Monica Enand

Zapproved is a new Web-based service that is trying to help business people manage projects more effectively via email. In other words, it wants to eliminate the mind-numbing delays that can occur as people wait for a boss or co-worker to respond to an email.

You can toss Zapproved into the online productivity and collaboration tools category that also includes Northwest companies such as Daptiv, Liquid Planner, Jive Software and Smartsheet.com, but Zapproved's offering is built entirely around communications that occur in email. I bumped into founder and CEO Monica Enand at the Voyager Capital holiday party earlier this month, with the former Intel and IBM developer enthusiastically pitching the concept of creating better decision making processes for email users.

Like the name suggests, Zapproved sets approvals for projects. Co-workers can invite one another to participate, with individuals adding comments as the document moves through the organization. Users can see who approved or changed certain aspects of the proposal, while at the same time seeing if they are missing a deadline or due date. Enand says the concept works because it establishes a virtual paper trail of sorts, creating a level of accountability that can be lost in the clutter of hundreds or thousands of emails.

It also pushes people to make decisions, offering them only the two choices: "approve" or "deny."

Those who originate proposals can also be notified when someone makes a change, approves, cancels or misses a deadline related to a specific project.

"At best the current system of making decisions-by-email is slow and inefficient – at worst, it can lead to disastrous decisions that put companies and shareholders at risk," says Enand in a press release. 

Zapproved is free for some projects. It plans to make money through a deluxe offering that costs $12 per month, which includes extra storage and the ability to store files for longer periods of time. The current file size limit is set at 4 MB for the paid version, with a 1 MB limit for the free offering..

Eventually, the company plans to offer new features such as an integration with Microsoft Outlook, electronic signatures and a version that would allow team members to share contact lists and archives.

Founded in February, Zapproved is based in Portland. It is self-funded to date, though Enand said she plans to go out for an angel round in the first quarter with a more formal venture round some time later next year.