The best way for you to get to know us is to have you meet the mind behind Timeline Genius: Eddie Babbage.
It was Eddie’s passion and intelligence that drew our team together. I first met him when he reached out for feedback on the product in progress. As a wedding planner, I’ve talked to a number of tech entrepreneurs interested in breaking into weddings. All of them seemed excited by the potential dollars, but ultimately naive about the ins and outs of the industry.
Eddie was completely different. It wasn’t about the profit for him. I could tell by the questions he asked and the way he listened that he genuinely wanted to make my job easier. I could also tell that the man had done his homework! He knew everything about a wedding day schedule, from the complexity of a First Look, to how altering the timing of one event can have a domino effect.
I didn’t know it at the time, but I was one of a few dozen planners he had talked to in depth to make Timeline Genius truly address the difficulties planners face. By now, he has consulted with well over 100 planners across the United States and Mexico. It is this enthusiastic approach that has shaped the Timeline Genius product into one that truly serves the needs of anyone creating a timeline for a complex event.
Eddie is not one to toot his own horn, so allow me to help, just a little! His impressive background includes degrees from Duke University and Harvard Law School, plus ten years as a tech entrepreneur. Timeline Genius is his third start-up, and started in 2013, when Eddie was looking to have his next undertaking solve a real problem. Whatever the product, he wanted it to provide value and make people’s lives better.
So how did we get so lucky that he turned his attention to events? We can thank Eddie’s beautiful wife Brooke for that! They tied the knot in December 2010.
Brooke did all of the planning herself, so she experienced firsthand the complexity that goes into a wedding day, including creating and updating a timeline. As Eddie was thinking about what his next project would be, Brooke handed him a lightbulb.
“Honey, why don’t you look into the wedding industry? It seems a lot of good could be done there.”
So Eddie set to work, calling dozens of planners to learn more about their pain points, and where the greatest improvement could be made. On August 28th, Eddie’s birthday, he was on a call with Master Bridal Consultant Brigid Horne-Nestor, when they got to talking about timelines. The lightbulb Brooke had given to Eddie was suddenly lit. What was the biggest time-sink for wedding planners? Timelines.
The more calls Eddie made, the more evident it became: everybody hated timelines! Even the pros who did them best did not enjoy wrestling with Excel and Word. In our high-tech world, events have been left behind. It became Eddie’s mission to help the event industry catch up.
Timeline Genius is now serving wedding planners across the country, but Eddie is not done with improvements. You can still find him on the phone every week, having conversations with real planners about how to make the product better and better for them. It is this tireless research and dedication that continues to inspire us here at Timeline Genius. We won’t be satisfied until an event planner’s workflow is as streamlined as can be. As Eddie always says, onward!
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