The inmates of Jump Canopy
Jump Canopy is the two-person collective made up of Topper Bowers and Mike McCaffery. Founded in the fall of 2006 in New York City, we decided to combine our powers of design and code to build Critboard. Topper is a born entrepreneur and is the founder of Quimble (2005), an online application that lets users build and monitor customized polls. He is the ultimate mash-up of technical know-how and innovative thinking. Mike has over 13 years experience as a designer in the NY area, having worked on print and interactive design projects for a wide range of clients. Mike's client list spans the Fortune 100 all the way down to local non-profits; including Fidelity, JPMorgan, Mapquest and The American Place Theater in New York.
The pitch
So here we are with the premier version of what we think will be something new. And by "something new" we don't mean that it has some new ajax, java-rich feature that lets you do mind-boggling data manipulation never seen before. It doesn’t try to “solve all your business needs,” “rethink CRM”, or “integrate your desktop.” The innovation that Critboard delivers happens in your head, right there between your ears. With a simple set of features Critboard sets out to deliver an intangible—a true collaborative experience to users. And you’ll never know it unless you try it.
Most applications set out to help you mange either your data, or your workflow. When it’s all said-and-done we feel that it’s the user that has ended up doing most of the work. What is more pedestrian than a “To do” list? There are hundreds of software solutions out there and yet all require the user to do the heavy lifting. With all this technology how is it that a paper solution ("the moleskin hack") is still viable? Managing data is a feature and not a goal and most often the day-to-day applications that we rely on fail to make that distinction.
How often can you say that a piece of software delivered you a positive experience; much less one that was addictive or fun? Game software developers have figured this out. However, we've set the bar so low for business applications that we’ve come to accept the notion that an amazing app is merely usable. As if making it work at all was enough. The goal of Jump Canopy—and what differentiates us from the crowd—is that we’ve set out to develop business products that offer experience!
To be continued
Whether we crash ’n burn or change the world this will be our starting point for a new narrative about collaborators, innovators, individuals and companies that can absorb new technology for better productivity. To wrap it up we invite you to be part of that narrative by giving you 2 weeklong sessions for free just for signing up here. When you sign up, enter the promotion code thx1138 in the promotion field and you’re in. In exchange we ask that you fill us in on what we did right and what we could have done better. Either way we’d like to know because going forward we won’t be working alone.
If you'd like to know more about what makes us tick visit our blog or email us with your questions.