through the app, and soon through their email and calendar. On average, the invitations generate a RSVP rate of over 80%. No more having to remind friends about the upcoming event or pestering them for a simple RSVP.

Giving founders an unfair advantage

To help startups design their success, 1 founder at a time.

Why? Because wealth inequality is directly tied to entrepreneurship. 95% of people who get out of check-to-check living do so by selling a business.

It started with researching why, how, and when startups fail. We did 1,200 interviews and spent months reading the research to understand the 90% failure rate. We learned that founders keep making the same mistakes and these mistakes can be avoided. And the problems that lead to these mistakes center around people, knowledge, and financial resources.

Accelerators are designed to help startups solve these problems. But only 2% of startups who apply, are accepted into accelerators. 60% of rejected founders “failed to complete the application due to lack of knowledge.” And 70% of those startups who are accepted, came through a referral. So if you don’t know the language or are not connected into the ecosystem already your chances are slim.

Location: Santa Cruz, United States