Curated Connections vs. Orbiit

Creating latent connections between your members on autopilot is a great strategy for creating value in your community. Because ultimately anyone joins a community because they want to meet others.

But at some point you have to ask - how much should a product charge for providing this service?

We’ve built a solution that costs 30x less and has no annual commitments. So at this point, my job is to tell you how that is even possible. So, let me give you a feature-by-feature comparison between Curated Connections and Orbiit.

Here’s what you get that Orbiit gives you

Not gonna lie, there are some things that Orbiit has nailed. So we have made sure to build them into our product as well.

• No logins needed

Just like Orbiit, we make it easy for your members to sign up for 1:1 conversations by giving a login-free experience. No logins to set up. No profiles to create. No back-and-forth to schedule the call. Our platform disappears in the background.

• Find the best matches with a customisable matching algorithm

Just like Orbiit, we aim to find the best possible matches for your members based on their answers. You also have the option to customise the matching algorithm by adding advanced match rules.

• Feedback baked in

We send regular NPS-style surveys to your members so you can keep a pulse on how they feel about the program.

• Integration for Slack

By default, we send matches on email but if your community lives on Slack, you can use our integration for Slack to send matches to the members on Slack itself.

Here’s what you get that Orbiit doesn't give you

• Bring-your-own conferencing

Orbiit restricts your members to use their in-built video and calendar tools. This new environment can add unnecessary friction in the member experience. That's why, we allow your members to use their familiar calendar scheduling and video conferencing tools like Calendly and Zoom.

"Orbiit had automated scheduling which we didn't actually like because it was awkward if you needed to reschedule due to availability changes since the initial form was submitted. Their video platform was also error-prone and had email delivery issues.

One of the reasons why we switched to Curated Connections was to give folks the flexibility to schedule on their own."

• Simplicity

It can take upto 3 weeks for you before you can launch your matching program in Orbiit. That’s after all the enterprise demo calls. They basically say so on their website. Curated Connections is simpler. You can go from signup to launch in less than 30 minutes.

• Onboarding included

Orbiit charges an extra “Onboarding Fee” to help you set up your matching program. We don’t. If you buy from us, we consider it our duty to help you succeed with our product. That’s why on every pro plan, you get white glove onboarding included.

• Unlimited members

Orbiit’s pricing increases based on number of people on your program. Curated Connections offers you unlimited members on the pro plan.

• As many matching rules as you need

Orbiit limits you to set up only 1 matching rule on their basic plan. That’s an arbitrary limitation because you need these match rules in order to send great matches to your members. So, we have no restrictions on the number of match rules you can add in a particular program.

• Partner benefits on top apps for Slack

If you're running your community on Slack, it gets even better - we've partnered with the top apps that can help you build a better community. With our Pro plan, you also get:

• 50% off on Thread Archive: The tool that will recover all hidden messages and create a searchable archive of your free Slack workspace.
• 50% off on Forms Unlimited: App for Slack to create and distribute forms right inside Slack. By reducing friction for the respondants, it helps you increase the response rate for your forms by 70-100%! Even has an anonymous mode to collect brutally honest feedback.

“This can’t be feasible for you as a business”

You must be thinking -

How are you able to provide unlimited matches when Orbiit charges 30x more than this, that too with no annual commitment? Is this sustainable for you as a business?

Short answer - yes.

Long answer - you will be surprised to know how many match emails I can send with an API for $1 (1000 emails). This means that we can easily support a community with tens of thousands of members without breaking the bank.

So the question to ask is - why is Orbiit charging so much money?

Answer: That's the B2B SaaS business playbook. Build software for a small market, sell for a lot of money, and then use that money to hire more salespeople who can do more sales. Only a little portion of the revenue actually goes towards improving the product for you.

It can be a good business but it always runs the risk of being upended by a small team with a modern tech stack that is passionate about helping the community. ;)

Here’s what you don’t get

It's not just about B2B pricing though. We've kept some things out of our product that makes it easier for us to deliver:

• Video calling and calendar scheduling

Orbiit has the calendar scheduling and meetings infrastructure built-in. This may be good for Orbiit (more features to justify their enterprise pricing) but is it good for your members?

In our product research, we discovered that professionals prefer to use robust tools that they used every day for the rest of their meetings - like Calendly and Zoom.

That's why we didn't build it. Instead we allow your members to use their Calendly links (or anything similar) to schedule meetings with other members. Thus, reducing friction and increasing the success rate of a connection.

"Orbiit had automated scheduling which we didn't actually like because it was awkward if you needed to reschedule due to availability changes since the initial form was submitted. Their video platform was also error-prone and had email delivery issues.

One of the reasons why we switched to Curated Connections was to give folks the flexibility to schedule on their own."

• Deep analytics

Orbiit tracks the conversations that happens between your members after a match has been made. So, it is able to give you a conclusive data on whether a match happened and exactly how many minutes the members met. But that comes with its own privacy headaches.

So we’ve built a privacy-friendly solution.

We don't track the conversation that happens between the members after making a connection. So we can't tell you much about the follow ups that happen between the members.

• No special enterprise-y requests

Need a custom contract, single-sign on or any of those big enterprise-y things? Sorry, we don’t offer that. We focus all our energies on building stuff that can help all our customers.