Hostcue

Hostcue helps hosts print a card for every guest that says who to meet at the event and why.

It’s a niche tool. It’s built for people who host in-person gatherings of a few dozen guests where most of them don’t know each other yet, like community meetups, retreats, or a big party.

The host adds their guests, decides who should meet whom, and writes a short reason for each introduction. Hostcue turns that into a print-ready PDF of cards. Guests pick up their card at the event and go find the people on it, with no app or signup needed.

Hostcue is free and open-source under the MIT License.

The Inspiration

I saw a LinkedIn video about a party where the host left a card for every guest naming two people to find and why. Nobody had to cold-start a conversation. I talked to the host, and she told me she had matched every guest by hand, which took her a lot of time. Hostcue takes that busywork off the host’s plate.

Talking to Users

On my other side projects, I mostly built on my own. With Hostcue, I talked to potential hosts online and got on calls with some of them, which made it a real exercise in product development. Those conversations shaped the product. People told me they hate icebreakers, so I reframed Hostcue around warm introductions, and the reactions turned positive.