In recent years, tools like Figma, TLDraw, Apple’s Freeform, and the Easel feature in the Arc browser have tried to sell the idea of using an “infinite canvas” to capture and share ideas.french startup cosmic builds on that general concept with knowledge acquisition tools that don’t require users to switch between different windows or apps to retrieve information.
Kosmik was founded in 2018 by Paul Rony and Christophe Van Deputte. Prior to that, Ronnie worked as a junior his director at a video production company, but instead of files and folders on which he could place videos, PDFs, websites, notes, and drawings, Ronnie used a single whiteboard as his type of canvas. was needed. And that’s when he started building his Kosmic, Ronnie told his TechCrunch. He draws on his background in the history and philosophy of computing.
“It took us almost three years to create a working product that included baseline features like data encryption, offline-first mode, and built a spatial canvas-based UI,” Rony explained. “We built all of this on top of his IPFS, so when the two of us collaborate, everything is peer-to-peer instead of relying on a server-based architecture.”
Image credits: cosmic
Kosmik offers an infinite canvas interface where you can insert text, images, videos, PDFs, and links, which can be opened and previewed in the side panel. It also has a built-in browser, so users no longer have to switch between windows to find relevant links on his website. Additionally, the platform also features a PDF reader that allows users to extract elements such as images and text.
This tool helps designers, architects, consultants, and students to build information boards for various projects. This tool is useful because it doesn’t require you to open numerous Chrome tabs and enter details in documents. Documents are a less visual medium for many different types of media. Some retail investors use apps to monitor stock prices, and consultants use apps for project boards.
Image credits: cosmic
Ronnie emphasized that bringing these different tools together in one place is a core selling point for Kosmik.
“I think it all revolves around the idea that we don’t have the best web browser or text editor or the best thing. It’s a PDF reader,” Ronnie said. “But being able to have them exist together in the same place, and being able to drag and drop items between them, makes this tool very powerful.”
Available via the web, Mac, and Windows, Kosmik comes with a basic free tier, which has a limit of 50 MB of files and 5 GB of storage with 500 canvas “elements.” For more storage and unlimited elements, the company offers a monthly subscription of $5.99, and eventually he offers a “one-time” subscription for those who only want to use the software on one device. We are planning to offer a “pay-as-you-go” model.
double down
Cosmic also announced today that it has raised funds. $3.7 million in seed round of funding led by Creandum. Alven, Kima Ventures, Betaworks, Replit and Quizlet founders participated.
Hanel Baveja, a principal at Creandum, told TechCrunch that the company decided to invest in Kosmik because Kosmik is a bit like Notion or Miro, and the potential to build something that completely changes an organization’s workflow. He said this is because there is. But Babeja said that like any consumer tool in this space, the startup needs to create immediate value for users.
“The time to value for any product must be immediate. Especially if it aims to become a commodity, you only have one chance to attract users,” Babeja said. “Finding a balance between a rich feature set and ease of deployment is certainly one of the challenges and is an area where the Kosmik team continues to strive.”
This cash injection is also timely given the product iterations in the pipeline.As expected of Cosmic is consolidating its codebases and Kosmik 2.0 will bring feature parity. The new app will be web-based and the desktop client will essentially be a wrapper app.
Additionally, the new version includes features such as multiplayer collaboration and AI-powered automatic tagging of items in images.
Ronnie said that in multiplayer mode, you can collaborate with someone on just a portion of the canvas using “cards,” which are like folders with objects dropped into them, rather than sharing the entire board. .
Kosmik opened to users in March and currently claims to have around 8,000 daily users, but the product can work completely offline, making it difficult to determine exactly how many people are actively using it. said it was difficult.
It’s worth noting that Kosmik isn’t the only startup active in the personal whiteboard space. Berlin-based Deta is building a new cloud OS for this problem and solution. sanity Building a social knowledge sharing platform. These companies must compete in some way to capture users’ attention and persuade them to try new paradigms for acquiring knowledge.
Source: techcrunch.com
