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Kaspars Dancis

Co-founder & CEO @ Whimsical

Kaspars Dancis is the Co-founder and CEO of Whimsical, a company he established in July 2017.15 Whimsical is a software company that provides collaborative workspace tools for product teams, offering features like flowcharts, wireframes, mind maps, and project documentation.24

Prior to founding Whimsical, Dancis held several leadership positions in the tech industry:

  1. VP Engineering, Applications at FullContact Inc. (December 2013 - June 2017)13
  2. Co-founder and CEO of Cobook SIA (April 2011 - November 2013)3
  3. Engineering Manager at Genesys (2009 - 2011)3
  4. CTO at Conseros Software (2006 - 2008)3
  5. Engineering Manager at Exigen Group (2000 - 2006)3

Dancis also worked as a developer at Latvijas Mobilais Telefons SIA and the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.3

Under Dancis' leadership, Whimsical has grown significantly:

  • The company raised $30 million in its first funding round after four years of growth and profitability5
  • As of November 2024, Whimsical has approximately 39 employees across 5 continents6
  • The company is based in Denver, Colorado2

Dancis is known for his focus on creating intuitive, fast, and simple tools for product development, drawing from his own experiences as an engineer and product leader.5

Highlights

Feb 1 · linkedin

Two things drove me to founding Whimsical - irritation and ego.

The irritation was caused by all the poorly designed software I had to use to get work done.

As for the ego, I wanted to finally build something 100% for myself.

Fast forward 7 years, and things have changed. Building software purely for myself was cathartic, but it had its limits. At the same time, software tools for work have gotten much better. I'm happy Whimsical played a part in it.

Here's the thing, though. While individual tools have gotten better, I don't believe the toolbox overall has improved much. The teams still end up with this poorly fitting mix of software. I believe there is a better way:

Offer not just individual tools but a holistic toolbox for teams building the future. That's now our long-term mission for Whimsical. This week, we took the first step towards it:

Dec 12 · linkedin

Most software could be improved for majority of users by having more constraints. I was just reminded of this when wife asked for a help with formatting in Google Docs. For some reason it wasn't doing what it was supposed to and it took bunch of fiddling to make it work.

Google Docs is a typical example of a product that has accumulated too much baggage over the years, leading to a lot of flexibility at a cost of creating obstacles and wasting time for typical user way too often.

A helpful tool for thinking about constraints is Pareto principle, which states that 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. The implication is that you can make much simpler software that still serves majority of needs.

Related Questions

What inspired Kaspars Dancis to start Whimsical?
How did Kaspars Dancis' experience at FullContact Inc. influence his leadership style at Whimsical?
What are some of the key strategic initiatives Kaspars Dancis has implemented at Whimsical?
How does Whimsical's product differ from its competitors like Miro and Mural?
What challenges did Kaspars Dancis face when founding Whimsical?
Kaspars Dancis
Kaspars Dancis, photo 1
Kaspars Dancis, photo 2
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Location

Riga, Latvia