The email client that helps you focus
Ideas for companies we build at Founders are generally born out of pains and frustrations we encounter in our daily work life and the opportunities we find to fix them.
In the process of exploring solutions we often meet people who are as passionate about solving a problem as we are. If we are lucky there is a match and, if the timing is right, we might decide to build a product together. Tempo is a great example of that.
In this edition of Founders Stories we introduce Onno Schwanen and Henrique Ferreira, with whom we have the great pleasure of building Tempo: the email client that helps you focus.
Focus as usual
Tempo’s journey started in the Founders studio, where Sebastian and Stefano had been exploring what a great email experience could actually look like.
For most, email is at best a poor ROI of your time and attention and, at worst, a relentless anxiety-inducing hell hole. They were excited about the positive impact a good email client could actually have on their daily lives. (‘Good’, as in good for the user, that is.)
In Onno and Henrique they found people who shared their belief that technology should be defined by people, not the other way around. Together they carved out the values that shaped what Tempo looks and feels like to use today.
The solution wasn’t going to be about just bashing through mails as quickly as possible, though efficiency is certainly a factor. It was going to be about completely rethinking what our relationship with email could look like.
It was about creating a product where it’s the user who gets to decide how they interact with it and when and how often. A product that would help you build healthy email habits and a healthier relationship with technology in general - a topic you can hear Sebastian talking about on this podcast.
“It’s not so much about working harder or sending more emails per minute. It’s more about feeling in control, feeling good about the work that you’re doing and helping people to improve their work life” — Onno Schwanen, Tempo co-founder
It would also ultimately become an email client you pay for.
You can read Stefano’s excellent article about how most of our problems with email stem from product decisions driven by incentives that are fundamentally different to those of the user. The incentive for Tempo would be to build a product so brilliant and so well-aligned with its customers’ needs that enough are willing to pay money for it.
“Technology is claiming our time and attention and it’s time to put people back into the driver’s seat so that they have control over their own tools.” — Onno Schwanen, Tempo co-founder
Today Tempo is a team of seven based out of Berlin, Copenhagen, Lyon, Utrecht, Rotterdam and Linz, working efficiently and prioritising ruthlessly to build the best product for their users.
Listen to Onno and Henrique talking about what moved them to build Tempo with us and why the world needs it.
Watch the interview👇🏻
About us
Founders is a startup studio based in Copenhagen. Together with brilliant entrepreneurs we build companies that radically improve the way we live and work. We’re behind companies solving everything from the pain of company expenses and banking for freelancers to solving the chronic shortage of educated tech talent in Europe.
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