What is Smart Canvas and why are we building it?

Smart Canvas is a mobile and web app where you get closer to coworkers. You share content, curate knowledge and engage around ideas to discover connections you wouldn’t anticipate.

We created Smart Canvas out of our belief that while working with tools like Google Apps can be truly transformational to companies of all sizes, there is still an untapped opportunity: to continuously connect employees around corporate knowledge, ideas, and problem solving.

Hierarchies aside, coworkers are usually organized in teams that will set out to solve problems to help their companies achieve business goals. More often than not, some teams will enter discussions or solve problems that other teams had already discussed or solved in the past. Even worse, some teams will barely communicate with adjacent teams with which they could otherwise have discussed and developed breakthrough ideas.

Any company with more than a couple of dozen employees will eventually and surely create silos of knowledge. By tearing down those silos they can ignite innovation potential. This is a problem that chat applications like Slack and Hipchat are challenged to solve as they tend to make silos stronger and interactions ephemeral. We use, and like, Slack ourselves and see that happening(*).

Smart Canvas makes it simple and easy for people to bring, create and curate content relevant to their organization. Then it will apply Artificial Intelligence algorithms to promote connections, cross-pollination of ideas, problem solving and discussions among people and teams inside the organization. It automatically identifies relevant topics and will nudge people to connect. Psychology studies have shown how effective nudges can be, so we are literally building a “nudge engine” powered by AI.

A big inspiration for us is the “Yes, And” premise of improvisational comedy. The basic concept is that ideas can be improved as they are accepted and heightened by others. In the past people shared ideas very cautiously, afraid of what others would think. Great ideas ended up being forgotten because they did not gain enough visibility or momentum. Now imagine that any idea that resonates with some people can quickly, and organically, emerge to a bigger audience. We like to think this is the power of the group mind facilitated by Smart Canvas. What first started as a small spark, gains energy inside Smart Canvas and surprises others when it evolves to become something unanticipated.

For the organization, Smart Canvas will offer a set of communications and analytics tools to help them effectively inform employees and learn about them as they develop.

Our main goal is to create a tool that helps people to bring inspiration from any place, including their minds, to one common space where they can engage and evolve their ideas. Behind the scenes there is a “live animal” helping knowledge and connections effortlessly emerge outside the normal boundaries imposed by people’s habits. Oh, by the way, the “live animal” is called Apollo, our “nudge puppy” you will probably fall in love with!

Visit www.smartcanvas.com and start building smarter, deeper connections and discover what you are missing inside your own organization, for free.

Cheers,

Mars

Co-founder

(*) An integration to Slack is coming!