Partiful: Party Invite Maker

I work in VC and have had a list of my favorite startups for a few years now. Partiful is by far my favorite. I’m obsessed with their product (obv) & it’s for sure the best hosting / event invite app or website I’ve used. I recommend it to EVERYONE — all my friends use it for all our events from birthdays to game nights to GNOs etc. Their team is stacked and they have top tier investors on their cap table. I also love how they utilize their social media marketing & community especially through Twitter. Whoever runs their Twitter account is hilarious and that’s probably my dream job. I’ve DMed them a few times & they’ve even retweeted a tweet of mine. I will always support this company and when Apple came out with their party / event hosting feature a bunch of my friends sent it to me bc they know I love Partiful but I assured them Apple could never even come close to Partiful. Anyways shoutout to the Partiful team you guys rock and are prob my startup celeb crushes 🩷

If you’re a youth without a social calendar I think this is a great app - if you check it frequently it seems fairly functional and the imagery is fanciful. If you have a busy work and home life, it’s not great. Often when I receive an invitation I think it’s great, but I have to check calendars, see what my husband and I have that day, etc. And then respond. I usually probably know if I can make it but I rarely know with certainty the instant I receive an invitation - and that’s what this app wants from you. You get an iOS notification and asked you to decide instantly. There’s no email that you can forward to your spouse or keep in your inbox as a reminder, and you only get a text message if you haven’t installed the app. Once installed, they expect you to be diligently scanning your iOS notifications waiting for an invitation, and then responding instantly. If you have to follow up, then you are obligated to copy the invitation into your own task or email so that you can remember to follow up. It’s a rude experience for guests and a terrible way to plan an event - unless your events are for other children or you are just seeing who is available right now to go to dinner or something impromptu.

Y'all this is truly the best. I have struggled with party (read: *any*) planning type things all my life, and changing platforms over the years (remember Facebook events??) has not helped. Partiful has been the easiest system I’ve ever used, with lots of support from small planning details to sexy invitation aesthetics to automatic reminders I don’t even have to worry about (plus extra ones, like 2hrs before the potluck when I realize I don’t have enough plates for everyone and invite folks to bring their own to limit disposable use 🤣). And it doesn’t even require everyone has the app, which is great for when I’ve had multigenerational events. I love the ways it builds collective energy before through the comment exchanges and seeing other friends’ rsvp’s, and how easy it is to thank everyone after and encourage uploading pictures in a single message. Just, so easy. I’ve gotten to see it grow over several years and it just keeps getting better. Thanks Partiful peoples.