MyQuire.com - The place for projects

Media Questions & Answers

What is MyQuire?
Is MyQuire another social network?
Who should use MyQuire?
"What’s an example of something someone would use MyQuire for?"
"MyQuire is an interesting name. What does it mean?"

What is MyQuire?

MyQuire is an online tool for doing projects. We let members (including SOHOs, non profits, MBA students, personal interest groups, even groups of friends) do work with tools they already know, collaborate in real time, and connect their projects to their networks. Software historically has been about people interacting with technology. The popularity of social networks has taught us that people would rather interact with people when they’re online. So we’ve developed a project coordination tool that puts people – not project management - at the center of the project.

David Steinberg started MyQuire because he was frustrated by how hard it was to for him to get stuff done in his life when other people were involved. Doing projects is an ordeal. Whether we’re trying to complete a professional project or plan a casual weekend getaway with friends, there is pain associated with the entire process. Until now, there simply hasn’t been anywhere for people to turn. ‘Project management tools’ are still too complicated and expensive, and social and professional networks do not offer tools for project coordination. We still resort to email and spreadsheets, which actually just create more work.

While there are plenty of project tools out there, most people haven’t found one that fits their lives – personally and professionally. MyQuire, instead of forcing people to change their behavior, has an intuitive design and simplified feature set that let people work how they want to work. They can spend more of their time achieving their goals and less of it tracking down who’s done what, hunting for the latest version of a document, or finding ways to share files that are too large for email.

Is MyQuire another social network?

MyQuire certainly has roots in the social networking world. The increasing popularity of communities like Facebook and LinkedIn has helped us all feel more comfortable interacting with others in online environments, which really opened the door for MyQuire’s success. We’ve all had a lot of fun meeting new people and reconnecting with old associates. But now busy people are saying "What’s next? I’ve got all these ‘friends’ and ‘connections’ - how can I move beyond the entertainment and networking value of Web 2.0 and use this new world to help me get more done?" MyQuire is the answer. When a new challenge or opportunity comes up in any area of your life you simply create a new project, find and invite others to participate, and you’re productively working together to accomplish a goal in a matter of minutes. And, connecting projects to a broader network opens up possibilities to get together with a range of people and projects across the globe.

MyQuire is really a combination of project coordination and social networks – bringing them together for the first time.

Who should use MyQuire?

One of the things that’s most exciting to us is the breadth of people who benefit from MyQuire. There are so many kinds of people who are trying to get stuff done with other people and are frustrated and held back by the logistics of managing everything. So we a lot of need in the Small Office / Home Office world – independent contractors, real estate agents, designers. Also non-profits, MBA students, and more informal groups like PTAs, social clubs, and groups of friends.

We’re not talking about an "Enterprise Project Management System" that’s going to help Boeing build the next big jet. We’re talking about a great project coordination tool for the rest of us.

"What’s an example of something someone would use MyQuire for?"

There’s wonderful diversity in how members are using MyQuire. There’s more formal project management happening – a non-profit coordinating a fund-raising event for example. MBA students might use it to manage a semester long team project. A group of friends may use it to plan a weekend away together or a monthly gourmet group. We at MyQuire also use it to manage many aspects of the business but most of us also use it pretty heavily in our personal lives to manage home projects, events with our friends.

"MyQuire is an interesting name. What does it mean?"

A quire is a set of parchment paper used back in the middle ages. We loved the idea of calling the company "Quire" because this "parchment notebook" was how people collaborated before modern technology. We love to think of MyQuire as the future of collaboration, and how simple parchment paper has evolved into a new way to work together.