Thank you for checking out the RPC blog! We thought it would be fitting to make our initial post an update of our first months. We officially launched our platform in September and my, have we grown and learned a lot in this short time! Just to name a few…
Here are a few updates since our launch
More team members!
When we launched, we were a lean team of 5. Now we have 3 full-time developers, a salesperson, account manager, social media associate, multiple advisors, and of course, our founders. We are really thankful to have more members on the team – and we are currently looking to hire two more positions! Check out our careers page for more info.
A real office
Yep, we are thrilled to be in a new location in Northwest Portland where we can stretch out, collaborate in a beautiful conference room, and be close to all that downtown Portland offers. Most importantly, there is a great local coffee shop on our corner, (St. Honore). Caffeine is always flowing.
Soft launch. Hard lessons
Our launch may have been soft but we learned some hard lessons right out of the gate. We’re so thankful to our initial users for giving us honest feedback about things that were causing them trouble. Here are a few items that we’ve addressed based on user feedback (and there’s more in the works!):
Sign-Up Stunk
No one enjoyed our long and tedious sign-up experience. So the first big change was overhauling our onboarding process. It took some major shifts to our overall model and a reworking of requirements from our payment processor, but we are so glad we addressed this right away! We are proud to say users can now sign-up in less than 2 minutes.
Waiting is a drag!
One of the big differentiators between Rock Paper Coin and other platforms is that we allow interaction among 3 distinct user groups: event pros, event planners, and clients. This allows each group to have their own account and connections, makes for a smooth event process and ensures everyone is in the loop at all times. However, we found that event pros and planners didn’t want to wait until their clients signed-up before generating contracts and invoices. That point was well-taken and we now offer the ability for contracts and invoices to be sent before a client signs up!
But I don’t want to sign-up
Although there is immense value for clients to have their own RPC account (think electronic binder!), not everyone wants to take the extra step to sign-up. To the rescue, guest payments! This feature allows vendors and planners to send invoices to any client with just an email address. The client is able to pay their invoice with the click of a button (no signup required!)
They say technology is always changing. Our first 6 months couldn’t be a more real representation of that. We want to send our deepest thanks to our current users – for your support, patience, and feedback. We are proud of how far we’ve come – and are thrilled to show you what else is in store (there is A LOT!).
Not a user yet? Head over here to sign-up today. We’d love to have you!
