Wedding web invitation startup @ Lovado (co‑founder)
Full CV index — Tony Miasoedov
- Candidate: Tony Miasoedov, Senior Software Engineer
- Company: Lovado (co‑founder)
- Period: 2015-01 — 2017-01
- Role: Co-founder, CTO
- Team: 4 people — CTO (me), junior developer, backend/DevOps developer, designer
- Main result: Co-founded Lovado, a builder for wedding web invitations, and led its technology and marketing; 1,000+ users in the first year, and the project was later sold to a wedding agency.
Context
We founded Lovado, a platform for creating wedding web invitations. Users could start from a ready-made template or assemble an invitation from blocks, easily customize its design and content, and send it to guests by email.
We built 14+ block types, including:
- Photo and video galleries
- Map integration
- RSVP form for guests
- Countdown to the wedding day
- Social network integration, where guests could post photos after the wedding
Other key features:
- Every block came in several color schemes; picking one changed the design of the whole invitation. All icons and graphics were made in SVG, which was new at the time.
- All invitations were adaptive and displayed correctly on any device, including phones and tablets.
- Real-time preview: users saw their changes immediately.
- Custom subdomains, so invitations looked more personal and professional.
What I did
I was co-founder and CTO. On the technical side:
- Hired a DevOps developer to set up servers and domains, and a junior developer for markup.
- Chose the technology stack and designed the architecture and CI/CD processes.
- Defined the technical roadmap of the project.
- Led the team of developers and the designer.
- Developed the platform's key functional blocks.
- Ensured invitations were adaptive and cross-browser compatible.
- Implemented integrations with external services such as maps and social networks.
I also drove the startup's marketing:
- Researched competitors in the US and European markets to find their strengths and weaknesses.
- Ran extensive SEO keyword research and optimized pages for those keywords.
- Built landing pages and used A/B testing to improve conversion.
- Set up tracking tags for audiences of cross-platform ad campaigns.
- Analyzed campaign performance and adjusted campaigns to improve conversion.
- Ran the brand's social media and engaged with the audience to build brand awareness.
Успешные Use Cases
SEO оптимизация: Я собрал и кластереризовал более 2000 кличевых слов по теме, были написаны SEO тексты для каждой группы ключевых слов. В результате большинство клиентов мы получали через органический поиск. А также успешно конокурировали с "Типографиями" и "Магазинами подарков" за ключевые слова "приглашения на свадьбу".
Results
- Lovado attracted 1,000+ users in its first year.
- Users gave positive feedback on the platform's ease of use and features.
- Demand, however, turned out lower than expected. I believed in the project too much, even though the analytics said otherwise: there were few competitors, their sites had little activity, and search volume was very low. The project did not reach the expected level of success. This also coincided with the birth of my first child, which needed more of my time and attention.
- In the end, the project was sold to a wedding agency.
Lesson learned: trust the data over belief in the idea — validate demand before scaling.
Stack & skills
- React: Built the invitation builder's front end with real-time preview in React.
- TypeScript: Wrote the front-end code in TypeScript.
- Webpack: Set up the front-end build with Webpack.
- JavaScript: Built key blocks — RSVP form, countdowns, photo/video galleries.
- CSS: Made invitations adaptive and cross-browser, with switchable color schemes.
- SVG: Made all icons and graphics in SVG so they followed the color scheme.
- Reusable templates: Built 14+ invitation blocks in several color schemes.
- API integrations: Integrated maps and social networks.
- Software architecture: Chose the stack and designed the platform architecture.
- CI/CD: Set up the project's CI/CD processes.
- Team leadership: Led developers and the designer as CTO.
- Hiring: Hired a DevOps developer and a junior developer.
- Ownership: Owned technology and marketing as co-founder, through to the project's sale.
- SEO: Ran keyword research and optimized pages for search.
- A/B testing: A/B tested landing pages to improve conversion.
- Marketing analytics: Researched US/EU competitors, tracked ads and tuned campaigns.
- Social media marketing: Ran the brand's social media.