Idealist was created from a simple need. I found myself needing a way to store bits of information like notes, facts, and ideas in a central location which I could access from any device. As any software developer would do, I rolled my own solution. Over the years as a freelance I noticed that many of my clients had the same need. They all needed a place to store and organize chunks of information, accessible from anywhere and setup to handle multiple users. Typically this information was only being stored for private, internal use and not used to power a web site or any other front-end. It was simply a means of record keeping.
However unique each of my client's requirements were, the solution remained nearly unchanged. The requirements typically meant that any authorized employee could log in from a web browser and view/modify the data. Often the data was customer information, sales, vehicle listings, or similar information. I found myself writing the same software over and over again to solve the same problem. On each install I would reuse most of the software but with small modifications, such as the number and title of fields.
After noticing the pattern, I abstracted the idea further. What if there was an online service that allowed custom lists to be created and shared without a web developer? Creating a list to to share customer information, a to do list, or sales should only take minutes, not days or weeks. And so, Idealist was born. Idealist has been designed to be simple enough for business users, secure enough to store confidential information, and reliable enough for critical applications.
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