I got 2 pieces of advice: 1) When you're building any app that requires a network effect, the most important thing is not fixing bugs, or usability, or creatin

I got 2 pieces of advice: 1) When you're building any app that requires a network effect, the most important thing is not fixing bugs, or usability, or creating an awesome product. That's important, yes, but it all pales in comparison to: getting users. So, from day 1 you need to build a list of people who are interested in using it. Spend 20+ hours a week building that list through Adwords, forums, talking with people, networking with bloggers, etc. That way when you launch, you avoid the scenario you just had. "Build it and they will come" is the absolutely worst thing you can do for a social app. 2) If I were you, I would pivot this idea. I would make this app immediately useful to everyone in the US by aggregating social or free events in their city, and having a weekly newsletter that they could subscribe to (ala DailyCandy). I think someone recently got featured in TC for doing something like. Plug in your zip code, we sent you a list of weekend events to meet singles. Cool, simple value proposition. Doesn't require any network effects. And a very apparent future business model: allow people to advertise their events in the email.