A trio of veteran entrepreneurs have joined forces to create a brand new Seattle startup — and any mentions of the corporate throughout the web will seemingly be tracked by what they’re constructing.
Alertmouse generates electronic mail alerts for folks and types who wish to know what’s being mentioned about them — or anything they’re involved in — on-line. The aim is to supply a greater providing than different monitoring instruments, most notably Google Alerts, which Alertmouse calls “so dangerous it’d as effectively not exist.”
The startup was created by co-founders Rand Fishkin (SparkToro, Snackbar Studio), Adam Doppelt (Urbanspoon, Dwellable), and Nathan Kriege (Blueprint AI, Recent Chalk).
Fishkin, the CEO, posted about Alertmouse on LinkedIn this week, saying that whereas the aspect mission has was a full-fledged enterprise, he’s not leaving his different two jobs.
“It doesn’t take a ton of my time nevertheless it has been actually enjoyable to construct this factor that I desperately wanted,” Fishkin mentioned in a video on his submit, earlier than itemizing his grievances with Google Alerts, together with the way it “doesn’t decide up every little thing you need, it sends you ineffective alerts” and extra.
Fishkin mentioned monitoring his mentions or these associated to his corporations, whether or not it’s in a information article or in a Reddit thread, permits him to watch what’s being mentioned and bounce in if essential to reply.
Alertmouse says it searches the index of internet sites and pages it might probably attain two or 3 times every day for the distinctive string of phrases/phrases/guidelines a person has entered. An electronic mail is distributed with the pages that contained them.
“It’s not rocket science, nevertheless it takes a number of intelligent programming, testing, and iteration to make a superb alert service,” the corporate says in its FAQ.
In an interview with GeekWire this week, Fishkin mentioned there are enterprise monitoring instruments that do what Alertmouse does, reminiscent of Talked about, Hootsuite, and Brandwatch, however they are often cost-prohibitive.
“Google Alerts has been this free various for a very long time, however someday within the final decade, possibly even earlier than that, it simply stopped sending me something first rate,” he mentioned. “I don’t know what they’re doing beneath the hood. I believe it’s a defunct product that nobody maintains anymore, however I couldn’t let you know what’s actually happening.”
On an internet site loaded with tacky puns, Alertmouse has four pricing tiers, together with Nibble (free), Slice ($120/yr), Wedge ($600/yr), and Wheel ($1,200/yr).
Alertmouse attracted 1,000 sign-ups within the first a number of hours it was stay, and Fishkin credit the enjoyable interface and language on the web site, and the truth that it’s straightforward to make use of.
“We wished to make a model that nobody might confuse for AI,” Fishkin laughed. “This isn’t an AI firm. There’s going to be no enterprise capital, there’s no AI beneath the hood. It’s simply actually easy, easy, enjoyable, pleasant people.”
Fishkin, an web optimization knowledgeable who based and led Moz, a Seattle-based maker of selling software program instruments, co-founded SparkToro in 2018. The viewers analysis device helps entrepreneurs and others perceive their goal audiences. He raised $2.15 million final yr for his new unbiased online game studio, Snackbar Studio.
Doppelt and Kriege beforehand labored on trip rental startup Dwellable (sold to HomeAway in 2015), native skilled suggestion web site Recent Chalk, and activity administration firm Blueprint AI collectively. Final yr they teamed as much as create a resource website for every little thing you’d ever wish to find out about smoke detectors.
Fishkin and Doppelt are additionally a part of dedicated group of “Dungeons & Dragons” players.
The Alertmouse web site says the startup has no plans to rent. However that would change after a morning during which a number of folks have been emailing with questions.
“If it retains going like this we’d must carry somebody on,” Fishkin mentioned.
