using what you build

the reason why working at startups, with startups, or writing about startups is so interesting is because of the stories behind the products that they create. that’s when things are pure. i’m not so much of a fan of the drama that happens later on, like quests to become a “unicorn” or founder deception that just ends up hurting everyone. makes for good clicks, but trust me, it’s awful.

anyways, today i helped a group launch a new product that i personally find interesting. it’s one of those “yes, please, i need that” kind of things. no, it’s not an app that asks trivia questions (which is awesome) or an app that gets your friends to guess how often you lie about things (which is stupid). it’s a thing to help me keep up with email.

yes. email. the thing that was supposed to be dead but won’t ever be dead.

cody and the team at followup have worked on what they call a “personal CRM” for the last year, taking feedback from their previous hit, followup.cc, which reminded you to check in with people. something i suck at.

oh, and they actually use it themselves.

that’s not to say that you can’t build something for a set of folks you don’t fit in with…but i always found it strange when i got pitched on social apps and the founders and creators weren’t even active on it. this has happened with some realllly well know products. it’s just weird.

the new followup product lets you take notes, set reminders, manage contacts, see meetings at a glance, things like that. from gmail. when i joined scaleworks and met cody, he mentioned the CRM and i almost gagged. i was forced to use salesforce and it was probably the most soulless experience of my career. i’m not a salesperson, so being in a separate app and writing emails into it felt flat out wrong. plus, i don’t want to automate things, i want to get better at actually talking to people.

i’ve been using the new new for the past 3 months and bugging cody with feedback, so i’m pretty proud to see it out in the world. you should grab it and give it a whirl. bug the team with ideas and feedback, because they listen. they don’t want to live in a world where my robot talks to your robot and we’re given a list of to-do’s we have to check off. yet….that’s what bigCRMs do.

what’s most important is that they don’t care about chasing anyone else, they just want to make the thing they hope you use daily better. if something isn’t right, they’ll know first.

because they use it.

that’s what i’ve always admired about slack, and what makes them a special company.

that approach is pure, it’s good, and it’s smart.