Kyle
If you’re a long time reader of nibletz.com The Voice Of Startups Everywhere Else, you know that we’re a little under enthused about “event discovery” and “social calendar” startups. Our good friend Danny Nathan at iwannanom a New York startup we profiled earlier this year, knows how we feel about “event discovery” and “social calendar” but still brought us Jason Horowitz and Skedj. We’re glad he did.
Horowitz is no stranger to startups and no stranger to the fact that we need another event discovery startup like Governor Chris Christie needs another extra large pizza. To that end Horowitz told us:
“I know event discovery, event sharing and social calendaring don’t sound like new territories to conquer. We believe Skedj takes a unique approach to these challenges and, consistent with the way we plan our lives, strikes a balance between personal and social. The result is one personalized stream of your plans and possibilities, making discovering things you want to do, and keeping track of the things you need to do, easier than ever before.”
After checking out Skedj ourselves we agree. One of the things about Skedj that resonates with me from the start is that Skedj is learning my schedule not suggesting I go see every country music show just because I happen to like one song by Sugar Land. Of course many of you know the story about one “social/event discovery” app that suggested a bunch of great dog parks because at one time in my life I had liked Mark Zuckerberg’s dog.
Whether it’s the intent or not, Skedj takes into consideration the primary user FIRST and the social discovery/sharing part second. That’s why nearly 300 words later we’re still talking about it. In fact, we interviewed Horowitz. Check out the interview below.
What is Skedj?
Skedj is a fun, simple and smart way to manage your schedule, share events with friends and follow calendars from the places that matter most to you.
In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)
Simply put, Skedj gives you one place to follow the plans and events happening in and around your life, the things you need to know about and the things you want to know about. Think of it as a personalized curated list or filter that sits on top of your calendar and lets you make smarter, contextual decisions about what you plan to do and when.
Getting started is easy. Sign up. Subscribe to calendar feeds from the places you want to follow. Add and invite friends so you can start sharing events with the people in your life. And sync with your personal calendar so that your plans show up in Skedj and the events you find interesting in Skedj end up on your calendar.
And if you manage a business or group calendar, simply add it to Skedj. We make it quick and easy for business owners and calendar organizers to create a feed of their upcoming events for syndication to Skedj users. Make it public and share it with the world, or make it private and limit access to the people you specify.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Skedj was founded by Jason Horowitz. Jason has lived in NYC for 19 years. He spent close to 15 years as a corporate lawyer before leaving and founding Skedj. Most importantly, Jason is the father of two young daughters.
At the outset, Jason worked with the fine folks at Poke New York on the early development of Skedj.
Chuck Masucci is the CTO of Skedj. Chuck wasn’t there at the very beginning but he stepped in early and is as responsible for the development of Skedj as anyone.
Where are you based?
We’re based in New York City, but the Skedj platform is designed to work for events anywhere and everywhere.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
The startup scene in NYC has never been better! This city was already a hotbed for creativity, but it’s great to see that creative mindset colliding with the technology know-how that’s helped so many startups come to life in New York. Any discussion of the NYC start-up scene should include a shout out to NY Tech Meetup. They’ve done an incredible job of coalescing everything that’s happening locally in tech and serving as a hub of activity in and around the scene.
How did you come up with the idea for Skedj?
As parents living in NYC, my wife and I found it more and more challenging to keep track of all the plans, activities and events happening in our lives. So many calendars and events from so many sources coming to us in so many different formats and such varying times. Even under the best of circumstances, information falls through the cracks, appointments are missed, opportunities go undiscovered and conflicts inevitably arise. We thought there should be one place where you could filter through your own plans, share ideas with friends and more easily follow the calendars and events that are important to you.
How did you come up with the name?
We think the name speaks for itself. Skedj says what it is with little explanation necessary. People have asked if its a noun or a verb. The answer is yes, it is.
What problem does Skedj solve?
Simple. Skedj solves the problem of time management. And that in turn can solve a host of other problems.
There is so much happening in and around our lives that is time and date specific. It comes to us in so many different ways and at such varying times, and often on many different devices. We want you to have one place to receive, share, deliver and communicate that information. At home on the go. If you always know what comes now and what comes next, you’ll make smarter decisions about how you schedule your time. You’ll do more and miss less.
And from a group or business perspective, we believe we offer an answer to the question of how to make social media work for you. Skedj is the best customer relations and marketing tool around. Add your calendar to Skedj, make sure your customers always know what’s happening with you, and let your customers share your events with the people they know would be interested.
This question offers me the chance to point out a specific and meaningful instance where Skedj can and wants to be helpful. In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I know so many people who were looking to volunteer in whatever way could be most useful. The needs weren’t and aren’t just one day or even a few days. The damage was severe and opportunities to help will be ongoing. We would like any group or organization that needs help or is compiling volunteer opportunities to send us the “when and where” of it, a daily or weekly schedule, and we’ll create those calendar feeds and make it easy to keep track of it all for the people who want to help.
What’s your secret sauce?
I’m sure this isn’t a unique answer, but if we told you it wouldn’t be secret, right? I’ll just say that I think our approach to sharing is unique and more consistent with the way we live our lives and manage our time in the “real world.”
Are you bootstrapped or funded?
Skedj is funded through a traditional friends and family round.
What is your goto market strategy?
Right now its a two-pronged approach… We’ve just launched, so we’re in the process of building both our user base and generating awareness for the product itself. We’re not necessarily looking for an onslaught of new users in the first few weeks, but as we grow the number of users in the system we have a great opportunity to continue testing and fine-tuning based on feedback, etc.
The second prong is getting more groups, businesses and organizations involved with Skedj and to encourage them to create a feed of their own. We recognize that the library of available event feeds needs to be compelling, across every category, for us to maximize the user experience. We’re starting with sports, live venues, performers, NYC-based schools among other available calendars. But we know that’s not even the tip of the top of the iceberg.
Being based in New York, we’ve focused much of effort on this area for launch. Outside of major sports teams, venues, and performers, the majority of the active feeds are specific to the New York area. This gives us some focus for the near term, but it also doesn’t limit anyone else from creating their own feeds for areas outside of NYC. In the end, it will be up to our users to help us understand what they’re looking for and how we can best serve those needs. We want users to recommend specific calendars they’d like to see in Skedj as well as add their own.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
I’d say its been dealing with the highs and lows of the process. When I first started down this path I read a lot about the life of an entrepreneur, particularly in the tech space, and the one consistent message was to be prepared for the highest highs and the lowest lows, sometimes multiple times in the same day. That has very much proven to be the case. It can be hard to keep a level head throughout, but we’ve built a great team and that goes a long way towards evening things out.
What’s next for Skedj?
We want to continue down the path to making Skedj a place where you can follow all the calendars and events that matter to you. We’re just getting started. School calendars, soccer leagues, local venues, retail establishments, charitable organizations, fitness studios, you name it. If its time and date specific, it belongs in Skedj. Together with our users, we hope to continue to add calendar feeds and fulfill our goal of making sure you never miss a thing.
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