It’s Not About Downloads—It’s About Daily Use
MasterClass emailed me recently to remind me that my annual subscription ends in a couple of weeks. What better time to squeeze value out of this pricey membership than now? I dove into a course by Bumble Founder & CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd: Rewriting the Rules of Business & Life.
As I watched, I found parallels between Bumble’s early days and what we’re building with Homie Haven. Bumble succeeded by reframing a familiar experience— online dating—around empowering women. With Homie Haven, we’re trying to do something similar. Building apps already exist, but with our app we intend to shift the power dynamic toward tenants, not property managers.
We want tenants to speak freely about building issues, in real time, without fear of the building moderating or silencing their conversations. And because posts are tied to where people live, privacy matters, so we offer anonymity, giving users full control over their username and photo from day one.
About two months into development, I discovered OneRoof—an app for neighbors to connect. They had far more buildings signed up than we did, so I downloaded the app and joined a few local communities in Los Angeles. What stood out wasn’t the size of their user base, but the lack of meaningful activity. Chats were quiet even with dozens of members, names were uneditable if you registered with Google or Apple, and there wasn’t a ready-made channel for people to voice building complaints.
Even with 300,000 sign-ups across 10,000 buildings, OneRoof shut down last month and is pivoting to an app for sublets called Snag. It reinforced something essential: success isn’t about getting people to download the app — it’s about creating a space they return to every day. A platform only becomes valuable when the community is actively posting, responding, and starting conversations.
My cofounder Jeremy and I recently launched Homie Haven on the Apple App Store and are waiting on approval for the Google Play Store. Initially, we spent a lot of time talking about getting users to download the app. Now we are reframing the discussion to whiteboard the entire user journey beyond the download — because that’s where real engagement begins.
And while I considered canceling my MasterClass subscription, I decided to keep it — and I intend to use it more regularly. After all, it’s not just about downloads but daily use.
