Inside the Show doubles engagement with a branded app
Overview
Felippe Nardi, founder of Inside the Show, helps educators, performers, and professionals master the art of unforgettable virtual presentations. With Circle’s branded app builder, he turned his high-stakes launch event into a seamless mobile experience that doubled engagement—and proved what’s possible when your events, tools, and community live together in one simple app.
After launching the app, I immediately saw double the amount of messages. Members told me it changed everything.
Before
A thriving community with high-stakes events
Felippe has been running his Inside the Show community on Circle for five years, offering workshops, courses, and events that help people create engaging online presentations. A centerpiece of his business is his “open house” style launch events. For one week, he opens the community to free visitors who get a glimpse of the full experience. Each event is packed with live sessions, curated resources, and community interaction.
We’re a bit of a hybrid,” he explains. “We have open areas anyone can join, but during these events, we unlock exclusive content and spaces just for paying members.
The format worked, but it also put enormous pressure on Felippe. These events weren’t just marketing tactics, they were make-or-break moments for his business.
Challenge
Engagement was slipping at the moments that mattered most
Each event was crucial — they attracted new customers and renewed loyalty among existing members. But the limited-time format meant there was little margin for error. If someone missed a session, they missed the essence of the experience, and Felippe knew that lost engagement meant lost opportunity.
The event is only one week. No replays after that. So if you missed it, the opportunity was gone.
Even with strong content and community energy, too many people were falling behind. The exact sessions that could have sparked deeper connection, or convinced a guest to become a paying member, were the ones getting missed. For the events to deliver, engagement needed to rise, not fall.
Solution
A custom app built in just two weeks
When Circle launched its Custom App Builder, Felippe saw an opportunity. His only hesitation was timing. With just two weeks before his next event, could he really build something this intricate, a different experience for free visitors and paying members, all without a development team?
When I saw what was possible with the app builder, I thought, we have to try this. But we only had two weeks.
He took the leap. In a single day, Felippe had the foundation of his branded app live, built with Circle’s drag-and-drop editor. From there, he fine-tuned the experience:
Two tailored experiences: Free visitors saw curated previews and limited-time access, while paying members enjoyed exclusive content, replays, and private spaces.
Community showcases: A Hall of Fame for member studios and presentations, plus gear recommendations that members could reference while shopping.
Practical tools: A Go Live checklist built right into the app so presenters could confirm their mic, camera, and lighting before a session.
Push notifications became a powerful engagement driver.
We used them to announce when sessions started, when replays went up, or when new resources dropped…and every notification was targeted to the right person, so it always felt relevant.
What felt impossible at first turned into a polished, customized experience, all built in under two weeks.
Transformation
The experience went mobile, and engagement doubled
The results were immediate. Engagement during the launch event doubled, with members staying more active and connected throughout the week.
Members told me it changed everything — they could catch replays on the go, whether standing in line at the grocery store or relaxing on the sofa.
The branded app unlocked possibilities that hadn’t existed before. Free visitors could finally access sessions they would have missed in the past, keeping them engaged longer and giving them a stronger reason to convert. For paying members, the experience went further. They now had new tools — like the Go Live checklist — right on their phones, making it easier to prepare, participate, and get value out of every session. Looking ahead, Felippe plans to go even further. With more time to prepare for future events, he’s already envisioning new tools and features he can build directly into his app — expanding the value members get long after launch week is over.
