As Leiden’s premier Startup Hub, PLNT is full of creativity, innovation and, of course, some of the most promising startups and scale-ups in the Netherlands. One fascinating member of this group is Smartnotation.
Founded in 2017, Smartnotation aims to make meetings as efficient and productive as possible. How? What is it? And why? We spoke with Ken Ramroochsingh, CEO of Smartnotation, to learn all about his product.
What is Smartnotation?
Smartnotation is a collaboration application (cloud and mobile app) that helps people structure their meeting workflow more easily and efficiently.
Allows users to prepare meetings and collect notes, actions and decisions. Best of all? It’s available on desktop and mobile devices and can even be controlled by your voice.
Ken has always envisioned a “keyboardless future,” and to make this speech-to-text tool a reality, Smartnotation is already at the forefront of AI tools before they gained popularity.
It’s easy: “As you speak in meetings, Smartnotation turns your words into notes,” Ken explains. “The power of Smartnotation lies in its simplicity. It contains no features you wouldn’t use,” he says.
Another great feature of Smartnotation is that you can share notes, meeting minutes and follow-up tasks directly with your team. It also has the option to invite external attendees (such as suppliers, customers, partners) in a limited, secure way.
Need information from that one meeting five weeks back? No problem; Smartnotation lets you search through all your meetings in minutes.
How did Smartnotation get started?
Smartnotation started by going back to basics. Many of our everyday software applications are overwhelming and only a fraction of their features are truly useful to the average user.
As a result, Ken asked himself, “What does an application really need to help us be more efficient?”
The answer is as simple as it is smart (literally!) – because Smartnotation is based on the SMART principle: Simplicity, Mindset, Action, Straightforwardness and Tooling. According to Ken, these five aspects are necessary for successful business meetings and follow-ups.
Once Ken had the idea, he needed help coding the application. Together with the software developers at Emerald-IT in Leiderdorp, Smartnotation eventually became a reality. “We share the fun, but also the challenges,” Ken says.
What role does PLNT play in Smartnotation's Startup story?
After starting his business at Leiden Bio Science Park, Ken Smartnotation eventually moved to PLNT. Why? “To take on a new challenge and get new inspiration … oh, and the rent was cheaper,” laughs Ken.
The welcoming nature of PLNT did not disappoint. Getting together with like-minded people helped Smartnotation stay focused on its transition from Startup to Scale-Up. “It can be chaotic here sometimes – but the chaos is great; the interaction with other people is what energizes us,” Ken says.
Inspired by PLNT’s dynamic crowds, Smartnotation continues to do what it does best: develop better tools and technologies and simplify customers’ workflows around the world.
How does Smartnotation help people?
When asked how Smartnotation can help others, Ken has an immediate answer: “By increasing their productivity, one hundred percent!”
By simplifying tasks such as sharing notes and meeting minutes, Smartnotation eliminates unnecessary overhead. This allows businesses to focus on what really matters: their business.
“With Smartnotation, people can conduct these routine meetings efficiently,” Ken explains. The result? “You can save at least 30% of your time – just by using Smartnotation. That’s what our customers tell us!”
What does the future of Smartnotation hold?
We are not exaggerating when we say that Smartnotation has already achieved great success – and their billboards in Times Square in New York and in Silicon Valley prove it!
But, fueled by ambition, Ken tells us that Smartnotation’s ultimate goal is to grow to the point where it could become the Dutch market leader in meeting organization software solutions.
To achieve that, Smartnotation plans to continue to improve its product by listening to feedback from its customers – large companies, small businesses and everything in between.
