We are digital workers like you

You could be a student, a freelancer, an entrepreneur. You could be running a business or working for one. You might be remote, or in an office.

Right now, you probably have tabs open - documents in progress, sites you’ve left open. You have your inbox, keep notes on paper, maybe in an app. You have a to-do list, a calendar.

If so, you’re the same as us - so how do you stay on top of everything?

We ran a thought experiment - what if you could just take your pick of what mattered to you, across all those touchpoints? One click to capture the place and the thought.

That’s where we started.

Everybody wants your attention

We have a problem to solve - every app we use and resource we visit lives in a domain, and each competes for our attention. To get control over them, our app needed to live inside the browser itself. A full size application squeezed into an extension.

So we built and installed it and things went a little crazy.

Some were using it to leave hilarious notes on random web pages, some to share YouTube videos. Some to highlight a social post, or a new toilet seat on Amazon. How do we know? Because we were sharing them with each other.

And the questions started: Was insite a social tool? A messaging platform? The ultimate to do list? A replacement for bookmarks? The list went on - but one thing we all agreed on: it was empowering.

We want to put you in control

If the idea was to put the user in the driving seat, what did that say about how our app should be designed? Everything was on the table: what should insite do - and (more importantly) what should it not do? We researched the competition and the truth is they all do what they do very well.

We had email, we had a project management system and messaging tools. And we were using insite for everything in between as we tried to figure out what it was. And the shape of insite began to emerge on its own - it seemed to thrive in the space other applications left between them. It wasn’t trying to rival them - it was simply joining the dots between them.

Installed in the browser, insite sits above all the noise and chaos. We didn’t want to add to that. If anything, we wanted to help people make sense of it all. Maybe give them the space to pull their thoughts together, think and reflect. And then act when they are ready.

The answer had been staring at us all along.

Next steps in this journey

Marketing people always ask if your product is a vitamin or a painkiller - does it have a feel good factor or does it address a pain-point? We see insite as more of a personal superpower, something you don't know you need until you try it. If messaging platforms are like handing everyone a whistle, and a project management system like trying to conduct an orchestra, maybe insite turns you into a musician, free to play what you choose.

So, at heart, insite is simple, effortless to use and also countercultural. Maybe the world, drowning in notifications, toolsets and AI hype, needs a product that leverages our minds - rather than trying to overwhelm and dominate us.

We know we have a lot of work ahead - continuing to evolve insite in a way that focuses on you, not extended feature lists. The harder part is figuring out how we get noticed in this noisy world. And we are excited by that.

We built this product for ourselves and we are building this product for you - all of us digital workers, sitting in front of our screens, with all those tabs open, trying to do our best.

We hope you join us for the journey ahead.

 

The insite team

Adam (Systems), Alice (Research), Alvaro (Ideas), Andrew (Code), Anna (Legal), Austin (Operations), Ben (Inspiration), George (Experience), Fahad (Creative), Igor (Site), Jerome (Strategy), Johanna (Accounts), Maksim (Testing), Morpho (Policy), Olivier (Marketing), Rita (Communications), Ryan (Excitement), Salema (Quality), Sean (Concept), Simon (Leadership), Sofia (Commercials)