Here’s an article I haven’t written in a while. Oulu, Finland startup Mekiwi is shooting to raise $50,000 though a rewards-based crowdfunding round preceding the launch of their product, Wimble, a time management platform. According to the company, the Android version will be coming out in Autumn one way or another, but this further funding will help speed up Wimble coming to iOS and Windows Phone.
The rewards for the campaign include pre-sales of extensions of the product, like unique backgrounds, as well as rewards like getting a Wimble cartoon by one of the company’s developers. The campaign is run as “flexible funding” on IndieGoGo, so Wimble will receive all the funds raised, one way or another.
What’s unique today is for a software company to shoot for rewards-based crowdfunding, which I haven’t seen happen too much recently since “Kickstarter” became an every day word. Hardware startups, of course, are comfortable kicking things back to users, but does anyone want to pre-order software extensions to a product that they don’t own yet?
Digging into the product, Wimble helps people manage their time and life more efficiently by bringing “playfullness into time management”, according to the company. Wimble uses in-app achievements to keep you on task, and then rewards you when you’re on top of things, as well as shows you how you rank against other go-getters.
Additionally the product is somewhat of a communication platform. Because everything in the app can be shared with your friends and family, you can let your friends know when a party is taking place and even chat about it.
In the future, CEO Antti Kananen tells us they’re building up sort of a social network where users can share their life goals and achievements, to help motivate others. It sounds similar to sports tracker HeiaHeia’s concept of cheering people on for hitting their goals and for knocking out tasks.
Does the world need another time tracker? There are plenty out there, but none of them have stuck around on my phone. Perhaps Mekiwi’s young team is onto something.
