For Steve Greenwood, the idea that “relationships are complicated” is more than just a truism.
Want evidence? Look no further than the spreadsheet of personal contacts that Greenwood meticulously curated for the better part of a decade. At its peak, the document had 7,000 contacts and more than 30 columns of tags.
The complicated work of tending to that massive database enabled Greenwood to better grasp the complexities of relationships and helped him devise the idea for Brewster, a personalized address book app that’s designed to provide users a better understanding of their relationships.
During Greenwood’s talk on Oct. 10 at Thinc Iowa 2012, the Brewster founder and CEO discussed what he views as the core components of relationship complexity: The number of people we know; the number of contexts in which we know people; and the number of ways in which we communicate with people.
Armed with an understanding of those components, Greenwood said, he realized he could take the functionality of something that took him thousands of hours to build and provide it to customers in the time it took them to download an app. He then devoted his talk to explaining Brewster and sharing the lessons he learned in building it.
To hear Greenwood’s Thinc Iowa talk in its entirety, see the video above. For more from Greenwood at the conference, see our story: “Steve Greenwood: The complexity of relationships“.
About Steve Greenwood
Greenwood is the founder and CEO of Brewster. Named after the street he grew up on, Brewster aims to reinvent the address book through an understanding of relationships. Previously, Steve worked at drop.io (completed deal with Facebook), McKinsey & Co., Maveron Venture Capital, Home Depot, and Goldman Sachs. Steve graduated with a BA in Economics from Bucknell University and with an MBA in Entrepreneurship from the Harvard Business School.
About Thinc Iowa
Thinc Iowa is now Big Des Moines, part of The Big Series, a trio of events produced by Silicon Prairie News. The Big Series in 2013 will include the inaugural Big Kansas City in March, Big Omaha in May and Big Des Moines in October. Stay tuned for announcements regarding all three.
Credits: Video by Event1 Video.
Thinc Iowa 2012 Video Series presented by Iowa Economic Development
Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) is dedicated to supporting innovation by connecting entrepreneurs with resources and development opportunities in Iowa. It salutes the founders of today and tomorrow; encouraging ideas that will invigorate a new economy. Please visit iowaeconomicdevelopment.com for more information on how IEDA can help your business ideas come to life.
