The story behind Clever Tools – Tools for the freelance programmer

A couple of days ago I had the privilege of taking a sneak peek at Clever Tools. A web application that might become the productivity Swiss Army Knife for freelance programmers. I also had a very interesting conversation with Jason Jenning, CleverTool’s CEO. Jason was very candid, and gave a lot of insight and advice about developing web applications, raising funds and being an entrepreneur.

For those of you that are in the process of – or thinking of starting a web start-up, this should be an interesting read. Enjoy.

Q: What is Clever Tools?

Clever Tools is an online suite of web tools to help organize projects, manage your business, and collaborate with virtual teams and clients. It consists of 6 main tools- Project Management, Invoices/Estimates, Bug/Issue Tracking, Time Tracking/Time-sheets, Leads Management, and a Collaborative Whiteboard system. The beautiful thing about Clever Tools is you only select and use the tools you need and those tools work together. I hate bloated software and hate having features I will never use. So why make other people use features they will never use? How do they work together? For example, let’s say you have a list of time-sheets from a project you are working on for a client. If you also have the invoice tool, you can create a new invoice for that client with the click of a button and all pertinent information will be filled in for you. That is just one example.

Q: Who are you targeting as customers?

Clever Tools really can be used by a wide variety of people. Any contractor, consultant, students, etc can use specific tools. But, our target audience is web designers, developers, programmers, and project managers. It is specifically useful for virtual teams.

Q: How will CleverTools help those customers?

Clever Tools will help our target audience be more productive and help them manage and run their businesses better. So in essence, it will help them be more successful and profitable by eliminating the fragmentation of their data across multiple services which causes frustration and inefficiency.

Q: When do you expect the beta to be released?

That’s a good question. To be honest, there are currently only two of us working on it. There is Andrew, who has done a phenomenal job doing all the design work and all current programming. And then there is myself who came up with the vision. I am more of the project manager and business development- I do not do any programming and only modest design work. We are in the process of hiring 1-2 more programmers, so I hope to have a beta ready in July.

Q: What made you start working on Clever Tools?

I started working on Clever Tools because I was getting very frustrated with the current tools I was using to help run my consulting company. I run a small consulting company who specializes in mobile and web technology. We have clients such as Marie Callenders, Sprint, and San Diego State University. Being as how my team is virtual (I’m in San Diego, Andrew in South Dakota, and 4 programmers in Iowa), I use web based tools to run my business. Well, there are 6 different web applications I use. It got frustrating for me, my team, and even my clients to remember 6 different URLs, logins, interfaces, etc. So I asked myself, why couldn’t all these core tools be in one place? The answer? They could and I wanted to do it.

Q: Tell us a bit about yourself

I just turned 25 and have been running my consulting business for 4 years. Technically remnants of it started when I was a junior in high school and started my first company with my youth pastor doing computer tech work and networking in schools under the E-rate program. I was making $15/hour in high school and was happy. I moved to San Diego to attend college and focused on school. I realized I enjoyed working better and started my consulting business back up and built it all over again in a new city.

I’m recently engaged and also will be graduating from San Diego State with a BS in Business with an emphasis in Information Technology in a few days. I love TV- I mean I am absolute fanatic. I love soccer, computers, video games, and reading. Oh, and scuba diving. I love Working. I love having ideas and bringing them to life. I love helping clients and helping them
reach goals.

Q: Are you VC funded/Self funded/Other?

Clever Tools is self funded and has a small silent investor.

Q: What was the initial investment?

The small silent investor, my fiance’s dad, invested $10,000 to get started. I put in another $10,000 and took out a SBA (Small Business Administration) loan to help finish the project. Total investment to date: ~$45,000.

Q: How much do you expect the overall investment to be?

Well, currently all money will be spent on development. That means we have no money for marketing and are counting on the blogsphere and users to help spread the word- hint hint ;) . However, we do understand the importance of marketing. So, we are possibly looking for another $50,000-$100,000 to go towards marketing and also to develop an Adobe Apollo desktop application for Clever Tools. So, that would put total investment between
$100,000-$150,000.

Q: Are you looking for investors? if so, what kind?

We are currently entertaining the idea of looking for a real investor. We are open to different types of investment.

Q: As a web 2.0/on-line entrepreneur, what are the top three tips you can give other entrepreneurs?

1) The hardest thing about a start-up, is actually starting. I read that quote somewhere and it is true! It takes a lot to risk it all for an idea. But, you need to do it! Just plan it out and set your mind to figuring out a way to do it.

2) Be passionate about what you start. I’m passionate about Clever Tools because I truly need it and I believe it can help tons of people and companies like me. There is nothing worse than doing something just because you think there is profit in it. More than likely, you will fail if you got at it for that reason alone.

3) Know your strengths and weaknesses and do not be afraid to find people to fill those gaps. No one can wear every hat! It’s okay to bring other people in who can do things better than you. That is why I don’t program or do graphic design- I just do the business development side of things.

Q: What should entrepreneurs be weary off?

Be weary of taking money too quick or taking too much of it. I believe the barriers to entry and cost factors have been significantly lowered over the years. If you’re willing to pour your heart and soul into something, you can get it started with much less money than in the past. Be smart about the money and take it only when you need it. Don’t get stuck in a bad situation because you took too much money and gave away too much of your company.

P.S.

Jason is looking for beta testers. So if you are interested in using Clever Tools, sign up for the beta.

Posted on May 17, 2007 by Yoav Ezer 
Filed Under Collaboration, Enterprise 2.0, Office 2.0, Web 2.0

Comments

4 Responses to “The story behind Clever Tools – Tools for the freelance programmer”

  1. freelance programmers on May 17th, 2007 1:58 pm

    So will it be “basecamphq” and more ?

  2. Yoav Ezer on May 17th, 2007 2:43 pm

    Thats what they are aiming to be.

  3. Jason - Clever Tools on May 21st, 2007 10:34 am

    Thanks for the great writeup! We appreciate it. In reference to the first comment- I guess you could see it as that way. Some of the design firms we contract with use Basecamp. It serves it purpose, but wasn’t what we were looking for. So, we are building our own version which will suit our needs better and hopefully the needs of other people.

  4. Clever Tools Blog » Want to learn more about Clever Tools? Read this interview. - Clevertools Blog Lounge on May 24th, 2007 1:40 am

    [...]  Want to learn more about Clever Tools? Read this interview. 23May in category – Off Topic : Jason : No user comments I know our about page is pretty bare right now- I’m working on getting Andrew to write about himself- he’s shy. But, here is some information about Clever Tools, myself, and about being an entrepreneur. Here is the link. [...]

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