As a longtime CRIMPer, the recent flowering of notetaking apps has been a surprise. Even more surprising is that investors are pouring millions into them. It looks like a bubble, but what do I know?

The latest is Mem[1], which I hadn't heard of until TechCrunch wrote[2] that the founders raised $5.6 million from Andreessen Horowitz.

The competition for note-taking is as fierce as it has ever been with plenty of highly-valued productivity startups fighting for an audience it can potentially serve endless productivity offshoots. In the past year, Notion raised at a $2 billion valuation, Coda raised at $636 million, and Roam raised at $200 million.

I haven't gotten into the beta yet but TechCrunch describes Mem this way:

The free app, called Mem, is an early access platform dedicated to pushing users to quickly jot down their thoughts without focusing too heavily on the underlying organization of them. ... In its current iteration, Mem push users towards “lightweight organization” rather than clicking through folders and links to find the perfect place to nestle their thoughts. Users can quickly tag users or dedicated topics in their notes. The user workflow relies pretty heavily on search and chronological organization, presenting users with their most recently accessed notes. Users can also set reminders for certain notes, bringing a popular email framework to note-taking.

Mundane, but it also comes with a layer of elevator pitch bs. TechCrunch says the founders "have vast ambitions for what their platform could become down the road, tapping into further advances in machine learning and even AR."

“Really the differentiation is [information] that is summonable ubiquitously wherever you are,” Mem co-founder Kevin Moody tells TechCrunch. “So, in the near term, through your desktop app with Mem Spotlight as a heads-up display for wherever you are, in the medium term through an assistive mobile application, and then in the long term, imagine contact lenses that are overlaying useful content to you in the world.”

Huh? Anyone tried it?

[1]: https://get.mem.ai/

[2]: https://techcrunch.com/2021/04/06/note-taking-app-mem-raises-5-6-million-from-andreessen-horowitz/

Mem has a YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6RsnPqw8-MnTpylIfegpg

Looks interesting but Apple Legal might have something to say about the name 'Mem Spotlight'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDllEUJ6MKQ

I've been working with Mem today, having just got an early invite.

I am intrigued by the app, but it is not a competitor of Roam or Obsidian, in that it does not provide the kind of cross-linking that those two apps have. You can link "mems," but they encourage you to reserve these links for entities, like people or companies. There is no way to do block links or anything like that. In other words, I wouldn't choose Mem for keeping research notes or creating a Zettlekasten.

But for organizing projects and the information that keeps them running, Mem has promise and is worth keeping an eye on.

Its timeline view presents all your notes on a scrolling page chronologically. It reminds me of the first iteration of Evernote.

A few other things. There is a desktop Mac app, or you can access the Mem through the web. I didn't see any word about a Windows app or mobile apps, but I can't believe those are not in the works. Also, they say, "At some point, we may roll out subscription-based pricing for existing and/or new features..." Which sounds disingenuous to me. Of course we'll have to pay at some point.

I'm intrigued enough to keep on using Mem. Thanks for bringing it to our attention!

Steve Z.

Seems the reason it got 5.6 million US in seed money is the fact that they want to leverage your data for marketing:

https://twitter.com/jevakallio/status/1379557958439333889

I also got an invite today and was frustrated that there was no "export" feature. Maybe they plan to add it later, but like Hypernote, I don't trust companies that don't have export in standard formats built-in from the beginning.

In the Mem manifesto, they say they want to keep your data out of corporate hands:

"We dreamed about the possibility of a "Me API", a knowledge graph that consolidated everything we know — securely, and in a way that would give ourselves, rather than Facebook or Google, ownership of our data."

Dreams don't always come true, I suppose.

One more comment about Mem. You can add notes to your timeline via text message. I haven't seen this feature before... although it wouldn't surprise me to learn other apps have it, because it makes perfect sense.

There is a third party solution to do this on Roam:

https://www.phonetoroam.com/register

Day One added that last week.

https://dayoneapp.com/blog/journal-via-sms-text-message

I just wanted to update my thoughts about Mem. I am finding it works pretty well for me. Entering information is very frictionless. I mostly use it on my Windows PC at work, so I access it through the browser. I just switch to the Mem tab and start typing. Mem automatically opens a new note to capture whatever is on my mind. I certainly haven't used Mem as a replacement for Notejoy, but I've started shifting some stuff that I would have kept in NJ in the past into Mem. I am hoping and expecting Mem will continue to add features and smooth out rough edges (for instance, it feels as if there is a lot of wasted space in the Timeline view). But I remain cautiously optimistic.

Steve Z.

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

I certainly haven't used Mem
as a replacement for Notejoy, but I've started shifting some stuff that
I would have kept in NJ in the past into Mem.

FYI I'm on the free NoteJoy plan but for privacy reasons I needed to use Little Snitch (a user-controllable firewall app for Mac) to block the repeated connections NJ was attempting to send to Google for tracking/analytics (googletagmanager, google-analytics).

You still find the same feelings with mem, Steve?

I'm wondering if mem.x will take the crown from my use of devonthink for surfacing related data...

Has anyone gone with the Mem.x subscription and have feedback?

I agree that their timeline view, isn't super concise or beautiful.. but the data entry is indeed, very smooth and the rules, very handy!

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

I just wanted to update my thoughts about Mem. I am finding it works
pretty well for me. Entering information is very frictionless. I mostly
use it on my Windows PC at work, so I access it through the browser. I
just switch to the Mem tab and start typing. Mem automatically opens a
new note to capture whatever is on my mind. I certainly haven't used Mem
as a replacement for Notejoy, but I've started shifting some stuff that
I would have kept in NJ in the past into Mem. I am hoping and expecting
Mem will continue to add features and smooth out rough edges (for
instance, it feels as if there is a lot of wasted space in the Timeline
view). But I remain cautiously optimistic.

Steve Z.

Sadly, no. I keep wanting to like Mem, but it doesn't stick (of course, what does with me?). For an app of its kind, I find the editor isn't quite up to snuff. Craft (even the browser version) has a far superior editor, so it is my prime note-writing app right now. I use Legend for tasks and rapid logging. So I haven't needed to stick with Mem. I have no doubt it would work if I did stick with it. It just doesn't feel optimal to me.

Steve Z.

bigspud wrote:

You still find the same feelings with mem, Steve?

I'm wondering if mem.x will take the crown from my use of devonthink for
surfacing related data...

Has anyone gone with the Mem.x subscription and have feedback?

I agree that their timeline view, isn't super concise or beautiful.. but
the data entry is indeed, very smooth and the rules, very handy!

Stephen Zeoli wrote:
I just wanted to update my thoughts about Mem. I am finding it works
>pretty well for me. Entering information is very frictionless. I mostly
>use it on my Windows PC at work, so I access it through the browser. I
>just switch to the Mem tab and start typing. Mem automatically opens a
>new note to capture whatever is on my mind. I certainly haven't used
Mem
>as a replacement for Notejoy, but I've started shifting some stuff that
>I would have kept in NJ in the past into Mem. I am hoping and expecting
>Mem will continue to add features and smooth out rough edges (for
>instance, it feels as if there is a lot of wasted space in the Timeline
>view). But I remain cautiously optimistic.
>
>Steve Z.