This should surprise no one: Americans under 50 text more frequently than they make phone calls. At this point, having to make a non-personal phone call feels like an ordeal.
Textable, which launched in April 2017 in a closed beta, is an app that allows businesses to text their customers via SMS. It can send out mass messages, send automated answers to frequently ask questions, and allow the business to interact directly with customers.
Textable cofounders Alex Brown and Joe Roddy met via Zip Code Wilmington. (Alex, a member of the coding school’s first-ever cohort, was Joe’s Zip Code mentor.)
“I got the idea when I had a full day and needed to make a dinner reservation,” Brown recalled. “Instead of calling or downloading yet another app that I would immediately delete, I had the idea of how simple it would be to text a business — or five different businesses — and see if they had an opening. A few months later, we left our jobs and we grew the idea into a small business solution for connecting with customers on a channel they prefer.”
“I was sold immediately,” Roddy said. “ I can’t even count the number of times my girlfriend and I drew short straws for who would have to call up the pizza place!”
With the beta testing done, Textable is now available to the public at chat.textableapp.com. The site works on both desktop and mobile, with a native mobile app for iOS and android releasing soon.

Textable on desktop. (Screenshot)

Here are Alex and Joe’s Productivity Tips:

Alex: Think about Monday on Friday. Objectives are important and Mondays are hard. I’ve had a really good experience with setting my objective for Monday or the next week on Friday that way I can get started right away on Monday. It also gives you a chance to think about it over the weekend.
Joe: I have a browser extension that blocks a custom list of sites that I know I shouldn’t be wasting time on. It’s sad that it’s necessary, but it’s brutally effective. (It also taunts me when I attempt to visit Reddit and humiliates me into a productive submission. Sigh.)
Alex: Take a step back from the computer. This sounds like the exact opposite of what you should do but I find this very helpful. If there is a coding problem, email or any other problem I find if I step away from the computer and go to lunch or for a walk I usually have better luck coming up with a solution.
Joe: If you really need to get something done, and it’s not dependent on a teammate, leave. Take a laptop and get out. Go sit in the cafeteria at work, go to McDonald’s, Starbucks, the local library (all things I’ve done). Something will always come up, whether its meetings, or questions from teammates.  I’m never more productive than when I’m sitting at the library, hacking away.