Hate group work? Entrepreneurial engineering students have an app for that
Groupnotes is an online collaboration tool that allows users to annotate the web. Messages can be left on webpages, and can be viewed by other users in real-time. The software was invented by a group that includes three McMaster engineering students, and is currently in the Global Startup Battle competition. Voting for the competition ends Nov. 27 at midnight.
Matt Gardner knows that inspiration can come from just about anywhere.
So when the engineering and management student’s roommate complained about the difficulty with group collaboration on the web, Gardner did what any good entrepreneur with programming skills would do: he invented a solution.
That solution is called Groupnotes, an online collaboration tool that allows users to leave messages on the web pages they visit, and lets colleagues view those messages in real-time.
Gardner, with partners and fellow engineering students Jason Moore and Greg Connell, founded the company in mid-November for Toronto’s Startup Weekend – a 54-hour competition that pits nearly 300 entrepreneurs against each other to create a startup.
Groupnotes won the competition and the company is now fighting for the right to win the Global Startup Battle, currently being contested by the more than 130 Startup Weekend winners from cities around the world.
Voting closes at midnight, Nov. 27, but whether the team wins or not, Groupnotes is already proving popular – especially in academia.
“We see huge applications with this software for students,” said Moore. “When everyone goes out and does a group research project, everyone does the same Google searches, they all visit the same sites. There’s a lot of redundant work being done. Groupnotes is a way to mark up the pages you’ve visited, to make sure you’re not doing the same work your partners have already done.”
The team says faculty members from McMaster and other Canadian universities have already purchased subscriptions to the software. They intend to use it to help students collaborate and stay on track next semester.
“We think of research like a black box,” said Moore. “In addition to helping users collaborate, Groupnotes can provide some really great insights into how that box gets filled, and how people go about the research process. It allows educators to get students the help they need long before they hand in that box.”
“Educators really do care about the quality of the work students do, but it can be hard for them to provide help along the way,” said Gardner. “We hope our software will help them teach students how to correct their mistakes.”
Though the original idea was to invent a way to save on research time, the co-creators are constantly finding new uses for the software. They’re even using it to collaborate on putting the finishing touches on Groupnotes itself.
Gardner said the software could one day be used by large companies with high employee turnover. Groupnotes could help workers collaborate and help companies retain knowledge when workers leave the company.
Although the team is made up of students, Moore says they intend to push on with the development of the company.
“Matt and I have started several business together. We want to keep going with this. We really think we’ve got something here.”
