Stop reinventing the wheel

Picture this: past 5:30 pm, office lights buzzing overhead, I’m still logged into work. One eye is focussed on a crashing WordPress error log and the other on a WhatsApp group where members are yelling that they can’t RSVP. For the past eight weeks, a standing It’s Culture Innit trustee call has eaten up my late afternoons.

That was the light‑bulb moment: we were supposed to be building community, yet we’d become unpaid plugin mechanics.

WordPress hell #

For months we threw evenings (and £4k) into “fixing” a WordPress site that refused to stay fixed. Log‑ins failed, tickets vanished and 1,500+ members vented in WhatsApp every time another plugin update nuked the checkout. Our founder Michael got the blame, even though the real culprit was trying to custom‑build something that already exists off‑the‑shelf.

It’s the classic trap: a consultant promises you ownership of the code, but what you really inherit is technical debt and twenty‑four‑hour on‑call duty.

Why friction kills community #

Members don’t care about plugins; they care about joining an event. When the sign‑up flow creaks, they leave. Charities know this. 79% list “better UX” as a top priority¹. Each extra form field costs roughly 10% of would‑be sign‑ups².

Enter Luma #

Buying instead of building felt like cheating… and that’s why it worked. I found Luma (lu.ma) while RSVPing to an after‑hours meetup at a VC. Email in, a couple of clicks, calendar invite done. No faff. We adopted it for ICI this week.

• one‑tap RSVP with automatic calendar add‑in
• email/SMS reminders so people actually turn up
• public guest list for social proof
• built‑in analytics we don’t have to duct‑tape together
• very generous free tier, that said the team looked after us and now we’re paid

Early wins #

Migration is still messy — member join dates need fixing and renewals for old members still need to run through Stripe. But, even half‑baked Luma beats our “finished” WordPress.

Internal data, Feb–Mar 2025. happy to show the raw sheet on request.

Buy it unless it’s your USP #

You don’t study accountancy to file one tax return — you’ll hire an accountant.

Same rule here: if software isn’t your edge, pay someone else to host it and move on. SaaS vendors will often comp or discount licenses for non‑profits; ask. Worst case, they say no and you’ve lost a minute of your life — best case, you save dozens of hours every month.

This applies to startups too. If your USP isn’t related to something like your checkout flow or login flow, outsource it. Stripe & Auth0 are market leaders for a reason.

Generic call to action on this post #

If you’re in London and fancy a low‑friction night out, check our upcoming events on It’s Culture Innit → https://itscultureinnit.com.

Or, check out our page on Luma (which is way better).