Since our last update, a lot has happened. We have certainly not stopped working, that much is clear. Let's address the past few months and discuss what we're currently focusing on.
Reflections on 2023
As we look back at 2023, we are immensely pleased with the outcomes:
- We set out to build an amazing matchmaking platform for gamers, and we delivered.
- We finally expanded our founding team, which had remained unchanged since 2016.
- We met amazing people and expanded our network globally.
- We both grew, not only as founders but as individuals as well.
- We were accepted into the Tinc Accelerator Program, allowing us to experience Silicon Valley (we're both eager to return ASAP!).
The experiences of 2023 have truly set a new benchmark for us and laid a solid foundation for our future endeavors. A heartfelt thank you to 2023!"
Reflections on Duoo
As 2024 began, Jonathan and I had a thorough discussion about Duoo.gg. We examined our metrics and roadmap, only to uncover several significant issues that we perhaps should have identified earlier:
- Monetization posed a challenge; advertising seemed to be the only viable option.
- Our growth was primarily tied to hosting tournaments, with a noticeable decline in user engagement in their absence.
- The demand for matchmaking among gamers, especially for games other than our main focus, was lower than expected, as revealed through conversations with our users.
- The product lacked virality; there was little incentive to refer friends to Duoo
- Duoo struggled to retain users; enhancing stickiness would require shifting our focus away from matchmaking.
- The nature of matchmaking led to inherent churn; the platform was effective in finding matches, but users seldom returned after a successful match.
Realizing these challenges at the start of 2024 led us to the conclusion that a new direction was necessary. Despite dedicating nine months to Duoo and building a modest community, its growth potential seemed limited.
Luckily for us, we already had a pipeline of ideas and features planned for Duoo. However, we also thought that adding more features to Duoo would just make it more confusing. Is it a matchmaking site, a tournament hub, or an AI coach 👀?
First Pivot
After the meeting, all three of us had another meeting to discuss our plans for 2024. Following a relatively short discussion, we agreed on an idea we all thought was great, and development began immediately.
I managed to finish the API for this new idea in about 2 weeks, which resulted in some downtime while Jonathan Edwardsson was building the frontend. However, this downtime gave me the opportunity to work on another idea I had wanted to try for a long time.
And so, Meeko.ai was born.
Meeko.ai
Back in 2021, I applied for a production API key for League of Legends:
At that time, I was deeply invested in improving my skills in the game, particularly struggling with memorizing the 'cooldowns' of commonly faced champions. Every encounter with Ahri, for instance, had me searching for her charm cooldown on the League of Legends wiki, navigating through tiny fonts and poor contrast to find the information.
envisioned a solution where I could simply ask an AI for such details, but this was before ChatGPT and its Assistant feature were introduced. My attempts with various libraries back then only yielded mediocre results.
However, during some downtime while working on the First Pivot, I revisited the idea of an AI Coach.
During our time in Silicon Valley and the launch of ChatGPT's Assistant feature, I started building tools to scrape LoL content from multiple sources. Although I wasn't fully satisfied with the outcomes, the groundwork laid proved invaluable later on.
So on January 14th, leveraging our scraped data, insights from personal coaching experiences, and match data from Duoo.gg, I developed an MVP in just 48 hours.
We launched it as a Discord bot two days later, and within the next two weeks, we got the following results:
- A peak of 2,200 active users, surpassing Duoo's 1,000.
- 450 Daily active users.
- 13,000 questions answered.
- Over 20 paying users
- 1,500 Discord servers adopting our bot, compared to 400 for Duoo in 9 months.
So... I guess we pivot, again?
So, what is Meeko?
Meeko is an AI Coach/Companion for gamers, currently offered as a Discord Bot specifically for League of Legends players (more coming!).
Meeko can respond to any League of Legends question using natural language. It's akin to having a knowledgeable friend who introduced you to the game or a higher-ranked friend you'd frequently turn to for advice.
Benefiting from our network of experienced coaches from previous projects, Meeko's responses are based on vetted coaching content, crafted by our content team. This foundation ensures that Meeko not only serves as a "know-it-all" for LoL, but also as a real coach.
Additionally, Meeko integrates with all the familiar APIs gamers rely on from third-party sites like u.gg and op.gg. This means users can access crucial game information directly through Meeko, without the need to navigate away to a web browser. Whether it's deciding on the optimal build for a champion or identifying the top-performing champions in the current patch, Meeko provides all the necessary insights.
What now?
Well, we've decided to double down on Meeko, not only is it a personal dream project but it has already shown signs of Product Market Fit, we have also taken away lots of learnings from Duoo and have already talked with hundreds of our users and we keep hearing the same thing over and over again:
We're just getting started and are currently working on a lot of exciting stuff in preparation for scale, below is a list of things we're currently working on, some which has already been deployed and are in testing phases:
- New advanced AI Architecture ready for large scale
- Hand picked coaching ambassadors (To help us build essential coaching functionality, e.g: Learning Objectives)
- Content Pipeline, allowing 100+ coaches to correct and write content for us
- Our Desktop Application
- And much more...
What happens with Duoo?
Duoo will continue to operate as usual, but we've paused development for now. We still see potential in Duoo within the matchmaking space. For instance, we've noticed it's maintaining a stable base of 1,000 weekly active users, and its 14-day user retention rate is at 20.5%, which is quite promising. However, we believe it's crucial to seize the moment and focus entirely on Meeko.
We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone in the Duoo community and to all who joined us on our journey in 2023. We're excited to make 2024 even more impactful.
Thank you from all of us at the Meeko.ai team, see you in the next update <3