{"id":35333,"date":"2023-10-20T14:37:56","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/nsw-start-up-tiimfocus-warns-facebook-co-founder-were-coming-for-you-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T14:37:56","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:37:56","slug":"nsw-start-up-tiimfocus-warns-facebook-co-founder-were-coming-for-you-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/nsw-start-up-tiimfocus-warns-facebook-co-founder-were-coming-for-you-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"NSW start-up TiimFocus warns Facebook co-founder: We\u2019re coming for you – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"

A tech start-up based in Wollongong is taking aim at task management venture Asana<\/a>, which was created by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, after raising $800,000 from angel investors.<\/p>\n

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TiimFocus, founded in 2009 by Kevin Withnall and Jason Weaver, aims to improve workflow management between teams, allowing organisations to keep track of tasks and assignments.<\/p>\n

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Withnall, who began developing the product two years ago, initially created the product for his 12-person development company.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe created TiimFocus because we didn\u2019t see a product fulfilling the need in the market,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

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In a bid to become \u201cthe world\u2019s most complete collaborative task system\u201d, TiimFocus has raised $800,000 from three angel investors, whose names will remain undisclosed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cKevin\u2026 has contacts in the superannuation investment field and was able to access them. We pitched our idea to these guys and they thought it was a good enough idea to back, so we managed to secure an initial $500,000,\u201d says Weaver.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSince then we\u2019ve secured another $300,000 [from the same investors]. We\u2019re in a position now where we need to get another $500,000 to really help with the marketing push.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBlackbird [Ventures]<\/a> launched a week or two ago, so they\u2019re somebody we would probably contact.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s very difficult [to secure funds] in the Australian market\u2026 We certainly haven\u2019t ruled out going to the US, but our preference is to keep it in Australia if we can.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe think this idea \u2013 the idea with the workflow \u2013 hasn\u2019t actually been done. I\u2019ve been in business and I\u2019ve run many successful teams myself, and I\u2019ve never been able to get this right.\u201d<\/p>\n

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TiimFocus has compared itself to Asana, the start-up founded by Dustin Moskovitz, who, after sharing a dorm with Mark Zuckerberg, became one of the founders of Facebook.<\/p>\n

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Like TiimFocus, Asana keeps teams in sync. It has already raised more than $10 million from investors including Benchmark Capital and Andreessen Horowitz.<\/p>\n

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However, TiimFocus is confident it can compete in the marketplace.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe largest player in the market is Asana\u2026 However, its greatest strength \u2013 an easy-to-use product \u2013 is also its largest weakness; minimal functionality,\u201d says Withnall.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe outgrew Asana within a month. TiimFocus was built to be the world\u2019s most complete collaborative task system. Companies will not be able to outgrow TiimFocus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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TiimFocus provides team members with one central location where they can see what peers are working on and can receive updates on how a project is progressing.<\/p>\n

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The B2B software is designed to evolve as an organisation grows.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe believe the beauty of this marketplace, particularly as more attention is focused on B2B companies, is that the best product can win,\u201d says Weaver.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDespite the pedigree of Asana and other competitors, we spent two years building and validating TiimFocus, and we, and our clients, believe this is the best product in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A tech start-up based in Wollongong is taking aim at task management venture Asana, which was created by Facebook co-founder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35333"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}