Ex-Facebook CIO looks to weave a better calendar in Woven
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The map view in Woven lets you see your calendar geographically. Photo: Woven
When he was Facebook's chief information officer, Tim Campos said he spent a lot of time hearing from executives how frustrating it was to deal with their calendar. So when he left the company in late 2016, he set out to build a better calendar.
Details: Woven, as the company and product are called, helps individuals better manage their time — including work, team and personal calendars — as well as ease the process of finding times to meet up with people.
- "My job at Facebook was to make people as productive as possible," Campos tells Axios. "I care a lot about time."
- The interface looks like a traditional calendar, but also allows for other ways to view your day, including a map view to schedule meetings in a way that makes geographic sense.
Yes, but: Lots of startups have tried to build a better mousetrap only to find themselves unable to unseat Microsoft and Google. Aware of that, Campos says he made Woven different.
How it works, per Campos: It doesn't replace GSuite or Outlook, but rather works on top of Microsoft's and Google's productivity tools. (The beta version launching today only supports Google's productivity suite, with Office support coming soon.)
- Also, it works well even if only one person is a Woven user. Everyone hates it when someone wants them to sign up with a new service just to set up a meeting.
- Users can get some of Woven's smarts even without signing up, Campos adds.
As for making money, Campos says there may be some features that are put behind a paywall. In the long term, he sees Woven as an enterprise play, offering analytics and other services to paying business customers.
- Think: Slack or Dropbox to understand the business model.
- What Campos doesn't have is big company resources. The startup is just a dozen people and has raised $4.8 million in seed funding.
