Introducing Kumo
A personal relationship manager made to help you build and strengthen connections with the people that matter to you most.
The Problem
We are more connected than ever. Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn makes anyone a few taps away. Sounds like a good thing, right?
While social network technology grew, our brains didn’t. We are tasked with keeping in contact with more people across more places with more frequency.
We are terrible at recall. How many times have you put off — or even straight-up forgot about— reaching out to an old friend, a loved one, or even a professional colleague? The guilt and shame makes most people put off overdue conversations even more.
Why, even with 5G connection and more social media apps than ever before, do many feel disconnected?
Our Realization
The big social media companies have done a great job at making frictionless methods of communication: Facebook Messenger is snappy. WhatsApp is the gold standard that disrupted the international phone call market. LinkedIn is the go-to for professional stalking and development. But these methods of communication do not solve for the motivation to communicate and genuinely connect with others.
The solution is not another social media app. The fact that your every move — what you post, when you were last active, how many friends you have — is on display for others to see makes social media crippling to motivating genuine connection.
The post-COVID-19 world is going to look very different than today. It is imperative that we feel confident enough in technology as our primary means of seeing, hearing, and loving one another for the foreseeable future.
Our Solution
Kumo is on a mission to help busy people maintain and strengthen their relationships. Our premier product, Kumo Moments (mobile app), is a personal relationship manager that empowers users with two key features:
- First, users nail the art of the follow-up with custom recurring reminders to reach out to their relationships.
- Second, users have unparalleled continuity in conversation thanks to our Moment logging system, allowing them to jot down notes after conversations, so the conversation picks up right where they left off.
Our Team
Miles Phan
Hey, my name is Miles and I’m a rising senior at USC studying Computer Engineering Computer Science. Currently I’m splitting my time working as a software engineering intern at JPL and as a frontend engineer for Kumo, both of which are great opportunities to learn new technologies and grow as an engineer. When I’m not on the clock I usually read or work on some personal projects I have in the pipeline.
Doron Barasch
Hi! My name’s Doron and I’m a rising senior in the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. I’m most interested in data science, machine learning, and software development and engineering. Working on the backend integration and engineering side of Kumo provides me an opportunity to expand my horizons through exposure to systems I have yet to work with.
Mohib Jafri
Mohib here! Normally, I study Electrical Engineering at Harvard & Management at MIT. Now though, I’m on a gap year in SF where I spend my time both building Kumo and leading engineering teams on Tesla’s Autopilot team. I’m a big climbing fan — unfortunately out of practice due to COVID + a broken ankle 💀
Evan Thompson
Hey everyone! My name is Evan, and I’m a rising senior at Harvard studying biomechanical engineering. Working on Kumo has been a huge learning experience for me, and although I’ve mainly been focused on helping out with UI design so far, I intend on learning more about backend software development as well throughout the summer to help out more on that end.
Beyond this program, I love painting and playing music, and I’m also working on a personal design project this summer, too.
Shan Jafri
Hey! My name is Shan, and I’m a rising junior from Los Angeles, CA. I work on the UI of the app where I engineer fluid interfaces. Outside of Kumo, you can find me on the sofa playing Overwatch or on the court sinking 3’s.
By the end of Harvard Computing Society’s Builders Incubation Program (BIP), you can expect to have a personal relationship management tool to help you navigate the digital world in both your private and professional life.
