We just love it when a plan comes together. Unfortunately, that rarely happens without heroic efforts, hundreds of emails, and a fair amount of anxiety.
Who is going, where are we going, when are we going. Easy, right? Well, not so much. In fact, no one has created an experience that combines the best of planning tools with the best of local search. And until someone does, we will either continue to endure, or stop making plans altogether. Sigh.
But wait! At Center'd, we’ve been thinking about how to solve the challenges that exist in making plans. From the smallest get together, where you just can’t decide on where to eat and oh-my-goodness-I-can’t-take-it-anymore-maybe-I’ll-just-stay-home-and-wash-my-cat, to the large fundraisers and school activities that require signups and hundreds of emails and weeks of meticulous planning, one thing is clear: We can help you spend less time planning, and more time enjoying yourself.
We do this by focusing on three categories:
People - Connect to people you trust, and get their opinions and information to help you find that perfect place or make successful that successful plan.
Places - See what the crowds think by seeing ratings and reviews from across the web, or find out what your trusted friends think.
Plans - Easily invite friends, find out where everyone wants to go and when with place and time voting, empower volunteers to sign up for tasks, and stay on top of it with reminders and notifications.
Our co-founders, Chandu Thota and Jennifer Dulski, each have a wealth of knowledge and expertise in local communities and information, but found that making plans was still wrought with peril. Each was already working in related fields: Chandu developed the first iteration of Center'd (called Fatdoor), which focused on bringing neighbors together in an online community. Before that, he was at Microsoft as the lead engineer for its mapping products. Jennifer was at Yahoo! managing its local and marketplace businesses. They knew they needed help, so they found a talented underground team who escaped government persecution and were traveling the country solving crimes and performing odd jobs. After tracking the team down, it was clear these were the right folks for the challenge, and Center'd was born.
We're pretty excited by what we have put together, especially since it is only a first draft. We have some pretty exciting stuff up our sleeve, so stay tuned. We hope you enjoy the first draft of Center'd. Thank you for stopping by. We'd love to hear from, so please don't hesitate to drop us a line.
Happy planning!
The Center'd Team
We just love it when a plan comes together. Unfortunately, that
rarely happens without heroic efforts, hundreds of emails, and a fair
amount of anxiety.
Why is it so challenging? Who is going, where are we going, when are
we going. Easy, right? Except that it isn’t. In fact, no one has
created an experience that gets all three of these pieces right. And
until someone does, we will either continue to endure, or stop making
plans altogether. Sigh.
At Center'd, we’ve been thinking about how to solve the challenges
that exist in making plans. From the smallest get together, where you
just can’t decide on where to eat and oh-my-goodness-I-can’t-take-it-
anymore-maybe-I’ll-just-stay-home-and-wash-my-cat, to the large
fundraisers and school activities that require signups and hundreds of
emails and weeks of meticulous planning, one thing is clear: We can
help.
Hear us out. We can give you the tools you need to easily organize
people, places, and times. Using the latest space-age technology, we
have concocted features such as:
• Polling tools: Enable your guests to take some of the burden of
coming to consensus on the place and time to meet. That would be
nice, since they will probably forget to bring the chili. Again.
• Task Management and Volunteer Sign-up: Now you can easily get the
team you need to do the stuff you need.
• Connection management and calendar sharing: Now that you are
suddenly so organized, and ready to pull off the perfect girls’ night
out/summer camp/grandparents day/birthday party/first date/last date,
let’s make sure those who are important to you can view your
calendars. But not everyone, and not every event. We can keep a
secret.
• Explore neighborhoods: We’ll even help you out with finding other
places and events. How would you like a view of your world filtered
by the recommendations of people you trust? How would you like to be
at the center, and have the people, places, and plans you care about
revolve around you, just waiting to be experienced? We like that
idea. In fact, we like it so much, we built it.
Whether you want to plan a large grandiose soiree, an informal
rendezvous, a down home hootenanny, or you just want a place to go, we
are here to help your world organize itself and revolve around you.
That’s the benefit of being Center'd.
How we got here
Our co-founders, Chandu Thota and Jennifer Dulski, each have a wealth
of knowledge and expertise in local communities and information, but
found that making plans was still wrought with peril. Each was
already working in related fields: Chandu at Microsoft as the lead
engineer for its mapping products, and Jennifer at Yahoo! managing its
local and marketplace businesses.
After having his first child, it became clear to Chandu that finding
things like pediatricians, day care, or baby sitters in his local area
was incredibly frustrating. Each new “search” for a service or place
ended with him making numerous phone calls and sending tons of emails
to determine what met his needs. Chandu realized what he needed was
an efficient way to get trusted recommendations from his existing
network and a site where that information could be archived and used
by others (Eureka!). He set out to build a product that combined
local information and social utility by starting Fatdoor, which would
eventually evolve into who we are today.
For Jennifer, it was summer camp. Finding information on camps for
her children became a daunting task every January. From getting the
obvious information about a camp (do you feed the children or give
them a sharp stick and send them into the woods?) to coordinating with
friends, the days, emails, phone calls, and Web pages stacked up
quickly. The worst part? Because none of this information is stored
in an easily accessible way, the entire process repeats itself every
year!
Convinced there was a better way, Chandu and Jennifer began thinking
about how they could address this issue, and after meeting decided to
combine their efforts and bring all their shared experience and
knowledge together.
Lucky for them, they found an incredibly talented underground team of
ninjas who escaped government persecution and travelled the country
helping people and performing odd jobs. This was just the right team
for the job, and Center'd was born.
Our Vision
We are committed to creating a remarkable experience that empowers you
to connect to the people and places that are important to you. We
believe that people want to connect to and help each other, and if
given the right tools, they will.
Center'd evolved from a concept (formerly called Fatdoor) that aimed
to bring neighbors together in an online community environment. While
we have expanded beyond that original idea, the notion of being a good
neighbor is still very important to what we’re doing. It’s even one
of our core values. We like to think of all people as neighbors, and
ultimately we believe that if you treat everyone like a neighbor, the
world will become your neighborhood.
