VIB3S was born from a simple frustration: every summer, millions of festival-goers juggle four different apps, screenshot lineups, and lose their friends in the crowd. The founders had attended dozens of festivals themselves and knew the pain intimately.
The first version was intentionally minimal — a lineup viewer with a personal schedule builder. No maps, no social features, no notifications. Just the core: "What time does my favourite artist play, and where?" That first version launched at a single festival. Feedback was direct and fast: users wanted to share their schedules with friends. The social layer came in version 2.
The go-to-market was community-first. Rather than paid acquisition, the team joined every Spanish festival Facebook group and Reddit thread, offered the app for free to early adopters, and collected feedback in WhatsApp groups. The word-of-mouth loop at festivals — where thousands of people are physically together and naturally share recommendations — gave them an organic growth channel that paid ads could never replicate.