I recently organized a tennis event using KitaSoon and shared the link with a few people I usually play with. One of them messaged me asking if KitaSoon was basically a free version of Meetup.

It was an interesting comparison because one of the reasons I started building KitaSoon was my frustration with Meetup constantly reminding me to subscribe to its monthly plan—even when I just wanted to see who else was participating in an event or view more details about another participant. A friend who regularly organizes tennis events there also mentioned that the fees Meetup charges organizers had increased, leaving her with little choice but to raise the fees she collects from participants.

It wasn’t just Meetup. TennisBear, another service I use to find tennis events, also became frustrating as it started showing ads at every opportunity. One time it even displayed a non-skippable ad while I was waiting for confirmation after applying to join an event. A few weeks later, TennisBear introduced a paid membership that I assume removes the ads, but by then I wasn’t interested enough to look into it.

I remember thinking, there has to be a better way.

A few months later, KitaSoon is live, and I’m organizing my first tennis event with it. Going forward, I plan to use it for every event I organize, whether it’s tennis, a home party, or anything else.

Start small, and hopefully people will find it useful.