by Seth Kenvin
There.App Co has a classic startup founding story – inspiration from living through problems we decided need to be solved. We organize on-location teamwork, and bring related experiences from meeting planning, conference production, video shoots, off-site gatherings, tradeshow exhibiting, and touring campaigns. These endeavors often get lovingly nicknamed something like “organized chaos" although even that phrase sounds smoother than the common reality of professional work on-site. But it was a personal trip that ultimately turned on the There.App lightbulb.
Some college friends and I went skiing one year at a southern Colorado area called Silverton. It’s a distinctive experience with just one lift that only takes you only so far, followed by hiking for the reward of arrival at pristine, untouched snow. Factor in the commute from town to mountain, plus festive meals to recount the day’s activities and nostalgia about our shared youths, and it makes for an exhilarating but exhausting vacation.
Our activities were straightforward: drive, hike & ski, drive, eat & drink, pass out. But coordination was immediately chaotic. We managed logistics around accommodations at two different hotels plus a house rental. A group chat got set up, but two people didn’t bother downloading the app, so they had to be roped into communications via different services. Coordinating how to get to places meant that a lot of the messages were “Where are you?”, “When will you be at...?” etc.
One person set up a folder in the cloud storage system of his employer for photo and video sharing, followed by a stream of reminders (that continued after we got back to our homes) about uploading cool shots and footage. And with different people picking up various bills, there was some accounting to square things, so enter various payment apps as well.
It was a great trip, but still there was too much time and effort looking at too many apps and reconciling confused details, diminishing just a little from full enjoyment of the environs, activities and company. Such a simple trip had such taxing overhead, and I started relating it to my work experiences that involve much more complex project management. They face even more challenging issues of too many single-purpose apps, team members lacking access or motivation to log into everything, and no visibility on people being where they’re needed, leaving project managers to nervously anticipate until confirming arrival with own eyes, or, absent that confirmation, to panic. The idea for There.App emerged.
People together on the road, shakily juggling multiple systems for straightforward needs of being organized and in touch. There’s got to be a better way! We’re here to turn down chaotic noise and maintain sanity by clearly bringing together relevant information and functions with heightened focus on the actual key drivers of on-site project success.
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