A pair of Jive Software alums are taking what they did to bring social media communication to the workplace and turning it on its head by bringing the new generation of work collaboration expectations to the consumer.
Co-founders Ashley Todd and Mike Westlund are building an app called Fabulist and it is designed to be an all-in-one place for scheduling, communicating and planning everything from family trips, to get-togethers with friends to household life.
“We simplified six to eight apps into one place. It’s designed to help you get things done,” said Todd.
Todd has years of product management experience and was frustrated that when she planned things outside of work she didn’t have the same tools to consolidate and streamline the process.
Using the app, which works across Android and iOS devices, users can make lists, write notes, capture ideas, share photos and maps and create reminders. Groups can also message with each other all within the app. Those are elements common for enterprise collaboration software but something Todd and Westlund thought were missing for consumers.
“There is nothing that does (this) across your life — personal, family and household and friend groups. Why do we have to use 10 apps to do these things,” Todd said. Both Todd and Westlund spent seven years working at Jive, an early mover in enterprise communication and collaboration.
The duo, along with Westlund’s brother Ken, have been building Fabulist for about three years. The app went live in April without much fanfare to ensure that it works as expected. It's available in Android and Apple app stores.
So far there have been a few hundred downloads and it’s performing as they hoped. Now, they are getting the marketing going. Westlund said that there are free tools that do these things individually offered by smartphone makers but nothing that works across the different manufacturers.
The startup has been funded by the three founders, who all still have day jobs. This is very much a passion project. The team intends to generate revenue through up selling users on enhanced features. The basic app is free to use and the team is not selling data or advertising space.
Todd said the app is built with enterprise-grade security and privacy has been at the center of development.
The team is being purposeful about development and funding. They want the product to be useful and are OK with patiently growing and building it.
“If we went and got funding we would be under pressure to drop everything and grow it,” said Westlund. “We’ve watched software vendors do that, especially in the consumer market. … We see vendors come out and get funding and then pivot to the enterprise for revenue.”
“We didn’t want that to happen,” he added.
Todd and Westlund expect the team to stay small. The rest of 2021 will be focused on generating organic user growth and creating a web version of the app so people can access it on a desktop and not just a mobile device.
“We are really building it to help people,” said Todd. “Coming out of Covid, people want to connect and we want to make it easier.”
