Featured Pitch: PlanDone
Web Site: www.plandone.com
Headquarters: Petaluma, Calif.
Year Founded: 2006
Founder: A.J. Wacaser
Investors: Privately funded
Employees: 4
By A.J. Wacaser, Founder and CEO
PlanDone is a disruptive project planning tool that is transforming the web-based project collaboration market. Designed to help companies and their teams complete projects on time, PlanDone is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) social project planning application that utilizes web 2.0 features such as instant messaging and wikis to help distributed teams work together more efficiently and effectively.
After managing a team of software engineers in India and California while reporting to managers in California, Illinois, and Amsterdam, I grew frustrated with missed deadlines and incomplete projects using complex, bulky tools not designed for efficient communication. I found the use of email, traditional project software and document editors ineffective and I knew there had to be a better way to collaborate.
After many years of research and development, in 2006 I developed what would later be called PlanDone, web-based project collaboration software to help small-to-medium sized businesses manage and complete their projects.
Most project team members have no formal training as professional project managers and are left to use linear, static tools and processes in isolated meeting spaces. PlanDone prevents commonly experienced problems with managing projects such as accessing the most current document. These problems are solved by providing a centralized, interactive platform designed to gather and capture critical pieces of information such as files, guidance, goals or ideas within an open, flexible framework.
PlanDone also organizes, prioritizes, schedules and enables better communication in a maintenance-free, hosted application that is easy to use for staff members at every level of the company. The software was designed to support people in the way they work naturally—not forcing them to change their working style based on the confines of the software features.
Unlike other products, PlanDone has a built-in wiki system for tracking recent changes, a priority ranking system for differentiating task importance, an instant message system that captures chat information directly into the supporting documentation and a projected deadline system for accurately pinpointing end dates with certainty. PlanDone avoids the back and forth document version confusion by dynamically tracking the most current version in the wiki and providing clear expectations as action steps to team members of their prioritized tasks and due dates. Teams report higher productivity, more accurate deadline projections, greater ability to get back up to speed, and reduction in miscommunication and confusion over shared roles.
Business Model
IDC forecasts that the small and medium-sized business (SMB) enterprise applications market will grow to $80.3 billion by the end of 2012, representing a 10.6 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2008-2012 period. PlanDone fits nicely in this market and offers users a subscription-based model—either month-to-month at $16 per user for up to three users or discounted six and 12 month packages. PlanDone’s services are best suited for small-to-medium sized business in the following industries: consulting, healthcare and manufacturing, but any industry that wants to cut costs and save time with distributed team planning and task management implementation can benefit from PlanDone’s solution.
Current Needs
We are currently evaluating early stage investment firms that have experience in the web 2.0 field to bring in seasoned management teams.
AJ Wacaser has more than 15 years of experience working in public and private software companies in desktop and web development. He has managed numerous teams around the globe.
Previously AJ was the Web Development Manager at KnowledgePoint, an HR software company in Petaluma, Calif. He helped guide development through the dot com boom/bust and helped many small businesses with a suite of pay-per-use, on-demand HR productivity tools such as HRTools.com, JobDescription.com, PerformanceReview.com and PersonnelPolicy.com. These products are currently owned by Administaff. When HRTools.com launched in 1999, the site was selected as a Codie Award finalist.
AJ graduated from Augustana College, and earned a M.A. in Environmental Planning from the University of Illinois.
