Myke Naf seemed the quintessential ‘jack of all trades’ until he founded Doodle. At that point, he was working as an independent consultant, as well as a lecturer at his alma mater, ETH Zurich – a public university for engineers and scientists. Before that, his career switches saw him swing from an educational consultant to ICT Chief Security officer at Zurich Airport. In keeping with his penchant for novelty, his work locations were as far out as Bhutan and the Philippines. Perhaps, one common thread that tied all his roles together was exasperation with meetings or poorly planned ones at least.
Eventually, he teamed up with software engineer Paul Sevinç to deliver an online scheduling software in 2007. While it was originally intended for personal and business use, they soon realized that it was something the world had been waiting for. So, they launched the idea as a business. The first users made the app go viral, and every user who wanted to conduct a meeting invited other people. They, in turn, became users, inviting others, and so the juggernaut started rolling.
From the beginning, they worked on keeping the product free. After the first round of funding in 2008, Myke Naf and Paul Sevinç began bringing in revenue by displaying ads. In 2011 they had 10 million users. They doubled that to 20 million by 2014, offering the service in 20 languages. That same year, Swiss media group Tamedia upped their minority stake to a majority, and the founders Myke and Paul moved on to other projects. In particular, they were involved in nurturing the Swiss startup scene.
Today, Doodle has more than 30 million monthly users, which includes more than 300,000 business users. Top MNCs like Google, Amazon, and Disney are among its top clients.
How does it work?
Consider the most mundane scenario. You’re visiting a city, which also is home to many of your relatives. While you don’t have the time to drop into each person’s home individually, you do have a few hours to spare over the days you’re there. Typically, you’d probably get all your relatives’ numbers into a WhatsApp group, titled something as dull as ‘Dinner with family!’. So, you announce to the group that you’re free at these times on those days. As you can imagine, the debate on when to meet could go on inconclusively, and the longer the debate rages, the higher the chances of your group being put on mute.
The smarter way to meet
Here’s a smarter and faster way to solve this problem. Invite all your relatives to a Doodle poll. Give them a set of options and ask them to pick which time is most convenient for them. You can also ask them for suggestions on places to eat in the poll. The process is easy for you, as well as your relatives. In addition,Myke Naf seemed the quintessential ‘jack of all trades’ until he founded Doodle. At that point, he was working as an independent consultant, as well as a lecturer at his alma mater, ETH Zurich – a public university for engineers and scientists. Before that, his career switches saw him swing from an educational consultant to ICT Chief Security officer at Zurich Airport. In keeping with his penchant for novelty, his work locations were as far out as Bhutan and the Philippines. Perhaps, one common thread that tied all his roles together was exasperation with meetings or poorly planned ones at least.
Eventually, he teamed up with software engineer Paul Sevinç to deliver an online scheduling software in 2007. While it was originally intended for personal and business use, they soon realized that it was something the world had been waiting for. So, they launched the idea as a business. The first users made the app go viral, and every user who wanted to conduct a meeting invited other people. They, in turn, became users, inviting others, and so the juggernaut started rolling.
From the beginning, they worked on keeping the product free. After the first round of funding in 2008, Myke Naf and Paul Sevinç began bringing in revenue by displaying ads. In 2011 they had 10 million users. They doubled that to 20 million by 2014, offering the service in 20 languages. That same year, Swiss media group Tamedia upped their minority stake to a majority, and the founders Myke and Paul moved on to other projects. In particular, they were involved in nurturing the Swiss startup scene.
Today, Doodle has more than 30 million monthly users, which includes more than 300,000 business users. Top MNCs like Google, Amazon, and Disney are among its top clients.
As easy as a click
Doodle also integrates with apps like Zoom and Slack to make your life easier. It’s easy to use and has a bunch of useful features. Thankfully, it does not come overloaded with more features than you’ll ever need – like a lot of other apps do. This desire to keep things simple has contributed a great deal to Doodle’s popularity. For example, Doodle was the first app to use the ‘Capability URL’, allowing anyone with a URL to access the app without having to log in. This philosophy permeates all aspects of the app and will enable you to focus on the real work, and let the coordination happen in the background.
