Many businesses these days charge cancellation fees for “no-shows,” or customers who miss appointments. This is done to discourage customers from not showing up, and to try to make up some of the lost revenue that cancellations cause. But now Triangle-based startup No Show Hero is offering a different solution, filling “no-shows” for those whose businesses are impacted by missed appointments.
Launched in April of 2024, No Show Hero proivdes a B2B2C platform and marketplace that connects service providers to appointment seekers to fix the issue of last-minute appointment cancellations. The startup’s co-founders, Gigi Stephenson and Anna Young, believe the business’s success lies in creating a network effect and sense of community rather than just a business solution.
“At the core, it is a community,” Stephenson said of the startup.
Stephenson and Young are currently seeking to expand the size of that community while participating in CED‘s GRO Incubator—a 12-week program providing early-stage startups with the guidance and expertise they need to launch successful ventures. No Show Hero’s co-founders are using their time in the current GRO cohort in part to expand their customer base. (GrepBeat has written about the startup’s fellow cohort members, Brainery Labs, Nearby Nearby, and Murmuratto.)
Young noted that while the startup has indirect competitors—like customer relationship management (CRM) software—she sees No Show Hero offering the human connection that technology cannot.
“We love connecting with people, our subscribers and our members and our community,” Young said.
How Businesses Can Use No Show Hero
Stephenson said No Show Hero is sort of like a matching company that brings together service providers and people seeking services. Whether appointment seekers are spontaneous or just need flexibility due to a busy schedule, No Show Hero can be a solution.
The minimum viable product (MVP) was launched earlier this year as a Facebook group that currently boasts over 3,700 members. As an example of how this group works, consider a small hair salon business. The owner has the ability to monitor the No Show Hero group’s weekly thread (which opens each Sunday). Individual stylists can list times and contact information on the page, and potential customers can then send direct messages, ask questions, post in search of services, and confirm appointment times directly.
“It’s exposing [service providers] to a captive audience of an entire city or region that they didn’t have access to,” Young said.
Most of No Show Hero’s paid subscribers are people working in the personal care industry, including hair-stylists, nail technicians and skin-care estheticians. Other clients include therapists, house cleaners and pet care providers. Most of the business’s clients are located in Raleigh and Cary, but there are several others around the Triangle.
No Show Hero also ensures for its clients that there are not too many services of any one particular type being advertised in a single area (which depends on the location, population density and other factors). For example, the company doesn’t allow too many hair-stylists to compete with one another within a five-mile radius.
“It’s kind of our commitment to our service providers, so they’re not feeling diluted in a particular area,” Young said.
You can click here to apply to join the Facebook group, whether you are a service provider or appointment seeker. Those who are part of the virtual group are not obligated to pay for joining, but there are subscription tiers for added benefits.
These tiers include a basic option ($24/month) to comment on the weekly thread and post unlimited last-minute messages; a $48/month option (No Show Hero’s best value) offering additional upgrades for providers, such as placement higher in the virtual feed when customers type relevant searches; and a $96/month option for business owners who want to post availability for multiple services and/or locations.
“We’re revamping [the subscription tiers] to give them more depth and a little more intrigue and more benefit with what we’ve learned through the group,” Young said.
QUICK BITS
Startup: No Show Hero
Co-Founders: Anna Young, Gigi Stephenson
Founded: 2024
Location: Raleigh
Website: noshowhero.com
Funding: Bootstrapped; exploring funding options
Young said although No Show Hero is currently free to appointment seekers, the company will eventually move toward converting them into paying customers. She added that there are pros and cons to using Facebook as No Show Hero’s primary form of communication.
“There are certain aspects of Facebook that are hard to manage just because of the platform,” Young said. “But then there are parts of it that are bringing gold because of the social aspect of it.”
The difficulties of the social media page led Young and Stephenson to agree to create a new app, which is currently in the works.
In the short term, No Show Hero will be putting the final touches on its elevator pitch for the GRO Incubator’s Demo Day. The startup’s team of five plans to actively pursue sales to widen their reach. In the next few months, No Show Hero aims to enter the Charlotte market and then launch nationally. Shortly thereafter, the No Show Hero app will be introduced.
