It’s been a few months since my last blog article.

Since May 31st, I’ve been heads-down on a new product that I’m excited to share with you now. It’s a calendar that visualizes all of the available times shown in Calendly.

I call it “AvailCal“, because it’s an availability-focused calendar.

What problems does AvailCal solve?

When I stepped away from my stable full-time job and became an entrepreneur, what I needed from a calendar changed.

I was managing a music studio while also doing consulting work. In both cases, there were Calendly pages floating around that could schedule me at any time. I wanted these bookings, but it’s easy to be caught off-guard.

I have three main Google Calendars (personal, software, and music), and three Calendly accounts as well. I was never certain that all of the Calendly accounts were checking all of the Google Calendar events. It’s so easy to add a new calendar and forget to add it for Calendly to check, or add an all-day event that’s set to “busy” by default, blocking your availability unintentionally.

I built AvailCal out of this personal need to get control over my schedule. I wanted to see everything in one place. With this visibility, I could:

1. Avoid double-bookings because of misconfiguration issues.

2. Ensure that I’m available when I want to be, so I don’t miss any opportunities.

3. Avoid surprises caused by after hours or weekend bookings.

Even when it’s all working correctly, this visibility gives me a lot of peace of mind. I no longer have to assume that I know what’s coming.

What made this a great product for me to build?

You may have seen my previous blog article where I describe how I vet product ideas.

I seem to be the first to market with a tool like this, and I’m a leading expert in this space. That lack of competition and my unique position to outcompete any competitor is a huge opportunity for me, and for AvailCal.

Let’s talk about understanding the problem and the solutions.

At Calendly, we built tools that helped people to understand why they were available at some times and not others. It’s a complicated process to take in all of the calendar data and display the right available times, and I know how hard it is to visualize.

The troubleshooting tools in Calendly are great, but they’re sort of the reverse of AvailCal. The tools are found on a specific booking page and it can reference the reasons why it’s showing what it does. But you’d have to know to go and look at the right one, that usually happens after there’s a problem.

AvailCal surfaces all of your available times in one place, alongside your scheduled events. This makes the potential for a conflict very apparent. You’re basically seeing a double-booking before it happens. You’re Tom Cruise in Minority Report, stopping scheduling crimes before they’re committed!

That’s worlds better than reschedules and apologies. Double-bookings start off new relationships on a bad foot.

Is AvailCal available to the public?

Yes! AvailCal is in open beta right now. That means anyone can sign up and connect their Google Calendars and Calendly Availability!

If you also don't want to get double-booked ever again, sign up and use AvailCal right now. Beta users will have free accounts for life.

Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Send me a message on LinkedIn, chat with me from the help center, or send me a direct email. However you’d like to reach out, please do!

I can’t wait to hear your feedback and build something awesome for you.