The power of all-in-one solutions
Before Heylo arrived in 2019, group organizers faced all the daunting logistics of running a community. They had to juggle everything across disparate channels like WhatsApp groups, Facebook events, and payment platforms. Often, they found themselves in a “policing” role chasing membership payments and verifying signups.
The tide began to turn when Eric Winters, struggling to find his community in San Francisco, noticed the absence of an online space where meaningful groups could stay connected. This observation sparked the genesis of Heylo, conceived by Eric along with co-founder Brandon Pearcy as a mobile app designed to simplify community management. Heylo’s vision was simple: To transform community leadership into a joy, not a time drain. And to ensure the financial sustainability of in-person groups. By automating payment reminders, Heylo takes the burden off leaders, allowing them to focus on more crucial tasks. It consolidates all communication and monetization efforts onto one single platform, simplifying the process for everyone involved.
It all started with in-app messages, but eventually, Eric and Brandon wanted to take it further. Emails were a guaranteed channel to reach every member, every time. If Heylo could integrate group leaders’ app messages with email notifications, it would be even easier for communities to stay in sync.
This is where Brevo came in. Just like Heylo’s own all-in-one approach, Brevo offered a comprehensive suite of tools on one single platform. The Heylo team could invest in both transactional and marketing emails, along with automation tools and other functionalities later down the line.
Eric said, “The ability to have one place for customer touchpoints is great. We have one consolidated view. This has been super valuable for us, particularly as a young company. We don’t have all the time and resources in the world, and Brevo is the solution that meets our needs.”
Making group leadership simpler than ever
When Heylo joined forces with Brevo, their platform reached new heights. Thanks to Brevo’s API, messages sent within the platform were seamlessly transformed into personalized emails, enabling leaders to communicate with their group members more effectively.
Plus, Heylo set up automation flows for both group leaders and members, from drip campaigns with tips on using the Heylo platform and community-building advice for leaders, to insights on profile optimization and networking for members. Interestingly, Heylo group members would sometimes evolve into group leaders. To this end, all Heylo email footers were customized to encourage leaders to start groups of their own, creating new opportunities for Heylo to grow in the future.
Moving forward with Brevo, the Heylo team is also considering adding SMS for further communication, along with two-factor authentication to boost security.
Eric praises Brevo for its user-friendliness, emphasizing its versatility across the Heylo team, regardless of technical proficiency: “Whether it’s creating an email campaign, using drag-and-drop automation, or employing webhooks for transactional emails, the entire Heylo team uses Brevo.”
Increasing group creations by 20%
Looking back on Heylo’s journey, Eric said, “Brevo has grown with us and actually accelerated a lot of the growth that we’ve had. We’ve been able to expand from sending just a few hundred emails every month to almost 1 million per month, now. We trust and rely on the Brevo system, and it’s been able to help us expand and grow to become an international platform.”
A pivotal move was embedding a group creation link to all of Heylo’s email footers, spurring a 20% surge in group creations since implementing Brevo.
Brevo’s flexible pricing model based on the number of sent emails aligns with Heylo’s value-driven approach by only charging for actions that directly help customers.
In closing, Eric said, “The relationships you build with customers are super critical, so being able to reach them in different ways beyond your product or service is super valuable.” As Heylo continues to scale, Brevo will accompany them every step of the way.
About Company
Heylo is the community management platform for in-person groups. Launched in 2019, Heylo gives group leaders tools to build community and collect payments. From volleyball clubs to volunteer groups, Heylo helps leaders to bring people together. On a mission to make community building enjoyable for leaders and sustainable in the long run, Heylo has quickly grown to support thousands of groups across the world.
- Industry: SaaS, Technology
- Company Size: 6
- Location: San Francisco, CA
- Website: heylo.co
Eric Winters, Co-Founder of Heylo
“Whether it’s creating an email campaign, using drag-and-drop automation, or employing webhooks for transactional emails, the entire Heylo team uses Brevo. Having a solution that’s useful for both engineers and non-engineers has been amazing.”