Turnout

Your events, on your website. Embeddable event calendar & registration for small businesses — no Eventbrite, no redirects, no code.

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

We're building Turnout — the simplest way for small businesses to put an events calendar on their website and collect registrations.

No code. No Eventbrite redirects. Just paste a snippet and you're live.

Joining the waitlist → https://t.co/gbXEfYck1w

(Building in public)

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Jen manages 4–5 events a week at a coworking space.

18 events last month. 18 reminder emails to send — event name, date, time, location, one day before.

She used to send them herself.

Now Turnout sends them automatically. Every registrant, every event, 24 hours before. She doesn't schedule it or draft it. It goes out.

People show up.

https://t.co/ARVGKfmXZa

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

The no-show problem at small business events is almost never an interest problem.

If someone registered and didn't show up, they probably intended to come. They forgot.

The fix is boring: an automated reminder email, 24 hours before.

Most small business event tools don't send one. So the reminder doesn't happen, the no-shows happen, and the organiser assumes people just weren't that interested.

They were.

https://t.co/ARVGKfmXZa

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Sarah runs a yoga studio.

She has a class schedule, a waitlist, and a capacity limit on each class. She manages all of it in a Google Form she built in 2023.

There's no confirmation email. There's no automatic reminder. She texts people the morning of if she remembers.

With Turnout: someone registers on her website, gets a confirmation, gets a reminder the day before. She sees the headcount in a dashboard. The form closes automatically when a class is full and switches to waitlist mode.

She didn't change her website. She pasted one snippet.

https://t.co/ARVGKfmXZa

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

The registration tools that exist for small, recurring, community-run events are either Google Forms (no capacity management, no reminders, no notifications) or nothing.

That gap is what Turnout is for.

https://t.co/gbXEfYck1w

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Most event registration tools are built for Eventbrite-scale events.

Ticketed concerts. Multi-day conferences. 5K runs with chip timing.

🧵 1/3

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Marcus coordinates 15-person community workshops for a local nonprofit. He needs to know how many folding chairs to request from the building manager. He needs to call through a waiting list if someone cancels.

Eventbrite is solving a completely different problem.

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Working on a referral programme for web designers and consultants who work with small businesses. If you build or maintain websites for the kinds of organisations that run events — studios, nonprofits, coworking spaces, bookshops — write to me.

https://t.co/gbXEfYck1w

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

The best source of early users isn't cold outreach.

It's the people who already serve the same customers you do — and have no reason not to refer them.

🧵 1/3

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

A Squarespace designer whose client runs a yoga studio has a client who needs Turnout.

A web developer who builds sites for nonprofits has a client who needs Turnout.

Neither of them wants to build a registration system. They just want to recommend something that won't make them look bad.

🧵 2/3

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

I wrote about the gap and what to do about it:

https://t.co/SP2kJyMzwy

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Squarespace's Events page looks great. You can list upcoming events, add descriptions, link through to detail pages.

It doesn't take registrations.

🧵

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

The Google Form is the most common patch.

New tab. Doesn't match the site. No capacity limit. No reminder emails. A spreadsheet instead of an attendee list.

Works until it doesn't.

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Most studio owners figure this out only when someone asks "how do I sign up?"

Then it's a Google Form. Sometimes an Eventbrite link. Sometimes "just email us."

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Marcus runs a nonprofit and coordinates volunteer orientations. For every event: a new Google Form, a new spreadsheet tab, a round of reminder emails sent by hand.

Last month he booked a 30-person room. His spreadsheet showed 22 registered. Forty-one people showed up.

The form had quietly stopped accepting responses at 30. No notification to him. No notification to anyone turned away. He found out when people were standing in the hallway.

https://t.co/ARVGKfmXZa

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Google Forms is free, quick, and almost right.

No calendar view. No reminder emails. No waitlist. Attendees land on a Google-branded form that looks like a survey.

For event registration, "almost right" has a cost.

https://t.co/gbXEfYck1w

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

David owns a bookshop. He set up chairs for 30 last month. Three people came.

He has no registration system. He posts events on Facebook and hopes.

He doesn't want ticketing software. He wants a sign-up button on his website.

That's the whole ask. https://t.co/gbXEfYck1w

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

Your attendee clicks "Register" on your website.

They land on Eventbrite.
Eventbrite's header. Eventbrite's footer.
Eventbrite's upsells for unrelated events.

Your brand disappears at the most important moment.

Small businesses deserve better.

→ https://t.co/gbXEfYck1w

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

"I track RSVPs in a spreadsheet."

I've heard this from:
- A nonprofit coordinator managing 12 workshops a year
- A yoga studio owner with 6 weekly classes
- A coworking space running events 4 days a week

The spreadsheet isn't the problem. The problem is that a spreadsheet is the best tool they've found.

Building something better. → https://t.co/ARVGKfmXZa

[Turnout @getturnoutapp]

How Turnout works (behind the scenes):

1. Create your event in the Turnout dashboard
2. Copy one script tag
3. Paste it anywhere on your website
4. Your calendar widget appears — live, branded, embeddable

Registrations come in. You see who's coming. That's it.

No hosting. No plugins. No developer needed.

https://t.co/ARVGKfnvOI