Pains and Progress: Inside the Journey of Building Our App

We Got 99 Problems, But an App Idea Ain't One…

Chaos is a part of every startup. Some weeks, we hit wall after wall and can’t see the path forward. But then, clarity comes. Small wins start to build on each other, and the path becomes clearer, one piece at a time.

Recently, we’ve made progress on key initiatives and deepened our understanding of the business side of our app. No blockbuster moments yet, but they’re on the horizon.

Our small team, including Shane and Joe, worked hard to catch up on support tickets and user emails. We read and respond to each message, so thank you for your patience as we get back to everyone.

👾 Big Hairy Problem

Our biggest issue right now is missing locations in the app. Our current provider, Foursquare, isn’t meeting our needs in the US or globally.

We’re transitioning to a new provider, which requires significant changes to our backend and a thorough understanding of real-world costs.

Every time users search and view locations, there’s a small cost involved. At even a modest scale, this can become expensive, especially for a bootstrapped startup like us.

Thank you for sticking with us through these growing pains. We’re committed to improving and delivering a great experience for you.

🏆 Wins

We're excited to announce a new feature: the ability to view how users answered survey questions with each review. This has been one of the most requested features, and it’s ready to be released.

Unfortunately, reviews from older app versions won’t display these answers and are labeled as “Legacy Reviews” since we don’t have the data.

💣 Fails

This week, we noticed that while users enjoy the app, they often leave after posting a review without exploring further. We're focused on developing engaging content to encourage more exploration and frequent visits. We've received great ideas from users, including a community feed that highlights new reviews nearby!

🚀 Upcoming Features

We know the profiles in the app need improvement. Updated profile screens are currently in development and are expected to be released next week.

Community Update 

We’re thrilled to see consistent and exponential growth across all our platforms, including our newsletter and social media channels. Thank you to everyone who continues to follow and support us. We’re inspired by the excitement and interactions we receive online and love reading the comment sections that showcase the diverse lived experiences of people with disabilities. Your questions, feedback, and continued engagement, even through our growing pains, mean the world to us.

Creating an online community has been a humbling journey. We’re constantly learning about what, when, and how to post to effectively share our message, break through the noise, and keep up with trends and shifting algorithms. Coming up with fresh content ideas is truly a community effort. If you have thoughts on what you'd like to see, please let us know! Email [email protected].

💰🔥 Cash Flow Chronicles 🔥💰

Running this app comes with its costs. To date, we’ve managed to scale Roll through a combination of bootstrapping and utilizing free tiers from our providers.

As our user base has grown, we've surpassed the limits of these free tiers and have been negotiating with providers for additional support. Last week, we received some much-needed assistance from Google, which helped offset most of our data storage charges.

To keep this project moving forward, we still need to raise additional capital in the near term. To address this, we’ll be launching a WeFunder campaign next week.

WeFunder provides individuals with the opportunity to gain equity in small startups. This will allow our community to invest in a project they believe in. Stay tuned for more information and announcements, and thank you for your continued support.

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