The special Startups of The Year 2024 Winners Interview series is a celebration of all this year’s Tech Champions. You’ve earned it! The HackerNoon community can’t wait to learn more about your journey!
Tell us about you.
Meetify is on a mission to make meeting up as easy as saying, “Let’s grab coffee.” We’re a Charlotte-based startup founded by Dan and Angel Rutledge, the team behind SignUpGenius. Our goal is to help people save time and build deep relationships with easy-to-use, impactful tools.
Tell us how your startup is changing the world.
In a world where digital interactions often replace face-to-face connections, Meetify brings people back together in real life. We eliminate the back-and-forth hassle of scheduling a coffee meetup or business lunch, empowering users to meet in person when possible and virtually when needed. Life is better when we have deep connections to the people in our community, and there’s nothing like in-person meetups to grow authentic relationships.
What sets you apart from the competition?
Other popular scheduling tools, like Calendly, are built only for virtual meetings with impersonal appointment links that make you feel like you’re booking a dentist appointment. At Meetify, we help you coordinate both the time and place, whether you’re meeting at a coffee shop, a restaurant, or virtually. You can send one-off invitations with hand-picked times or offer times based on a schedule. It’s simple, personal, and flexible, designed for real-world meetings.
What does it mean for you to win this title?
Being named a Startup of the Year by HackerNoon is a nod to our team’s hard work and our users’ support. It’s a milestone that motivates us to keep innovating and improving how people connect.
What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to set out for this mission?
Our team is small but dedicated, driven by a shared passion for making meaningful connections easier. We value creativity, collaboration, and a user-first mindset, which fuels our mission to bring people together.
Looking back, what milestone was the biggest turning point for your startup?
Launching on Product Hunt in March 2025 and being ranked #5 of the day was a significant moment. The feedback and support we received validated our vision and propelled us forward.
What’s one valuable lesson you learned this year that you’d pass on to other startups?
Listen to your users. Their feedback is invaluable and can guide your product development in ways you might not anticipate.
How do you envision your industry evolving in the coming years, and how will your startup stay ahead?
As remote work and digital communication tools evolve, the need for both meaningful in-person interactions and virtual connection will grow. Meetify is poised to handle the hybrid needs of the modern workplace by making it easier to schedule both real-world and virtual meetings.
How do you or your company intend to embrace the responsibility of this title in 2025?
We’ll use this recognition to amplify our mission, reach more users, and continue refining our platform to better serve our community.
What goals are you looking forward to accomplishing in 2025?
We’re aiming to expand our user base with key users who value in-person meetups, including nonprofit fundraisers, career and life coaches, recruiters, clergy, realtors, and business development professionals. Our roadmap includes continued distinction from other tools through geography-specific scheduling features, as well as the use of AI to make scheduling faster.
2024 has been crazy, with all the new techs, and all the geopolitics fluctuations. What are the impacts of these to your startup, and to your industry as a whole? Be as brief or as detailed as you like.
The rapid pace of technological change has underscored the importance of adaptability. We’ve focused on staying simple and agile, doing the one thing we do best: getting people together. Genuine human connection is needed now more than ever as technical automation takes over areas of our lives. We’re using technology to promote human flourishing, not just financial efficiency.
About HackerNoon’s Startups of The Year
Startups of The Year 2024 is HackerNoon’s flagship community-driven event celebrating startups, technology, and the spirit of innovation. Currently in its third iteration, the prestigious Internet award recognizes and celebrates tech startups of all shapes and sizes. This year, over 150,000 entities across 4200+ cities, 6 continents, and 100+ industries will participate in a bid to be crowned the best startup of the year! Millions of votes have been cast over the past few years, and many stories have been written about these daring and rising startups.
The winners will get a free interview on HackerNoon and an Evergreen Tech Company Newspage.
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