I expected my Slack channel to be on fire.
Bug reports. Feature requests. Screenshots of things breaking. That's what beta is supposed to be, right? You ship it, people use it, stuff breaks, you fix it. Repeat for a month.
That's not what happened. Yet... 🤞
Beta for Connect launched over Thanksgiving week. I onboarded five people. Everyone created accounts. And then... quiet.
Not crickets-quiet. I can see the activity. One person used it. Another logged in. But the flood of feedback I'd prepared myself for? The bugs I assumed I'd be crushing every night?
Nothing.
Here's the thing about the app I built: it's situational. You scan business cards after networking events. You generate follow-up emails when you've just met someone.
If you don't have a networking event on your calendar, you don't have a reason to use it.
And Thanksgiving week through early December isn't exactly prime networking time.
I knew this intellectually when I picked the timing. But knowing something and feeling the quiet of it are different.
The best part? My first real piece of beta feedback came through WhatsApp.
I was on the couch, toddler finally asleep, half-watching TV. My tester pinged me: she found a bug. Not in the app, in the Notion feedback form I'd built to collect bug reports.
The database wasn't public. She couldn't submit.
I troubleshot it in real-time over text, feeling a mix of gratitude (she actually tried!) and embarrassment (I built an app to reduce friction in follow-up, and my own feedback system had friction that blocked the first person who tried to use it).
I had to laugh at myself for that one.
So where does that leave me?
Impatient, honestly. I have ideas for features I could add. But for the first time, I have more eyes on this thing than just mine. I'd rather hear what problems they see, what ideas they have. I want validation beyond my own experience.
But I can't force people to have networking events.
The next step is probably 1-on-1s with each tester. Not to push them to use it, just to understand what's on their calendar. Maybe someone has a holiday party coming up. Maybe someone has a January conference they're thinking about. Maybe they just need a walkthrough to feel confident trying it.
That's the work now. Not crushing bugs. Just... connecting with the people who said yes to helping me.
I think it's important to share this. Building in public means showing up when it's quiet, not just when it's exciting.
So here I am. Beta week two. The app works. The testers exist. The networking events will come.
I'm still here. Still building.
Even when there's nothing dramatic to report.