How to make one exceptional choice, everyday.
Take the leap — Stop sharing, start squirreling.
Here in London we greet each other with an ‘Alright mate’. The general response is ‘Good’. I don’t buy into this generic conversation stopper and prefer to throw out ‘living the dream’ as my response. It usually elicits the intended chuckle from it’s recipient.
The puzzled laughter though always gets me thinking. We have more choice, diversity and opportunities than ever before. All the ingredients required to rustle up a small slice of our dream to taste everyday. So, why is it such a hilarious claim?
It shouldn’t be, so we decided to make it our mission to change this. We set ourselves the challenge of building something that would sprinkle a dash of that living the dream feeling on people who use it.
Social has led us to believe that everyone else leads a more interesting life than us. It’s not the case, or doesn’t have to be.
Therefore our solution needed to achieve something deeper than the brags on Facebook. Less forced than those filtered moments on Instagram. More attainable than the curated boards on Pinterest.
Challenge 1: It has to be real. A joy that exudes from inside, not reflected off others.
We have so much choice available to us that when faced with a simple decision we become paralysed…why? Because we worry that there must be better options out there.
Our brains are so overloaded with discoveries we have made and saved that they have pushed out the one that would have been of use in that moment. Through our fear of missing out, we often don't make any choice or we take the easiest one — inadvertently missing out.
Challenge 2: It has to help you make the best decision, in the moment, that is right for you.
Productivity apps have raised the expectation of what we should achieve in our everyday lives. Truth is we will always try to do or buy more than we realistically can. That’s not living a sustainable dream.
It’s time to move on. Forget productivity, try interest. We can help you to achieve and have more of the stuff you want, not simply need. This is achieved by helping you recall the right things, not everything.
Say hello to my little friend.
‘Squirrel — The app that stops you forgetting the products, people and places that you discover and want to check out — recalled right when you need them’
Squirrel makes it easy to stash away all of the amazing things you discover in everyday life, in an instant.
You capture with a photo on your iPhone the things you want to remember to check out later. You start to type what it is and Squirrel works it out and adds all the info that will be useful when you recall it later. For example, where it is, its website, where to buy or book etc. It’s like the Shazzam moment when it recognises a song, but Squirrel does this for products, people and places (with a little help from you).
Squirrel organises these for you so they are intuitively there and ready for you when you need them the most.
At any moment when you want to choose anything all you have to do is open Squirrel and give him a hint as to what you want. Be it, remembering the name and location of those blue shoes you saw, recalling places around you that you always swear to check out, or reminding you of the name of that book you saw advertised on the tube.
Squirrel fills in the blanks for you and makes life more fulfilling.
If you simply want inspiring, again squirrel can help. We are still working on this, but you will be able to see other peoples select stashes and offers. Don’t fret though it will be designed to make sure that you only see the ones you will want to act upon, there and then.
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