Many or Efficient?

1. How much time do you spend on the computer? Probably a lot. But how effective are you? That’s a much more important question 😉 This newly released application helps to effectively manage your time on the computer.
2. The catch is that amid the growing popularity of remote work, such applications can become very much in demand. After all, many people will have to learn how to manage their work time efficiently. To work less or earn more 😉
3. If this trend takes off, jumping into it is necessary right now to avoid being late. And to avoid starting from scratch, it’s better to see how it already works:

Project Essence

At first glance, Rize can be considered another time tracker — an application that installs on the computer to track how much time the user spends in various applications.

Although at a basic level of functionality Rize does just that, its overall goal is more ambitious. Rize is an AI coach that helps maximize the productivity of people working on the computer.

The target audience for Rize are people who value their time. For example, marketers who need to divide their time between different projects. Or programmers and designers who need to focus during work. Or startup founders and entrepreneurs who need to maintain a prioritization system, allocating time between current tasks.

Rize analyzes what exactly and how much time the user spends on the computer in order to provide real-time tips — when to focus more, when to take a break, or when to stop wasting time and return to work tasks.

As a side result, the application provides reports on how the user’s time was allocated between tasks — both by task type (programming, meetings, documentation writing, correspondence with colleagues, etc.) and by the projects the user was working on at that time.

Rize uses AI to understand what exactly and within which project the user is engaged in at any given moment. To do this, it looks at which program the user is using, which files are being opened, what is being written there, and also combines these actions with the user’s calendar schedule.

Naturally, the user initially has to train the AI engine — explicitly telling it what exactly and for which project they are currently working on. After some time, the AI engine adapts to the user’s work specifics — and starts guessing it by itself, although at any time the user can adjust it.

If Rize sees that the user is fully immersed in work, it can play motivating background music and temporarily block push notifications from applications.

If this work spree starts to drag on too much, the application will recommend taking a break. Conversely, if there haven’t been such work binges for a while, the application will suggest returning to work 😉

Rize believes that breaks can be short but more frequent. However, it monitors what the user is currently doing to avoid interrupting at an inappropriate time.

As for breaks, Rize takes them very seriously — during a break, it can lock the screen and disable push notifications so that the user can really relax rather than keep reaching for the computer.

The application can be used for free with limited functionality. The full version costs $9.99 per month with an annual payment upfront or $16.99 per month with monthly payments.

The Rize application was released just recently, although the founders have been developing it for almost two years, raising $500,000 for this purpose in May 2022.

What’s Interesting

As soon as the popularity of remote work began to rise, some companies started installing time tracking software on the computers of remote employees.

Rize is not part of this trend because the application does not transmit any private user work data to anyone. Rize’s goal is to help people manage their time themselves.

The relevance of time management in a remote work setting is explained by two reasons. The first reason is expected — sometimes you just can’t force yourself to work 😉

The second reason is unexpected — you can’t force yourself to stop ☹️ After all, when you work in an office, leaving the office is a psychological switch from work mode.

And when you work from home, there’s no clear psychological switch like that — that’s why 22% of remote workers complain that they can’t disconnect from work. And this becomes a cause of burnout and a sharp decline in efficiency. It’s probably not for nothing that Rize’s description pays so much attention to the work break mode 😉

Transitioning to remote work has also led to many employees being able to determine their own work schedules, without being tied to office hours. Roughly speaking, “night owls” can now start working later, and “early birds” — earlier.

In reality, besides the rough division into “night owls” and “early birds,” each person also has their own more complex biological rhythms, which also affect their productivity.

Judging by the description, Rize doesn’t yet adjust to these biorhythms. But the Arcascope app, does. Arcascope is an app for shift workers that helps them choose their work shift schedule based on biorhythms. This startup raised $4.7 million in investments, and it attracted new investments after my review.

Additionally, “biorhythms” exist not only for individuals but also for entire teams. At least that’s what the startup Rhythms, which I wrote about at the end of 2023, believes — they call these “rhythms” the patterns of repeating regular procedures like stand-ups, meetings, code deployments, etc.

They claim that the work rhythms of efficient teams differ from those of inefficient teams — so they’re developing a platform that allows analyzing, identifying, and transferring effective work rhythms from one team to another. This startup raised $26 million in investments in the first round, even at the development stage of the platform.

So it seems that today’s Rize has a potential direction for developing its AI coach functionality towards adapting to users’ biorhythms and the rhythms of the teams they work in.

But why in the previous paragraph is the word “teams” used in the plural? After all, an employee usually belongs to one specific team in the company.

And this is another amusing consequence of the transition to remote work. Some people have learned to work simultaneously full-time at two jobs in such a mode, while still completing all the tasks set for them at both jobs. This phenomenon has been dubbed “overemployed.” But it’s impossible without a smart time management system, which is exactly what Rize helps achieve 😉

Where to Go

The rise in popularity of remote work is one of the key changes happening right now.

It’s clear that debates about where work is more effective — in the office or remotely — will continue, and some companies will try to bring employees back to offices or prevent them from dispersing to remote locations. But globally, this trend cannot be reversed.

However, remote work forces people to learn to manage their time effectively on their own. Therefore, the concept of Rize as an AI coach helping with this is undoubtedly relevant. The real question is how easy, convenient, and effective they have made it.

If it’s bad — that’s very good 😉 It means someone among you can do the same thing, but better.

If it’s good — that’s also good. It means all the good things can be copied from them to develop in your own similar application.

After all, the market is big, and if the topic takes off, one application won’t be enough. Just like it was with meditation apps. As soon as the topic took off, two and a half thousand similar apps were published, and the valuation of at least a dozen of them exceeded $1 billion.

Well, and there are chances that this topic can take off.

About the Company

Rize

Website: rize.io

Last Round: $500K, 10.05.2022

Total Investments: $500K, Rounds: 1