The Cavalier Daily
Sullivan: QR codes have crashed the party
Scarlett Sullivan, Senior Opinion Columnist · September 14, 2024
“DoorList has infinitely heightened exclusivity. In order to enter a party, all guests must present their unique QR code.”
DoorList
Campus social life was built to exclude. I redesigned it to let people in.
Role
Lead Product Designer
Timeline
Feb 2024 – Sep 2025
Company
DoorList, campus events app
Outcome
Social discovery became the growth engine
01 / The problem
In college, if you're not already in, you're kept out.
If you're in a fraternity, a club, a team, those are your people. But that's the ceiling. If you're not in a group, there is no way in. Events flow through group chats, member lists, invite-only posts. The entire system is built around groups, not individuals.
65%
of college students report feeling lonely.
Active Minds / TimelyCare, 2024
Discovery failure
“I know things are happening. I see people posting about them after. I just never knew about them in time.”
Sophomore, UNC
Invitation barrier
“I'd go to anything if someone asked me. Nobody asks.”
Freshman, Penn State
DoorList made isolation worse. More events you couldn't hear about, more events you couldn't get into.
I joined DoorList, a campus events app with 45K downloads and flat retention running at UVA. Students were already saying the app felt exclusive.
“I downloaded it once, got invited to one thing, and never opened it again. It just sits there reminding me I don't go anywhere.”
Junior, USC
If I just improved the app, I'd make the exclusion worse. What if it worked the way friends already do?
How it worked
hey are you doing anything this weekend?
yeah there's a party saturday
can i come?
sorry it's only for our sorority
and the doorlist is already set
What I imagined
hey are you doing anything this weekend?
yeah there's a party saturday. do you want me to request for you to get in?
wait really? yes please
02 / What I did
When I finally made my case, the DoorList CEO shut it down.
DoorList had to be about people, not events. The hosts would be against it. Nobody was asking for it.
The hosts
“Hosts would hate it.”
The team
“It would compromise safety.”
The admins
“Admins won't approve.”
So I turned the CEO's objection into the spec: hosts kept the final say, guests could request friends.
PlusOne shipped.
Student side
Late Night
Friday, August 22, 9:00 - 11:00 PM
Shared Playlist
Friends Will Green, Rachel Myers and others Invited
View All
Request +1s
Share
Location
Chouse
About
DJ Set by Ghost. Must be on the DoorList to get in!!!
See More
Your Invites
2/3 invites used
Manage
All Activity
Comments
Blasts
Photos
Alex CosniRsvpedGoing20 min
Sarah GreenRsvpedGoing20 min
Anyone can request a +1 to any event. No invite list, no QR code.
Host side
CancelRequests
Search
Chris Ryan +5
Approve
Deny
Friends with Dave Roselle +10 others
+4 Guests (unselected)
Lila Harper +1
Approve
Deny
Friends with James Shipley +1 other
+1 Guests (unselected)
Chris Ryan +3
Approve
Deny
Friends with Dave Roselle +10 others
+1 Guests (unselected)
Hosts approve, decline, or set a cap. Exclusivity stays available, just no longer the default.
It solved access. It didn't solve discovery.
I'd just earned a yes. I went back to spend it on the feed.
Early exploration
It launched. A week passed. Maybe 1-2% of events went public.
I had talked this up. The feed was practically empty. Everyone was ready to move on.
So why were students tapping 12x more on a screen with nothing to find?
12x
more taps on
search than any
other tab
9:41
Search
Sports
Club
Volunteer
Charit
Free Food
Philanthropy
Speakers
APHI
UPenn
All Events
Create an Event
Clubs
Create an Event
12x
more taps on search than any other tab
They weren't looking for events. They were looking for people.
I took the same pitch back to the team that killed it.
This time, the data made the case.
Then they said yes.
I was ready to push for more.
But each version had to earn the next. Every change made the product more about people and less about listings.
Friend visibility on every event
Now you could see who you knew at any event. The decision changed from "do I want to go" to "my friend is going."
03 / The impact
The exclusion cycle broke.
Before
After
Students were joining events they were never on the list for and inviting friends who weren't even on the app yet.
Retention with 3+ friends
0%0%
0.0x
7-day retention lift
0x
Growth from peer invites
Didn't exist before
+
Total downloads
45K0K+
Measured via PostHog
Within a year, other apps followed.
No campus events app surfaced friend activity in discovery before DoorList.
Partiful, 2025. Showing users where their friends are going to events they weren't invited to. The same pattern DoorList shipped first.
I fought for something nobody wanted. It failed publicly. It became the growth engine. 700K users proved the exclusion didn't have to be the norm.
