Nathan Bashaw, 21, of East Lansing found his inspiration for
Thoughtback from an old practice of writers and artists who kept a "commonplace book," a place where they could capture all their ideas and then return to for inspiration.
As a participant in Startup Weekend Lansing, Bashaw and his team pitched the idea of a modern commonplace book in the form of a mobile application.
His pitch was compelling enough to be chosen as one of the businesses to be developed in the
54-hour Startup Weekend.
According to Bashaw, Thoughtback is a very easy way for individuals to capture their ideas digitally. He says his application is "more suitable" than other similar applications, such as
Evernote, because of Thoughtback's simplicity.
Since the Lansing weekend, Bashaw won a Grand Rapids pitch competition at
The Factory in mid-November and is continuing to add more features to Thoughtback, such as a weekly "email update of ideas."
Bashaw says he does not know if his application will make money yet, but "it's been fun to develop," and he is confident that as he presses on, something positive will come out of his efforts.
Bashaw is one of thousands of entrepreneurs who have participated in one of the Seattle-based Startup Weekend events, a Kauffman Foundation-funded organization that seeks to catalyze startups and provide entrepreneurship education throughout the world.
Grand Rapids will be hosting its Startup weekend Jan. 14-16. For more information on that event, you can visit their site
here.
Source: Nathan Bashaw, Thoughtback
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs Editor.
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