MindZip: Study, Learn & Remember non-fiction books - Interview with the developer of a fantastic app

Did you have any prior development or coding experience?

No.

What was the most challenging aspect of developing mobile app?

To solve a complex abstract problem in an intuitive and easy way. Deleting features or reducing them to a minimum. We are still in the process of making the whole app lighter and more intuitive.

_Torsten

Torsten studied Strategic Management, Finance and in a focus subject Computer Science.

When reading non-fiction books, he asked himself the question: "What if I could easily recall the motivation and energy that arises while reading an author's thoughts later? If I want to apply what I have learned in a situation in life, I should have quick access to my most important takeaways."

So, he came up with the idea of a tool that allowed him to quickly save or compress all his important thoughts ("Zip") and to retrieve them quickly whenever needed ("unzip"). MindZip. In the best case, MindZip helps internalise your takeaways. MindZip's vision is best presented by Yuval Noah Harari's quote: "In a world divulged by irrelevant information, clarity is power"

Name a few of your favorite apps and reason you love them.

Medium · I like the minimalist design and how they put the content in the center of the
attention.

Drops · Learning a language in a very entertaining way. For me, that is the best language
learning app.

Mimo · Learning to code in a very motivating way, good gamification.

How long have you been working on this app?

We launched the first version in 2015.

What need of the user did you have in mind when developing this app?

We want to help you to remember everything you learn! The knowledge that we do not repeat or apply fades quickly. Our human brain forgets up to 70% of newly learned information within the first week.
If you want to manage brain-optimized repetitions manually it is very time consuming and requires a very high level of discipline. The MindZip Study Coach is doing all the micro- management. Just create thoughts/quotes you want to internalize or subscribe to published collections.

In what way do you think your app is better than similar apps on the market? Please describe in detail what innovation you think you bring and what you are proud of in your app.

With just 5 minutes of MindZip a day, you can internalize all the key points from up to 20 books per year!
Compared to book summary apps the content of MindZip structured in bite-sized pieces. Users can hide all irrelevant thoughts/quotes and just keep what’s important for them. Everything is user-generated. We are aiming to build a community of like-minded people and allow collaborative learning.
Compared to flashcard apps in MindZip users create a stream of thoughts/quotes about a topic or from a (specific) source (book, video etc..). But it is also possible to create flashcards in MindZip.
Our Chrome extension enables users to collect ideas while surfing on the web, the URL is automatically saved. This we provide an easy to use and highly efficient tool (add on) for researchers, bloggers, etc.

What are your future plans and expected features of the coming new versions of this app?

There are many plans and a very long-term strategy. Here just a few upcoming features:

The 'create' process will be completely updated with many more features.
A significant update of the Android version.
A new Chrome extension and other browser versions too.

Assuming new users of your app are reading this page. What do you want to ask them to do (contact you about X, Share the app, etc.)?

Of course, we are happy if users share the app. Furthermore, we are looking for investors and partners. [email protected]