Celi’s original decision: Why We Built a Multi-Player Product Instead of a Single-Player Product

92% of people have forgotten a birthday, here’s why a multi-player approach is the only way to solve this common problem.

Richie Crowley
7 min readJul 20, 2024
Celi

Two years ago, Celi set out to solve a problem that affects most of us — forgotten birthdays and beyond dates.

If you’ve ever forgotten one, you’re not alone:

  • 92% of people have forgotten a birthday
  • 76% have forgotten an important life date
  • 75% have tried and failed to solve this with calendars or apps

Early on, we had to decide whether to solve this with a single-player or multi-player product.

This choice laid the foundation for Celi’s vision to transform how we maintain and nurture our relationships.

Here’s why we believe a multi-player approach is the key to solving this problem effectively.

Single-player vs Multi-player products

Before we delve into our decision, it’s important to distinguish between the two approaches to product development:

Single-player (standalone) products

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Richie Crowley

Slowly building an audience by publishing original thoughts and ideas only when I have something of quality to say.