Ernesto Ramirez

June 16, 2015

One June 18-20 we’re hosting our QS15 Conference and Expo and we’re delighted that so many great toolmakers will be joining us to show off their devices, apps, and services. We’ve asked our toolmakers to give us a bit more background information about their company and what they’re excited about. If you’d like to meet these innovative companies and the amazing people behind them then make sure to register today!

How do you describe Compass?
Compass is the first application agent from the Existence platform, developed as an interface for your life.

Compass works quietly in the background looking at the moments in your day and creating three amazing ways of viewing your time.

We don’t count moments, we make moments count!

What’s the backstory?
Six years ago, Chris Dancy thought there had to be a better way to save all the information about his life.  After consulting, speaking and making media appearances around the globe, he joined Healthways  as SVP, Chief Digital Officer.

How did you get started?
In the fall of 2015, a small group of dedicated people started to map out how the future of the user interface could put humankind back in control of our overly saturated tech lives. Four principles where created that drive our product today: Trustworthiness, Awareness, Safety and Kindness, or “TASK.”  In January 2015, we started coding our way to the future. Our team grew in the spring and we are excited about our first event and public debut at the Quantified Self Conference 2015!

What impact has it had?
After announcing the launch of our Alpha version at SXSW 2015, we were blown away to have over 100 signups in 24 hours.

People shared the types of problems they were trying to solve through their use of Compass. Each user’s submission was a trip with great personal intimacy. Users were looking to “{get} help with understanding my depression,” “ease stresses at work and home,” “learn how to sustain my happy times,” and one user even wanted to “make better use of the limited time I have left on earth”.

What have you heard from users?
Each organization we share Compass with is blown away at the potential of a native client on mobile devices.  We are currently exploring partner models. Our limited Alpha testers have experienced both a lot of delight and a lot of testing fatigue. No system has ever been assembled to combine this much personal information and we are thankful for the ongoing support of our testing communities.

What makes it different sets it apart?
Having tried hundreds of applications, services, devices and sensors, we feel we are the only platform that is taking what people want to do most, which is live their life, not log data, and combining it with things they love to do, like taking photos, looking at maps and reviewing timelines.

Most importantly, we’re the only application that uses Healthkit, activity, behavior, environment, date, time, and more, to passively create moments in a person’s day. So often data services depend on 100’s of API’s, manual logging or arcane processes. Compass elegantly runs in the background and doesn’t stop working if you decide to go live life.

Finally, we are passionate about privacy and data ownership.  Compass data lives solely on the device and is exportable by the user at any time.

What are you doing next?
Next up we have more testing and some final UI tweaks for our release this fall.  We are prioritizing our device strategy from Android to Apple Watch and hiring great new people!

How do you see it evolving?
So much of what we do today as consumers of technology services has turned humanity into a giant mouse pad for personalization.  We see the power of the Existence platform and application agents, like Compass, to become the fuel for an entire new ecosystem of habits and environments as we replace applications and services.

How can people find out more about you?
Check out our blog or introduce yourself to our team!