One Weekend Was All it Took

My favourite presentation at Toronto’s DemoCamp this afternoon was by the guys at TaskAve.com.

TaskAve is a simple but brilliant web app that combines maps + tasks + alerts.  It allows you to set a mobile alert that will trigger when you are in a particular location.  The alert reminds you of a task that you should do at that location.

In other words, if you keep forgetting to pick up your dry-cleaning when you’re at the mall, you can set an alert that will remind you as soon as you enter the mall - or walk by the drycleaners.  The alert will appear at a distance from the target of your choosing.

There’s even a business model.  If it achieves a decent amount of scale, TaskAve will have loads of location and purchase intent information.  That would be of great interest to retail advertisers.  If Lowes knows that I intend to buy a new faucet at Home Depot, they can send me a special percent off deal on faucets.  Or, Home Depot can send me an add-on deal, perhaps for bathroom tiles or paint.

Love. It.

TaskAve has some potential.  But that’s not what was most impressive about the presentation.  What’s truly jaw-dropping is that TaskAve was created just two weeks ago at an event called Toronto Start Up Weekend.

A group of five, made up of developers, designers, and product and marketing people created TaskAve in about 48 hours.  48 HOURS!  Complete with a monetization plan!

Phenomenal.

Compare that to a newspaper I heard about recently that has been working for over six months on their iPad app.  They have not one, but two committees working on it: a steering committee and a working committee.

Pathetic.

Newspaper executives need to wise up soon and allow real innovation to occur, without committees, from the bottom up.

The barbarians are at the gate.