Minimally viable product … Pressed is an intelligent personal assistant for managing your time and your goals. We take the pain out of creating habits by reminding you to complete steps when you are actually free, breaking the habit down into small digestible steps and providing all the information you need to actually do the steps. You can keep track of all of your calendars and to-do lists in one place. We are Siri meets a personal trainer. (iOS app to begin with, Android and Web app coming soon.)
Problem solving … Most people live life and die with a list of things they wish they would have done. Whether that was to exercise more, quit smoking, work that extra step so they could get the job they always wanted or, most commonly, spend more time with their family. Time is the one resource you can never get back, and we want to make sure everyone makes the most of it.
Seed money … $25,000 from Coolhouse Labs, the accelerator we attended in summer 2014 in Harbor Springs, Mich. Also, $5,000 from an idea competition called Start Garden, and the recent Spin 66 pitch competition.
Hurdles … When I started I was still dealing with some of the leftover questions and feelings from my time in Silicon Valley, and I was failing. I’ve always been the resilient type, but this time was a little different. My company and journey there had become such a fundamental portion of my personal narrative. I had everything going for me and everyone believed that I could do it (I’d get called the “next Mark Zuckerberg”), but I ultimately let them, and myself, down. Overcoming depression and accepting my failure is probably the biggest hurdle.
Mistakes … Not creating a support system and being honest about my struggles with depression. I thought I was strong and smart enough that I could do it on my own, and I found out the hard way I wasn’t. This ultimately led to me not executing and having our developer quit, leaving us high and dry. In product development, it’s super hard to find someone to finish an existing project, let alone in an affordable way, so it should have spelled the end of Pressed.
Advice … Best: Fail fast, and fail until you succeed. Worst: Plan everything and follow all the rules before you make any action.
Food for thought … Having a vision is important, but it’s not nearly as important as making sure your vision actually solves a customer’s problem. Too many people create solutions to problems that don’t exist because they simply don’t listen to the market.[[In-content Ad]]
