Kyle
A brother and sister founding team have come up with a new Dallas based startup, SimpleSign.in, that will replace the sign in sheet for your next event. We know that eventbrite has event management tools like sign in sheets, however SimpleSign.in allows groups and event organizers that don’t need everything else that comes with eventbrite to have an equally as easy to use sign in system.
Once on site, event attendees can use their smartphones to sign in to your event. Once they’re signed into the event they are “logged in” to the event. You can use this “login” to hold votes during your meeting and solicit instant feedback through the course of your event.
Professional and civic organizations, universities, clubs, churches, conferences and businesses can all benefit from the ease of use of SimpleSign.in
Simplesign.in has baked in features of much larger event software into something that can be used and planned for well in advance or set up on the fly.
Users hosting an event just log into simplesign.in and from their they can create an event in under a minute. An event host can set up how much info they want to capture at sign in including name, phone number, address, email address and other fields. When attendees arrive they’ll either scan the events QR code or insert the events password and then they’ll be logged into the event.
After everyone has signed in the event organizer will be emailed a .csv spreadsheet file that has all of the information they requested when they set up the event.
When event hosts use simplesign.in for the registration process ahead of the event the organizers can use the spreadsheet to create email lists, name badges and other important documents that go along with an event.
Nate Bleker and his older sister Anna Bleker are the founding team behind simplesign.in. Nate is handling the technical aspects while the design is being handled by Anna.
We got a chance to talk with Nate about SimpleSign.in, check out the interview below.
What is SimpleSign.in?
SimpleSign.in is an app that replaces that pesky sign-in sheet at meetings.
If you’re hosting a meeting with SimpleSign.in, attendees can sign in with their mobile devices. You can then use the app to take meeting votes and get audience feedback.
Once your meeting is finished, SimpleSign.in will email you a spreadsheet of everyone who was there–along with their sign-in info.
We’d eventually like to automate as many meeting processes as we can, to make meetings rock for everyone.
SimpleSign.in is awesome for professional organizations, university clubs, churches, conferences and businesses–basically, any group that holds meetings and needs attendee info.
In layman’s terms, how does it work? (In other words how would you explain it to your grandmother)
Say you’re hosting a meeting for your favorite local organization. With SimpleSign.in, you can quickly launch meetings, and attendees can then sign in with their laptops or mobile devices (instead of waiting for that damn sign-in sheet).
When the meeting’s done, SimpleSign.in will email you a list of everyone that was there.
You can also hold votes during the meeting (no more, “all in favor, say aye!”), and there’s many more features to come.
Who are the founders and what are their backgrounds?
Nate Bleker and Anna Bleker (siblings, both grew up in Texas).
Nate Bleker
22, Forth-year computer science major at The University of Texas at Dallas, Lives in Richardson, Texas, Web and Android/iOS Engineer
Anna Bleker
25, Designer,Lives in San Francisco,Works as Visual Designer at Inigral, Rhetoric major at The University of Texas (2006-2010),Got her start as a photorealist painter
Where are you based?
Dallas.
What’s the startup scene/culture like where you’re based?
The Dallas startup scene is tight-knit and small. The tech startups aren’t as dense as other places like the Bay Area, but they’re still here.
How did you come up with the idea for SimpleSign.in?
Americans waste 4.28 million years every year waiting in lines. We hate lines. Everyone hates lines. So we decided to make lines at meetings not a thing anymore. Plus, as a leader of a couple school organizations, Nate was sick of having to decipher engineers’ crappy handwriting on meeting sign-in sheets. He also hated typing each attendee into Excel. And, if info was typed wrong, invalid emails meant less funding for student organizations.
He decided the whole process should be simple, automated and freely accessible.
How did you come up with the name?
It was the simplest explanation of the product with URL availability. We thought, if someone was Googling the problem, they’d Google “simple sign-in sheet app,” so we took that and shortened it.
What problem does simplesign.in solve?
That damn sign-in sheet at meetings.
You either have to wait in line to sign in, or it gets passed to you in the middle of the meeting and it’s crinkled and sad.
If you’re hosting the meeting, you have to actually be able to read everyone’s info, and you have to type every single line into Excel. It sucks.
Also, taking meeting votes. With SimpleSign.in, attendees can vote and the host can see results in real-time. Remember those 1970’s clickers from college? SimpleSign.in replaces those bricks.
What’s your secret sauce?
We’re siblings, so we can blackmail each other into finishing code with embarrassing childhood secrets.
Are you bootstrapped or funded?
Bootstrapped.
What’s one challenge you’ve overcome in the startup process?
Losing interest even though we both have other fulltime commitments. We’ve kept up the energy, and we call or Skype each other every day. We’ve been improving SimpleSign.in for a year, and we’re in it for the long run.
Who are some of your mentors and business role models?
Mark Cuban, Warren Buffett, and Nancy Hong from the UTD Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
What’s next for simplesign.in?
We’re working on some more badass features:
§ Print name badges of all attendees (the classic Avery template, yo)
§ Get feedback in the form of star-ratings and question/answer text (not just voting)
§ Create custom passcodes (the password that lets attendees sign into your meeting)
§ Get meeting start/end times
§ Archive all meetings, and the info will be available on SimpleSign.in
§ Customize the look and feel of your meeting Web page
Basically, we want to automate every single pesky meeting process and make meetings rock for everyone. Oh, and get investors.
Here, have links:
More startup interviews from “everywhere else” are here at nibletz.com
