Matthew Johnson of Taskable
An exclusive Tech Tribune Q&A with Matthew Johnson of Taskable, which was honored in our:
Tell us the origin story of Taskable – what problem were you trying to solve and why?
My co-founder and I both had this huge headache around context switching and information overload from all the tools we used at work. We had tasks assigned to us in Jira, Asana, Trello, HubSpot, Slack, and email. All the info we needed to get things done was spread across these tools, making it impossible to properly identify our priorities and plan our time because we had to search across all these platforms. So, we decided to build a tool to bring them all together.
What was the biggest hurdle you encountered in your journey?
Many hurdles! From a user standpoint, it’s about standing out in a crowded market, and capturing their attention long enough to show them why our solution is the best one. From a fundraising perspective, its kissing a lot of frogs before finding the right investors for us. From a hiring perspective, it’s about trying to find the right people to join our small team and build a meaningful company.
What does the future hold for Taskable?
We are currently solely focused on improving the product and finding product-market fit. But our vision is to build the best way to manage your time and information for work and life. We want to be the layer on top of all your digital tools that helps you get the most out of them and not feel overwhelmed by them.
What are your thoughts on the local tech startup scene in Reno?
Reno is great! I just moved back into the area, and was surprised by how much the tech scene has grown. One of our investors is Reno Seed Fund and they run some great events along with EDAWN that brings together the community, and there are a bunch of really exciting startups cropping up here. Reno is a great place to be given its proximity to great outdoor and recreational opportunities in places like Tahoe, while still also being a few hours drive/45-minute flight to San Francisco.
What’s your best advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
My best advice for aspiring founders is to just get started building something and not worrying about what investors or other people might think. Just focus on your users, their problems, and how to solve them. I see too many founders focus on fundraising way too early. That’s a distraction. If you build something people want, the money will find you.