Sentry’s been a lifesaver for catching bugs before our users do. It gives us real-time alerts and crash reports so we can keep FriendMap smooth and stable as we grow.
We built FriendMap using Expo, which helped us move fast without getting stuck in native setup. It made testing and sharing builds way easier—especially in the early days when we were prototyping location features and check-in flows.
Scheduling user interviews became 10x faster (and cheaper) after switching to Cal. Many links, all customizable, I still don't know how it's free. I used to use Calendly before, and even tried Google Calendar in between for a bit – but Cal wins for simplicity.
Almost hard to summarize why we're thankful to Notion - it's kind of the heart of our company. Every brainstorm, diagram, document, table, and knowledge-bank is shared here. We enough use the wiki's for user-facing pages that don't need to be on the main landing page.
Unless if you've got Steve Jobs intuition, Mobbin is a handy resource for inspiration from the best (and niche) apps from around the globe. Have had paid membership from day one and can't imagine giving that up.
We tried really hard to make PostHog work for us since it was 'cheaper and newer', but soon found ourselves back to what we know best: Mixpanel. The ultimate metrics tool... at least for mobile apps. Can't go wrong with Mixpanel.
Our landing pages are and always have been powered by Framer. The templates are incredible, and it's no-code meaning anyone on the team can build them - giving time back to the engineers to code the app. It's a win-win.
One of our favorite things about using Gusto is getting paid. But to take it one step further, their service for discovering and claiming R&D tax credits was a delight.
From our first check to paying contractors, Mercury has had our back from the beginning. Rock solid banking services, and recently even started to offer sending out SAFE's. Not to mention the high-yield interest accounts, meaning we got paid every month just for having money in our account. Game changer.
From building on the backend, to improving the user experiences, it's no surprise we utilized ChatGPT in this day and age. Our favorite use case is the caption suggestion too - so whether you add a photo or select a location, FriendMap comes up with a fun custom caption for users.
Beta testers were often surprised that FriendMap is made on React Native because "It looks so native, I thought it came with my iPhone". We'll definitely look into shipping to Android soon too.
Don't know how we would have kept the trains on the tracks without Linear. Incredible product dev tool. We tried Notion and Asana too, but just felt Linear more robust and made for engineering and design teams to get along, from the ground up.
Loving this new tool by the team that brought you Proxi.
I know many people are using ChatGPT for experiments, but wow, MapsGPT is not just for fun but has really good utility. You're going to love it. Check it out, plan a trip, and start exploring the world. Find me on Twitter if you wanna see what I make for my upcoming trip to Hawaii.
Great work Chelsey and team!
Bridge is an incredible tool to use for networking. One tap to connect the people in your network is remarkable. I can also create groups that I can share with the people I want. For example, given the size of my VC network, I can share my Group with founders and they can tap into it. Check it out!
FriendMap
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