The Story
Joe went out for brunch on a busy Saturday morning and got put on a waitlist. When he clicked the link to see his wait time, it wanted him to download Yelp and sign up for an account. As Joe recalls: "By the time that I signed up for an account and everything, I got a text that my table was ready. So I thought to myself, this link should just take me to a page where I could see my wait time. I shouldn't have to sign up for an account."
That frustrating experience became a $41K/month business. His wife suggested: "Maybe you could build a wait list app."
Waitly is a waitlist and reservations platform for any business with waiting customers. It's simpler and cheaper than giants like Yelp and OpenTable.
Joe's background: "I was always into computers growing up... Came out of college and started a career as a software engineer. But in 2008, I landed a job with Shutterfly, the online photo gift company. And it was the first time in my career that I thought I was building something fun and cool."
When he moved into management, he missed building: "I was building teams rather than apps. So I started looking for a side project where I could learn how to build iOS apps."
Key Insights
The Brunch Moment
- •Got put on waitlist at restaurant
- •Link required downloading Yelp and creating account
- •"This link should just take me to a page where I could see my wait time"
- •Wife suggested building a waitlist app
The 7-Year Growth Timeline
- •Year 1: $0 (free version only, 10 downloads in first week)
- •Year 2: $14,500 (launched in-app purchases)
- •Year 3: $116,000 (took off)
- •Year 4: $186,000
- •Year 5: $307,000
- •Year 6: $354,000
- •Year 7: $445,000
- •Year 8: On pace for $500K+
"6 months in, I was really fired up. Had a working prototype. I could add people to the list. I couldn't text anyone yet. And about a year and a half in, I really dug deep and said, 'All right, I'm going to get to the point where I could launch this in the app store.'"
How to Compete with Billion-Dollar Companies
1. Price
- •Waitly: $100/month flat fee
- •Yelp/OpenTable: Hundreds/month + cover fees per reservation
2. Simplicity
- •Only does waitlist and reservations
- •Works for other industries beyond restaurants
"During COVID, we had a bunch of retail chains who had limited capacity in their stores want a wait list so people could wait outside for their turn. And we put Waitly in over 700 locations around the United States and that 10x'd our business that year."
3. Customer Service
"Anytime that someone calls our support line, someone answers immediately. They're always surprised that someone picked up right away to answer their call."
4-Step Idea Framework
Step 1: You don't need a new idea
"There's plenty of ideas out there, problems that have been solved that you could improve upon. And while you're improving upon that, you might find a niche within that industry. Waitly is a perfect example of that. I competed with the giants like Open Table and found a little niche within that industry where I can serve the small restaurants that are underserved."
Step 2: Use AI to build MVP quickly
"Nowadays, you could do that in just a couple weeks. Get something out there quickly."
Step 3: Get feedback from early customers
Iterate based on real usage.
Step 4: Expect the unexpected
"Get ready to adapt because things never go as you expect and you're going to have to adapt."
Business Numbers
- •$41K/month revenue (on pace for $500K+ this year)
- •15,000+ businesses have tried Waitly
- •700 paying customers (US and Canada)
- •59 million parties waitlisted since launch
- •CAC: ~$130
- •LTV: $750-1,000
Growth Strategy
- •Apple Search Ads (main driver) - "As much money as we can put into those ads, there's definitely ROI there"
- •Email nurturing with tips and quick start videos
- •Zoom onboarding and staff training
- •End-of-trial promotions
Tech Stack
- •Google Firebase (hosting, auth, database) - $700/month
- •Node.js (backend)
- •Swift (iOS app)
- •ReactJS (web version)
- •Twilio (business texts) - $2,500/month
- •RevenueCat (iOS subscriptions) - 1% of revenue
- •Stripe (web payments) - 3%
- •Survey Monkey - $35/month
- •Hive (project management) - $25/month
- •Freshdesk (support) - $40/month
- •Claude Code - $200/month
- •ChatGPT - $20/month
- •Calendly - $12/month
Joe's App Ideas Worth Building
- •Pickleball league management app - "The spreadsheets that we keep to keep track of everyone's points is getting out of hand"
- •AI support chatbot - Trained on specific products or websites
- •New social media platform - "Social media today is run by corporations and influencers and everyone's doom scrolling and I think people are really itching to connect with friends and family again like they did in the early days of social media"
Key Advice
"Keep going. Definitely. When that self-doubt creeps in, when you're competing with giants, you're not sure if you can actually go forward, just keep going. Acknowledge that your doubts have no basis in reality because you cannot predict the future. Launch your product and see what the future holds."
Resources
- •Follow Joe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-rozek/