Helping with life's "To-do's"

Cambridge startup Fetchnotes helps with 'to do' lists

 

Premium content from Boston Business Journal by Taryn Plumb, Special to the Journal

Friday, December 7, 2012

Alex Schiff

Life is a perpetual “to-do” list, an endless procession of things to keep track of.
And oftentimes, as people attempt to keep up with everything — calls to make, stuff to buy, books and movies to check out — they tend to create an “absurd patchwork” of reminders: hand-jotted notes, “to-do” documents, texts, emails and digital notifications, according to Alex Schiff, co-founder and CEO of startup Fetchnotes.
“Either you end up with one note with a billion things in it, or a billion notes with one thing in it,” said Schiff, adding that he’s been there himself, feeling “stressed” and “out of control.”
But Fetchnotes strives to simplify and condense those daily “notes to self.”
The company, a participant in the fall 2012 session of TechStars Boston, launched its free life-organizing tool in April.
After signing up, users input their “notes” to the digital notepad from their device of choice, then employ the same syntax as Twitter to label, organize and share them. For example, if you’re low on milk, you could create a tag (“#groceries”), attach a note (“milk”) and then share it with a family member by including their username.
One of the key objectives, Schiff explained, was to create a non-static platform that allows people to set it up and use it the way they want.
“It’s not prescribed, and it’s just so simple,” said Lucy McQuilken, a strategic investment manager at Intel Capital and TechStars mentor, who says she uses Fetchnotes for “managing my life and my interests.”
“You make the categories, you invent how you use it,” McQuilken said.
Schiff says the company “wanted to build something that works the way that you do, no matter who you are. It morphs to how you think.”
And so far, it’s proved to be an enticing tool for hectic, 21st century lives: In about six months, the app has grown to 33,400 users, with the most active turning to it five times a day, according to Schiff.
The four-employee company is working to raise a seed round of $750,000, a third of which has been committed, Schiff said. And, although its crew of young entrepreneurs left their homes and families — along with college careers at the University of Michigan — to take part in TechStars, they plan to remain in Boston. Schiff cited the city’s “well-developed” startup investing community, as well as its “talent, capital and mentorship” in that decision — the latter being the most influential.
“We want to surround ourselves with that level of mentorship,” he said. “The fact that there is a larger ecosystem was so valuable to us.”

Original story link here.