What's the Point of Pasito?

I ask myself this all the time, I hate the idea of spending all this time (and money) building something that isn't helpful or sustainable. In the age of Facebook, Instagram, and Eventbrite, do we really need a website that just lists upcoming events in one area?

Short Story

Events is only the first phase of what I have planned for Pasito, the second major phase is classes, with the ultimate goal of trying to get more people in class to go to socials, and help people who go to socials discover all the great teachers and events out there. A cross-pollination if you will.

Longer Story

Currently you only see event-related stuff on Pasito, but my vision is so much bigger. But I'll try to keep it shortish and clear 😅

I started Pasito back in 2023 when I started to think about a few things:

  1. I had 7-10 people always asking me what events were coming up, somehow I ended up being someone who knew where to go, especially for the crowd who didn't use social media
  2. Not a lot of people who I saw in classes would go to socials, at least not the socials I thought were good
  3. I wanted more out of my classes – a good class homework video, recommended songs for practicing, and recommended events for the type of class I was in. I also thought I could improve on the pile of spreadsheets commonly used to manage enrollment, attendance, payment, and balancing classes.

What you currently see on Pasito is what I had planned for #1 above, find events based on the type of dance you're into, the recommendations of well known people in the community, and for the events to automatically show up on my calendar.

For #2 and #3, I really think some standardization of classes could really benefit the students AND the teachers.

  1. Teachers save time juggling all of the admin around running classes, and
  2. Students get some key resources they need to get better – having recommended resources can help remind the teacher what students want.

Both can also benefit by having all of the dance-related events AND dance classes on the same platform:

  1. Students follow their teachers on Pasito, their teacher clicks “boost” on events they think would be good for their students, and more students come to socials
  2. Someone going to a social looks up the teacher giving the mini lesson at the beginning and sees they run a bigger school and can enroll in more classes

So what are these BIG PLANS?

Phase 1: Events

  1. Follow people, events, and event series and get notified when something important happens – DONE
  2. Ambassadors – friendly people who are regulars at events that someone new to the area or dancing can feel comfortable talking to. They can also “boost” events to their followers as a way of recommending them – DONE
  3. Events automatically show up on your calendar – DONE
  4. Event planners manage their events – this is a chicken/egg problem, I'm still doing all the leg work until it becomes popular enough for people to remember to post 🫣

Phase 2: Classes

  1. Teachers can create courses, offerings, and classes and have them show up on their profile. (Course: “Salsa Level 1”; Offering: “April 2025”; Class: “Week 1”)
  2. Users can follow a course and see when there is a new offering available
  3. Users can enroll in a course and have the classes show up on their calendar
  4. Teachers can use Pasito to manage enrollment, payments, attendance, etc
  5. Teachers can post a follow-up video for the class along with any recommendations for events, playlists, etc.
  6. Students have access to all the materials for the classes they enrolled in for forever

Summary

So, where am I in this big overall plan? Well, I'm towards the end of Phase 1 and starting to build some fun features that might help me make a little bit of money to at least break even with my monthly expenses.

Phase 2 is probably going to require me to work on this full time to make any progress, which probably won't happen for a year or two.

A later post will provide more information on how I plan to make Pasito sustainable and how YOU can help me get there.

– Randy

👉 Like what you see and want more? Register for an account or subscribe to the mailing list.