Andrew Peek firmly believes that ideas are best developed when people connect and have time to bounce their thoughts off one another.
Unfortunately for teams working on projects, much of the workplace tools at our disposal are not geared towards percolating ideas. Email is too static, voice and teleconference tools lack spontaneity and some collaboration tools can be cumbersome.
So, Peek and his teammates at Rocketr, a Toronto-based tech startup, have come up with a simple, note-taking Web app (currently free) that allows users to share and exchange ideas through their smartphones with a select group or to take advantage of crowdsourcing by opening up the discussion to a larger crowd. The Rocketr team is made up of Peek, Evan Dinsmore, designer; and Jack Neto, chief technology officer.
Rocketr’s entry into The $1,000 Minute.
Ideas can strike us at anytime, anywhere and many people tend to jot down their ideas when that moment occurs. “All too often the process of capturing that idea is separated from the process of sharing it with other individuals who can potentially provide vital input,” said Peek.
Ideas can sit idle in a notebook until a meeting with other team members takes place. Following a trail of thought through emails, Peek explained, can be difficult as some people tend to delete contents of their inboxes. Teleconference tools often require people to be seated in a boardroom or office and many online collaboration tools are suited for more intricate project editing tasks.
Rocketr is geared towards that spontaneous sharing of thoughts when that creative spark hits you. Users can tap out a text on their iPhone or jot a note on their iPad and hit send to their select group of editors.
Peek said it is different from other tools such as DropBox, which is primarily a file storage space, or Evernote which does not have much of a collaborative function.
Rocketr is also different from note synching service Mobile.Me because the former provides a social networking element. Rocketr users have a “notebook” where they can jot their notes. Users can open this notebook up to an unlimited number of “editors” who can add or change content on the notes they’ve added. Users also have an unlimited number of “public notebooks” that can be viewed by other Rocketr users who can comment on the notebook’s contents.
Rocketr, which now has more than 6,000 users, is currently on beta mode and available for iPhone users. Availability for the iPad is being worked out and the company intends to release a paid model ($5/month/user) sometime in February next year. The app would ideal for students, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists, inventors or any individual or group working on a project, according to Peek.
