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Seeking beta testers for Milanote, the notes app for creative work.

over 6 years ago from , Co-founder & CEO at Milanote

Hello designers! I'm the CEO of a startup launching in early 2017 and we're looking for a last batch of beta testers for our new product.

It's based on the idea that behind every great piece of design work is a lot of research, thinking and planning that is often messy, unstructured and takes time to evolve. Milanote is much more visual, flexible and tactile than similar products. We've really tried to reproduce the feeling of working on a wall in a creative studio.

Here's the link to sign up if you'd like to give it a try: www.milanote.com

As a thank you for trying the product, beta testers will get a discount when we release the paid product next year.

I'd also love to hear any feedback on the concept :)

49 comments

  • Jaron SaturninoJaron Saturnino, over 6 years ago

    You know how you can copy an image, and then go into Facebook messenger and paste the image directly into the chat field, automatically uploading it? I would kill for that.

    9 points
  • Dan Christian, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

    This is really nice actually; it's like a love child of MindNode and Trello.

    6 points
  • Jonathan SimcoeJonathan Simcoe, over 6 years ago

    I whipped up a nice little macOS app for Milanote:

    screenshot

    4 points
  • Alexander J. O'ConnellAlexander J. O'Connell, over 6 years ago

    Something like this is insanely overdue. Congratulations on your launch Ollie. Brilliantly executed and designed throughout.

    4 points
  • Chip Dong Lim, over 6 years ago

    Wow I just signed up and love the flexibility of the drag and place on desktop and responsive view on mobile! Will play around more with it later :)

    3 points
  • Jonathan SimcoeJonathan Simcoe, over 6 years ago

    Ollie, this is really, really superb. I've needed a creatively-first app like this for a while. Just couldn't put my finger on what I needed until I saw this.

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

      Thanks Jonathan! Our goal was to make a tool to match the way creative people think, glad to hear we're on the right track :)

      0 points
  • David SvezhintsevDavid Svezhintsev, over 6 years ago

    The only thing that I wish was there, is to click hold and drag the empty canvas to navigate it. I use regular mouse and not a trackpad/magic mouse. It's kinda unintuitive to use scroll-bars in 2016-17 :)

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago

      Yep makes sense - all the people working on it have Macs with Mighty Mice, so this is easy to forget ;)

      0 points
    • Mike A.Mike A., over 6 years ago

      I dig this! As it is oriented on creative people I would love to press the spacebar to drag the canvas :)

      0 points
  • Karl Lind, over 6 years ago

    This is awesome. Just started to fill a board with references for a new project.

    When opening a saved image in full size it looks pretty compressed though? Totally understand you need to do this to save on bandwidth, but it's a but too much at the moment I'd say.

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago

      Thanks for that feedback, I'll pass it on to the devs - high quality images are obviously really important :)

      0 points
  • Kris KimKris Kim, over 6 years ago

    This is dope! I can really find myself using it too. I'm just wishing there's a cheaper tier than 12$/mo which would be little bit too much. And also probably archiving cards/boards?

    Thanks for this great product anyway!

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago

      The free cards should last you a while, and we'll also have a referral system to get more space (like Dropbox) if you don't want to pay for a pro account :)

      1 point
      • Kris KimKris Kim, over 6 years ago

        It's not that I don't want to pay at all. I would definitely pay if it suits my workflow. I just wished to see some cheaper tier with some limited space or something.

        1 point
  • Seth RSeth R, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

    Sounds great! I signed up. Thanks for sharing!

    After 30 seconds of using this, I can already tell that I can basically stop using Evernote and Tello because of the features in Milanote. You guys really did a nice job. How should we provide feedback? Will you offer a free (limited) version?

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

      Thanks! Best way to give feedback is in the Intercom chat window in the bottom right of the interface.

      1 point
      • Jimmy HookerJimmy Hooker, over 6 years ago

        Please don't ever offer a free version. That's the fastest way to devalue your product and have endless support requests. Make people pay for everything.

        1 point
  • Giulio MichelonGiulio Michelon, over 6 years ago

    A superb product!

    1 point
  • Jesse C.Jesse C., over 6 years ago

    Conceptually it seems similar to Notion (and the similar apps), just with a grid canvas instead of a portrait canvas.

    I like that there's good export functionality by default. What content blocks do you plan on adding? Is it going to stay a bit more 'old fashioned' (for lack of better words) in the design sense (mood boards, quotes, and TODOs) or have code blocks, interactive blocks, etc.?

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago

      There are some similarities for sure, but Notion (and others like it) are still oriented around "documents". We're trying to make something more free form where the chunks of information are smaller.

      We do want to keep it pretty simple (ie not have a million types of "block") but having said that next year integrations/an API will be a big focus :)

      3 points
  • Suganth SSuganth S, over 6 years ago

    Brilliant concept! I see myself using this in future to organise my thoughts in a more visual way.

    What would the paid plan consist of and how much if you guys are planning to charge?

    Sorry to over-board with another question, But will it be wrapped in an app soon?

    Thanks for making this! All the very best for the launch!

    1 point
    • Ollie Campbell, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

      It'll be free up to 100 cards, and then $12 a month for unlimited space ($10 if you're part of a team). Native mobile apps will be coming next year too - but in the meantime, the mobile web version is actually pretty good :)

      0 points
    • Jonathan SimcoeJonathan Simcoe, over 6 years ago

      I create a little macOS app for Milanote today:

      screenshot

      2 points
  • Dav ▩Dav ▩, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

    I looove it. This is incredibly useful (and beautiful). I am really, really, really looking forward to (beta–testing) and using this. (And to the final product in 2017.)

    [To HELL with Pinterest. ;) And I never really used Google Keep much.]

    1 point
  • Max Quinn, over 6 years ago

    Just emailed you, but I've just started using this for a branding/web design project, sharing research, moodboards, concepts etc directly with the client through it.

    Really enjoying it so far! Feels incredibly polished for early stages.

    I really like the navigation element of boards, as I can share a single link to a client which allows them to click through multiple boards. It’s also nice how it educates them when they first use it (such as highlighting the back button) which saves me having to.

    The only things that I’ve noticed as snags so far are:

    1) I can’t seem to delete things very well. Selecting a note and hitting delete does noting, and the trash button isn’t working either. 2) Being able to select multiple objects to drag them at the same time would be a godsend. When I need to insert something within a layout it requires me to move everything below it.

    0 points
  • Al M, over 6 years ago

    Hey! I've been using Milanote and really enjoying it. I've always struggled to find the right solution to a mood-board type thing and this seems just the right thing for me. I'm using it to plan an application I'm working on.

    One thing though - your homepage takes a long time to load on a slow connection (I'm on about 2mbps). The initial image is 3.8mb. The loading of your font is also taking a while, Chrome just gives up and displays Helvetica until it loads. I'm sure there's plenty of other tiny wins to make it a bit speedier!

    0 points
  • No NameNo Name, over 6 years ago

    Awesome! Definitely will test out and give feedback! Thanks, Ollie!

    0 points
  • Marc Olivier LapierreMarc Olivier Lapierre, over 6 years ago

    This is great, I'm really liking it! It'll take me a little bit of time to get used to it but I feel like this could become an important part of my workflow.

    0 points
  • Jeff ReinerJeff Reiner, over 6 years ago

    Will users be able to import existing notebooks? IE from OneNote / EverNote / Etc

    0 points
  • Ale UrrutiaAle Urrutia, over 6 years ago

    Just registered my account, looks great! Also a very interesting concept.

    A few things:

    • Contrast is too low in general but especially on the menu items labels.
    • Sidebar and content area only limited by one line. When too many elements in a board the limit between sidebar and content will be weaker.
    • Font-size too small for my eyes
    0 points
  • Wyatt CampizWyatt Campiz, over 6 years ago

    Great concept! Just signed up! Looking forward to using the product.

    0 points
  • Colin Preston, over 6 years ago (edited over 6 years ago )

    A fellow colleague is using this. first impressions are good. Nice UI

    0 points
  • Eli Ohana, over 6 years ago

    Good idea,Look Good as a start. need more work on the UX.

    Bottom line Good Start :)

    0 points
  • Luca MilanLuca Milan, over 6 years ago

    Great work. i'll testing it for my new project :)

    0 points