Wellington
At a time when communication is (in theory) easier than ever, the overwhelming number of waysto connect means checking them all out can be a full-time job.
Email, text, Facebook, other social networks, blogs, web apps, even something as‘old-fashioned’ as a fax, all have to be found at different sites or places.
Managing this overload is a worldwide problem. The American economy alone loses over US$1trillion a year because of information overload (see story
But, beavering away on Waiheke Island, with its team spread as far afield as San Francisco,London, Romania, India and Germany, is the company that is about to launch ‘Unified Inbox’, aservice with the strapline, ‘simply communicate’. The company’s website, along with the optionof trialling a beta version, is available here .
Its CEO, Toby Ruckert is a Kiwi-domiciled German, who has an extensive IT and mobilecommunications background, after studying music at the University of Stuttgart.
Ruckert, along with his Co-Founder Markus Lehnert, who experienced the overload problem firsthand in the corporate and financing world while working as an investment banker and as the head ofM&A at one of Europe's largest software companies, always wanted to have just one place foreverything communication related. Such a site, accessible on the web, via tablet or mobile apps andassisting in managing all messages and conversations centrally in one unified inbox could be a truegame changer in solving the massive overload problem which is predicted to reach a tipping point in2012 (see article
The product is currently in a beta form, and available for free at its website, prior to officialbusiness-to-business and business-to-consumer launch early this year. In a bit of a play to itsNZ-centricness, Unified Inbox offers extended long term trial periods for Kiwi start ups andentrepreneurs for free.
“We’ve spent a massive amount of time and money, but most especially energy on the projectover the past three years,” says Ruckert. “We've taken our time, studied many user interfacesand user behaviour, such as how people interact with social media and digital communication ingeneral and while we've seen many potential competitors come and go during this time, we could notfind a similar service offering the same breadth or depth of product features.”
Ruckert says it is probable that Unified Inbox will have a snowball effect amongst its users.“Once you're used to having all your communication centrally in one place and see how convenientthat is, you really don't want to go back.” he says, something that could hold the potential tomake it go viral in the consumer space.
Contrary to popular belief that great startups are still mostly born in Silicon Valley, Ruckertbelieves that New Zealand entrepreneurs have a unique opportunity in creating leading solutions inthe communication space.
“Being at the bottom of the world has in no way hindered, in fact has probably helped thedevelopment of Unified Inbox,” says Ruckert.
“We're a truly international team and because of the remoteness of New Zealand, we've beenforced to reinvent our communication processes and collaboration techniques repeatedly. After havingrefined them so that their effects on productivity and efficiency has reached a high level ofsatisfaction for all in our own team, we take their essence and add them in the form of a feature inUnified Inbox. We’ve been able to fly under the radar of the bigger operators, and can’t wait totake it to the world.”
Ruckert also wrote a passionate blog post about his experiences and starting up in New Zealand asa young entrepreneur which can be found
The teamat Unified Inbox is committed to providing a solution that retains personal control for every user,and is a single platform to operate on, while simultaneously allowing them to be on multipleplatforms he says.
“The reason we can do this, and none of the big players can, is that we are independentinformation brokers,” Ruckert says. “Our loyalty is to our users, their privacy and theirfreedom and to empower them, simplify their lives and (if they so desire) to put them everywhere atthe same time.”
Under the proposed business model, users will have a free account option that allows up to threeplatforms to be connected. If users require more platforms, then they’ll have the option ofpaying.
Ruckert is confident that the loss of productivity from individuals constantly having to checkmultiple platforms for new messages, means there are monetary and time saving benefits for usersfrom the premium service. The fact that a number of early users have already signed up for a paidservice means Unified Inbox is confident the go to market version will find a strong demand.
In other words, for a clearly recognised pain point, Unified Inbox is a potent pill. It hasscalability and weightlessness – and is ready to deploy at a moment’s notice.
Kinda wish I’d been clever enough to think of it really!