Taking the Leap Into the Unknown
Starting a tech startup from scratch is truly a wild thing when you stop to consider it.
Who, in their right mind, drops everything to build a team, design and develop a product, and raise funds with no promise of return for years—just to get a product to market and gain enough traction to sustain itself? Honestly, no sane person would take such a risk.
And yet, what makes the risk worthwhile is the thrill of turning an idea into reality.
An Idea That Never Went Away
LeisureLink, in many ways, started quite some time ago. Over a decade ago, my partner-in-crime, Pat Ferrell, and I collaborated on another startup. Like most startups, it didn’t catch on. But the ideas and questions we were wrestling with back then never really went away.
Fast forward to early 2024: unbeknownst to each other, we had both started thinking again about those same problems—and sketching out ways to solve them. I had already begun outlining a development plan and exploring technologies that might help bring something new to life. What became clear to me was that while I could lead on the technical side, I needed support around business development and organizational strategy.
That’s when Pat reached out. One conversation turned into another, and soon we were talking seriously about giving this another shot. Even though we didn’t call it LeisureLink at the time, that was the real beginning.
Building the Right Team
We brought in Charmaine Conui—a creative dynamo who shares our ideals and vision for the product, and who brought much-needed media and storytelling expertise—and began forging ahead.
I still vividly remember our first true team meeting. That moment when we said, yes, we’re really doing this, and placed our trust in one another felt almost surreal. No matter what the future holds for LeisureLink, I’ll always look back on the creation of this team with pride.
The Long Road of Building From Scratch
Most people understand intellectually that founding a company and building a product from the ground up is an exhausting, long journey. Even with the benefit of earlier research and UX direction from past attempts, the landscape had changed. The market evolved. Culture shifted. The ways people connect—and the reasons they feel disconnected—look different today.
That reality led to countless brainstorming sessions: what to name the product, what we truly wanted to accomplish, and how we would bring it to market. Early on, we realized that while we had a clear vision for our first product, we also envisioned future products that deserved room to grow independently. That insight led us to the name LeisureLink—a company designed to support a broader ecosystem of connection-focused experiences.
So here we are, making a determined push into what we believe is an unclaimed space in the social networking world. We know it’s unclaimed because we’ve had to invent new language just to describe what we’re building.
Growing Beyond Borders
Over the past year, we’ve been grinding away in development and growing the team thoughtfully. We added Jessica Clark to lead our social media and brand efforts, and Chris Lee to support business development and funding strategy. More recently, we’ve expanded our technical and operational footprint into Latin America, bringing on exceptional talent and deepening our ability to build and scale with a global mindset.
Each addition to the team has strengthened our vision and reinforced why we started this journey in the first place.
From Idea to Early Access
Now, we’re beginning to open the doors. ThirdSpace, our first product under the LeisureLink umbrella, is currently available in early access. Seeing real people use something that once existed only as an idea—watching connections form and communities take shape—has been incredibly rewarding.
We’re still early. There’s more to build, more to learn, and more to refine. But as we prepare to share what we’ve been working on with a wider audience, I couldn’t be happier with where we are—or where we’re headed.
Despite the risk, despite the long nights, despite the uncertainty, this is exactly why we do it.
Because turning an idea into reality is worth it.
— By Co-Founder & CTO, Jon Merripen
