The power of time, unlocked
In this piece, I am sharing my reflections on my recent decision to co-found a company addressing a very crucial aspect of our life: the time that we have.
Time is a funny concept. It flows consistently, yet our perception of its pace can vary dramatically. Similar to dreaming of travelling to the stars in the night sky, humans have been dreaming of travelling back and forward in time for generations. To this day, we cannot change anything about its flow. Unless humans learn how to control time or live forever, we are all bound to the time we have. So, what do we do about it? Clearly, we have no tools to control time, but we can choose how we spend every minute, hour and day of our lives.
We have developed a number of methods to 'trick' time and achieve more with less: time blocking rules and the famous 25-minute Pomodoro technique. Yet, the puzzle of efficient time management remains unsolved and it affects every single one of us.
If you’ve followed my journey, you may know that I previously spent years in big tech, built and shut down an AI assistant for sales teams, and did interim GTM projects. Earlier this year, I decided to join a company called Tackle as its (late) Co-founder. So, why Tackle, and what does it have to do with the fact that our time is limited?
Tackle exists to help leaders and teams focus on what truly matters. Users can see where their time goes, identify blockers, and adjust their behaviour to achieve their highest goals. This might sound idealistic, but it's a reality I am experiencing firsthand. I am summarizing my thoughts of why I am so excited to be in this space now below.
1. Living and working by the 80/20 rule
The 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, is simple: it says that there is a profound imbalance between what we create and the time we take to do so. According to the principle, 80% of achievement is the result of only 20% of our efforts (high-value activities). Similarly, 80% of our efforts only yield 20% of total outcome (low-value activities). The numbers 80 and 20 are, of course, figurative - but this fascinating distribution has been found across many industries and lines of work. A minority of our efforts leads to the highest impact, and a stunning majority has zero to low impact. If we were aware of this imbalance, what would we do differently?
In his book 'Living the 80/20 Way', Richard Koch argues we need a time revolution. We need to claim our time by spotting high and low-value activities and doing more of the former than the latter. Ideally, we need to focus on high-value activities only and eliminate low-value ones by outsourcing or automating them entirely. This is the recipe for maximizing our impact, happiness, and prosperity within our life span.
It sounds amazing in theory, but we often slip into tasks that take more time than expected, and measuring impact is not always straightforward. In the past couple of months, I’ve experienced dozens of users incorporate the 80/20 thinking by setting up Tackle, which has led to higher transparency and optimized business operations. We may not be able to control time yet, but we can claim it back by saying “yes” to things that yield real results and “no” to those that don’t. Building this company means getting the world closer to this vision.
2. The world of data & AI
Tech companies already know how we spend our time and have built multi-billion corporations around it: Google knows what we search for at each point in time. Youtube, TikTok and Instagram know what we like to watch, what catches our attention and how much time we end up spending watching different types of content. These companies grew thanks to obtaining and monetizing this unique set of knowledge. What we are left with is a choice: become proactive about this data or stay reactive to whatever companies decide to make of it.
So, how do we take control? With Tackle, we empower leaders to understand where their time goes, help them things done and achieve their most ambitious goals. We connect with your everyday work tools like calendars, CRM and project management solutions, runs analysis on autopilot and provide you with the data you can act upon.
As AI continues to advance, we envision a future where teams and companies can autonomously apply the 80/20 thinking to maximize their outcomes. Imagine the possibilities we gain when we can easily identify which projects are most resource-intensive, which initiatives require more attention, and which efforts yield the highest impact on our goals.
We believe the future will be made of:
Predictive resource planning, staffing, and scheduling that adapts to our needs
Automation of routine admin tasks, eliminating manual work — AI agents are already popping up
Live updates on what we need to prioritze for greater accountability and achieving our goals, based on historical data
With the help of AI, time insights can become a powerful ally in our daily operations. We can pinpoint inefficiencies, understand what drives growth and adjust our operations to maximize RoI.
3. In an uncertain market, go for efficiency
Serving customers is key, but they must be the right customers for you, those whom, with relatively little effort, you can make extremely happy.
When it comes to running a business, efficiency simply matters. As we navigate a world filled with macroeconomic uncertainties, geopolitical tensions and increased capital cost, revenue efficiency is becoming a guiding principle. Investors and the public are now placing a much greater emphasis on revenue efficiency and sustainable growth, rather than just rapid expansion. As interest rates and cost of capital increase, profitability is becoming the center of everyone’s attention. Growth still matters, but no longer at the cost of profitability. Sustainable growth is the new North star metric, and it is vital for leaders to capture it in order to survive in this turbulent environment. According to the 2023 State of Organizations report by McKinsey & Company, more than 1/3 of leaders place efficiency as one of their top three priorities to achieve.
The speedy adoption of AI already contributes to efficiency improvements: Klarna recently announced that its AI assistant does the work of 700 full-time customer service agents. With tech layoffs still happening well into 2024, it is becoming increasingly important to measure and capture productivity and efficiency gains and make sure teams focus on what truly matters to not only survive, but thrive.
Koch states that the 80/20 rule likely applies to most businesses’ customer bases already: top 20% of customers are likely driving 80% of profits. Going for efficiency means staying true to the core of your business and letting go of things that do not create a lasting impact; providing exceptional support to top 20%, driving product and service innovation for this “best-fit” customers, and developing long-lasting relationships with them is the way to go.
Building Tackle for B2B means helping companies spot clients and projects that are profitable, sales opportunities that take too many resources to close, and activities that lead to the highest RoI and drive revenue. Unlocking this data is no longer optional — it’s our means to get to the results we want to see.
The adventure ahead
In the next few months, we plan to rigorously focus on making Tackle great for one specific group of users. The problem statement is broad and the value can be attractive to nearly everyone who wants to become more effective.
Having spoken with dozens of customers and prospects, we have a hunch that we can create the biggest positive impact for folks in the professional services industry. People who manage multiple projects for a number of clients - be it marketing, software development or recruiting work - sell their time and outputs to create value on behalf of their customers. They rely on good processes, transparency and efficient time management to make sure they have enough resources to work both on the business and in the business. These folks also rely on time tracking to show impact they create for customers, measure their own effectiveness and use this data to support their accounting and business operations.
Do these challenges resonate with you or someone you know? If so, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I would be excited to discover if we could help you achieve more with the time you have and supercharge your business growth.
Throughout the next months, I plan to write more about efficiency, learnings from our customers and building Tackle. Stay tuned — and let’s keep building the future we want to see.