Our principles
We started building Capacities in 2020 to solve a problem we’d identified with how we work with information.
Over time, our vision became clearer:
Capacities should be a calm and beautiful environment, a place to think and make sense of the world – A Studio for your Mind.
We want Capacities to be a peaceful and quiet environment that lowers your heart rate and increases your creativity and enjoyment. It’s not a place aimed at endless output and productivity maximization, rather a supportive space for you to think, explore and do great work (Why we built Capacities).
To make sure we’re on a trajectory towards this vision, we identified core principles we follow as we build Capacities:
The individual in the center of what we do
We’re crafting Capacities for you. The individual and not an organization should be at the center of knowledge work and creativity. We want to create an exceptional experience for individuals before we do anything else.
Capacities should just work
We don’t see productivity as an end in itself. An app that just works helps you get your work done anyway. Capacities is designed to be a frictionless companion that aids your thinking.
We believe in customization with constraints because allows you to tailor your experience without wasting time on complex setups. We prioritize pragmatism over complexity and distill timeless wisdom in the design of the app.
Quality and experience over features
Capacities should be a piece of art, a joyful experience. We do not compromise adding features as fast as possible with that. There are no shortcuts to a great product. Developing Capacities in this way will take time but we believe it’s worth it.
Capacities is not trying to be an all-in-one tool.
We refuse to do many things to a mediocre level. Capacities will be an opinionated tool that does fewer things brilliantly, but that ensures everything comes together to create a well-crafted experience for you.
We are clear on what we will and will not focus on. We develop first-class integrations with tools that do specific things very well. That way, you get a brilliant experience across a select list of high-quality tools.
Capacities is here to stay
We created Capacities to solve a fundamental problem of our time, and we’ll not compromise on our mission. To ensure that our business interests are aligned with yours, Capacities is 100% owned by its founders and, therefore, not influenced by outside capital and other interests. Already today, Capacities is 100% sustainable and funded by you.
Privacy is central to everything we do.
We at Capacities are all privacy-minded individuals who use Capacities every day. We do not want our data to be sold, nor do we want it to be insecure. Therefore we safeguard your data just as we safeguard our own.
Privacy was a core principle from day one. With our heart in Europe, we are GDPR compliant, with data stored in the EU under regularly reviewed practices. Our business model ensures that we are 100% aligned with these principles (see above).
We’re as transparent as we can be
You’re trusting us with your notes and doing your most important work with Capacities, and we are aware of our responsibility. We want to build trust by being as transparent as possible.
We publish regular ‘What’s next’ and ‘What’s not next’ updates and share insights on our blog. From this, you can decide if Capacities is a good fit for you. We have no interest in mis-selling what Capacities is and who it is for.
We embrace your feedback.
We want to learn from you to create the best product possible. We have a feedback board, which we review daily. We want to know what you struggle with and what ideas you have.
We learn a lot from this feedback, and it helps us iterate on existing features as we develop new ones. If these features align with our vision and are important to many of you, there’s a good chance they will become part of Capacities.
Everybody should have access to Capacities
Working effectively with information is a superpower in today’s world. Capacities is highly relevant in education, and we deeply care about equalizing access to educational tools. Therefore, the basic version of Capacities will be free forever. We try to offer Capacities Pro at a fair price, and if your financial situation changes, none of your data will be lost.
We don’t want to lock you in. You can create backups and exports into non-proprietary formats at any point, so you’re free to leave at any point.
Ecological sustainability
We care about Capacities’ broader impact on our planet. Our data centers are carbon-neutral, and we offset all remaining emissions by supporting local environmental initiatives. Our team is remote, but when we meet, we take sustainable modes of transport wherever possible.
- Ecological sustainability report (coming soon)
These principles are very important to us. Our transparency and actions will prove this to you. If you have the feeling that we are compromising on our values, let us know.
Team Capacities
November 2024