Building The Anti-Calendar Platform to Enrich Your Life
Xoogler Founder Stories: Zi Wang of Timeless
While Timeless founder Zi Wang worked at Google, he learned an interesting fact: Google Calendar users open the app 22 times a day. He did not think too much of this stat at the time, but the fact that it notably surpasses the famous Google “toothbrush test” did resonate with him. Six years later, he sold his first startup and was wondering what he wanted to do next. He saw how in the Millennial and Gen Z generations, the day-to-day separation between professional work and life-enriching experiences was becoming increasingly blurred. Since everyone has their phone on them at all times, it has created a culture where people are tethered to work 24/7. As a result, burnout has become a huge problem. Zi built Timeless to prevent burnout and empower users to make the most out of their time.
Revolutionizing the Calendar
Timeless is a calendar app that takes a unique approach to help users manage their professional schedules and make the most of their personal free time. Timeless incorporates a marketplace that makes it easy to explore events, classes, and more within the user’s free time. The calendar can also be synced to a user’s friends’ calendars to plan events together.
“In 2018, I thought the calendar was underutilized because it hadn’t evolved in over twenty years. People use it to schedule meetings, sessions, and classes. What is that 10x improvement? What is that magical thing to do to change the equation? When I think of magic, I think of what Uber did with top location services. A good map tells you how to go from one point to another. A magical map takes you from point a to point b. A good camera app takes a photo, but a magical app shares it like Instagram. Calendars have a similar potential where a good calendar gives you a reminder of what your day looks like ahead, but a magical calendar helps you figure out what you want to do. Maybe you have time to learn the guitar. Or maybe you have time to go to a concert with friends. The idea with Timeless is that it integrates a marketplace directly into your calendar. From a user perspective, Timeless will help you manage, budget, and take control of your time. From a startup perspective, it connects services and calendars into one coherent space.” -Zi Wang
Reducing Burnout Through Improved Time Management
With everyone working from home, the pandemic has accelerated the increasingly blurred line between personal and professional life. Timeless looks to help reduce the likelihood of burnout for the users by making recommendations that create a balance between personal and professional life.
“Because of social media and the increasingly demanding work schedules, you are more likely to get burned out. There is no separation between work and life now. Your bedroom, workstation, and hobbies can literally be six feet apart. This burnout issue is probably the biggest issue we are trying to solve. It’s stress-inducing if your calendar is just filled with meetings. But if you have nothing to do day in and day out, that is also traumatizing. Boredom in itself is a torment. The idea is to build a calendar app with the ability to reduce burnout through recommendations that are linked to an integrated marketplace. The goal is to ultimately build the best calendar app.”
Since launching their private beta program, Timeless has seen over 5,000 join the waitlist and a week-over-week growth of 105%. In May, they booked $100k in revenue. After gaining a better understanding of the users through the beta program, Timeless will officially launch in 2021. Join the waitlist here!
More About Zi Wang
Zi joined Google in 2006 as an engineering analyst. In 2009, Zi joined the Android team as the Creative and Brand Director. He helped launch Google Nexus phones, Nexus Tablets, Android Operating Systems, and services such as Google Now. In 2014, Zi became a product lead at Google ACME Research Lab where he led intelligent environment engineering research.
Xoogler.co Founder Story Series
Xoogler.co hosted the Xoogler.co Demo Day USA on December 10, 2020, which featured 16 startups who pitched to over 100 investors. The startups were handpicked for the event, and they all have at least one ex-Google employee on the founding team. Timeless was one of 16 startups that presented. Watch Zi’s presentation here.
Following the demo day, we sat down with several of the founders to learn their stories. The Xoogler.co Founder Stories Series looks to highlight the journey of each founder, share their learning experiences along the way, and showcase the exciting ideas each founder pursued after leaving Google. Be sure to follow us for upcoming Founder Stories! Read our most recent story below:
