Isn't it funny how we can connect with anyone around the world with the tap of a button, but we have such a hard time communicating with the people beside us? It just seems like the more we try to “connect”, the more distant we become from one another. You could almost say that we’ve become disconnected from the people closest to us.
How can we solve this problem? How do we bring the human connection back into everyday situations?
That’s the question we asked ourselves five weeks ago after a grueling weekend at Toronto’s MaRS center. We were a brand new startup team, brought together through Canada’s entrepreneurship program, The Next 36. While brainstorming, we started talking about values, and how important people are to us. It’s not just about the individual — it’s about what a group of individuals can accomplish when they work together. It’s the reason why community and teamwork are so important. And because it’s so important, we made it our mission to bring people together again.
Great — so what’s the plan?
First, we believe that each person has the ability (and responsibility) to shape his or her local space—they just need the right tools to do it. We also recognize the need for open communication with the people around us. By working together, we can build a unique group experience that everyone can contribute to.
To do that, we decided to build Clustr. Clustr is much more than an app. It’s meant to bring together the experiences of each individual (that means you, your buddy beside you, and the buddy after) to redefine the group experience and re-envision your surroundings.
Imagine if we could group people into giant bubbles. Each bubble gets a chalkboard. Now, we give each person a piece of chalk and tell them: “Go ahead, express yourself. Write about whatever you are doing, whatever you are feeling. Is it exciting to be where you are? Is it packed, or is it empty? Do you wish the music was better? Anything that crosses your mind, put it down. Share your experience.” Boards can be swapped, moved, erased, and flipped over. By filling up those boards, we paint a shared group experience for each bubble, and in turn, can share it with people everywhere. This illustrates the Clustr Theory.
The Clustr Theory states that people form clusters—pockets of reality—and their experience is always fluid, personable, and dynamic. But most importantly, it is built together.
That is our vision. Everyone is grouped into clusters, where together you can build and share information that matters about what’s happening, what you’re doing and feeling. We also want to let you see what’s happening in other clusters close to you. In a nutshell, Clustr lets us tap into what is happening around us— right now.
Excited? Ready? We are!
Because we take this to heart, we decided it was important to share our own group experience with you. We’re very excited about this project and want to be completely transparent about what we’re doing. We have made it our mandate to include you in all aspects of our adventure as a new startup within The Next 36! We’ll be starting a regular blog to share the ups and downs of the startup world, the challenges that come with launching a venture, and all our important milestones.
Ultimately, we are building Clustr for you—so we are always grateful for your support and would love your input too! If there’s anything you would like to share or ask, come talk to us! Like we said, it’s about building together (and that starts now).
In the meantime, here’s a summary of what we’ve been up to:
- Week 1: Brainstorming and analysis
- Week 2: Clustr is born > developing landing page + brainstorming main challenges and how to overcome them
- Week 3: Developing key strategic imperatives with our mentor to determine our major milestones + continue building landing page
- Week 4: Deciding on a name and logo > finish landing page
- Week 5: Drafting our first pitch deck (exciting!), working through UI design + key features, and some light system “architecting”
- Week 6: Posting to Medium + finishing our first pitch deck.
We’ll be updating our landing page at ourclustr as we go along, so make sure you check it out (and share!) regularly. Don’t forget to sign up for updates and we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop!
Sincerely,
The Clustr Team
ourclustr.com
