How Beecuz.org uses Outseta, Webflow, Airtable & Zapier to build their wellness platform.
Written by Geoff Roberts - Co-Founder of Outseta
When I first caught wind of the project that Lena Schreyer and Jon Pensa were building, it seemed like one of the normal sign-ups that we see every day at Outseta—a non-technical founder paired up with a tech-savvy partner working to bring a membership site to life. But as I started learning more about Beecuz and started seeing the project progress, I was quickly bowled over by this duo’s vision—both the vision of the organization Lena was bringing into existence, and of the site Jon was helping Lena create—all without code, of course!
Meet Beecuz.org
Lena is a classic case of an entrepreneur scratching her own itch—after struggling with her own mental health, she saw that there was an opportunity to better equip kids with the skills and tools required to navigate the challenges of everyday life. The result was a non-profit organization called Beecuz, an online instructional platform that helps teachers build their understanding of mental health and positive education strategies.
“Beecuz strives to create a future where youth embrace authenticity, recognize their potential to thrive, and choose courage over comfort; a future where children feel safe and supported, where they believe that they are worthy, and where they dare to chase their dreams,” says Lena.
“I like to use the analogy of a life jacket and a lifesaver when I talk about Beecuz’ mission,” continues Schreyer. “If you didn’t know how to swim, would you rather have a lifesaver thrown in to you after you’re already drowning, or be given a lifejacket before you start drowning? When you put it this way, the answer seems obvious—you would prefer a lifejacket! The current healthcare system takes a reactive approach to mental health by treating problems after they arise or responding to crisis situations. Beecuz, on the other hand, is giving children lifejackets. Better yet, Beecuz is teaching children how to swim. Much like swimming is considered an essential safety skill to teach to children, I hope that, in the upcoming years, the skills that Beecuz teaches in our school program will be considered essential to children’s health and wellbeing.”
It’s hard not to be stuck by Lena’s vision, and it quickly became a project that I was particularly excited to see come to life using Outseta. Now let’s get into how Jon helped Lena bring her membership site to life.
Deciding on Beecuz’ tech stack
With no background in technology herself, Lena teamed up with Creative Director and Brand Strategist Jon Pensa to bring her vision for Beecuz to life.
“This was a fairly complex project that required a front facing consumer website and a member-based curriculum system with each school board, school, and teacher requiring their own personalized account and user experience, including tracking their own progress,” says Pensa. “We wanted all of this functionality under one umbrella. After much research, Outseta was the only platform that integrated seamlessly with our Webflow set up. It also had the ability to play nicely with my Zapier and Airtable set ups.”
Building Beecuz
In tandem with designing Beecuz’ Webflow website, Jon began integrating Outseta’s functionality with the site by adding two embed scripts into the header of every page of the site.
The first script shown in the screenshot above is Outseta’s no-code script, which enables the ability to protect content so that it’s only accessible to users who have logged in and have the appropriate membership level.
Here’s a tutorial on how to add Outseta’s no-code script to your site to enable protected content:
And here’s what those content protections look like in Outseta—the site is primarily protecting curriculum focused content.
The second script that was added to the site’s header is Outseta sign-up and login embed script—this script allows users to sign-up for a membership and login to the site thereafter. You can interact with Outseta’s login and sign-up widgets on the site by clicking on the “Login” or “Plans” links. Note that Beecuz’s pricing model charges a $500 setup fee then $500 annually per teacher. This “per seat” pricing model is just one of the pricing models that Outseta supports in addition to regular fixed price subscription billing, usage based pricing, and one-time transactions.
Here’s a tutorial on integrating Outseta’s sign-up and login forms with a Webflow website:
Adding a CMS Collection in Webflow
After adding Outseta’s scripts to the header of Beecuz’s Webflow site, Jon then created a CMS collection in Webflow so each individual member that signs up for Beecuz has their own website page created. Beecuz playfully refers to their members as “hive members.”
Building Zaps to connect Outseta, Webflow, and Airtable
With the “member” CMS collection created in Webflow, Jon then turned his attention to creating some Zaps that automatically add new members to the member collection when a person is added in Outseta. The member is also then added to Airtable, which Beecuz uses as a database.
Jon also created a second Zap, so that if a “Person” record is updated in Outseta, the member’s record is also updated in Airtable and Webflow.
The Finished Product
With Webflow, Outseta, and Airtable in unison, Jon reflected on his experience assembling the tech stack Beecuz’s business now relies on.
“The membership functionality in Outseta is top notch,” said Pensa. “The built in billing, CRM, and help desk tools combined with its Zapier integration saved us a ton of time and effort.”
For Lena, the day-to-day user of the setup, the real benefit is in helping her stay organized and giving her the tools to manage her business from behind a single login.
“My favourite aspect of using Outseta is that it has centralized so many different aspects of my day-to-day operations,” says Schreyer. “Outseta is a central hub where I can manage customer relations; respond to requests, questions and inquiries; interact with users; and monitor payment plans. Outseta helps me stay organized, work efficiently, and plan effectively.”
Beecuz is certainly tackling a large and important mission—and perhaps most importantly, the company’s no-code technology stack allowed them to launch their membership site quickly and inexpensively. The end result and real benefit? Beecuz now has more time to focus on delivering on their mission to make mental health education more accessible to all.
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