Hello Product Hunt! It's a pleasure to write this first comment of our launch we've all put so much work in to make it happen, so firstly to all of you who contribute a big shout out and thank you! 🤔 Why another tool in the online collaboration space? What does this one have to offer we don’t already have? 💡 Did you know that a McKinsey report found that employees on average spend 1.8 hours a day searching for data? There are already many great tools on the market but when you collaborate online, you’re going to run into people who do not share the same ecosystem or paradigm as you 🤷‍♂️. Which means you’ve got to add this into your toolbox. Which creates data mess 🪠. When we started thinking up Starling, what we didn’t want was - an ecosystem, where you have to adopt specific tooling in the browser and your data is siloized - require you to be online to make use of its functions - need you to adopt a new data paradigm to get going. ✅ Starling Desktop is online collaboration turned upside-down. It works with your local files and folders. It allows you to clean up your data picture. It lets you time travel, search by phrases or keywords, and explore by relation. - A contract which became relevant again? Simply reactivate it to get it back in the picture. - Done with a sketch? Archive it till it's needed again. - Don’t like a version? Choose the other one. Unclutter your data with Starling, and collaborate seamlessly. I invite you to try the application for yourself (or to look at some of the videos we’ve put together on our Youtube channel). 🆓 The application is free to download and there’s no limit to its use on your local data. If you want to activate Flexcollab, which unlocks the collaborative features, we invite you to make use of the special limited-time trial offer, by clicking in the app on “Start your free Flexcollab trial”. If you leave your email, you’ll activate Flexcollab automatically for 14 days, plus on your email you’ll receive 4 activation keys which you can immediately send to your collaborators to try it out with. Please see the quick start videos on our youtube channel for more explanation. 🚨 Also, for all you Hunters, we have a special discount in place, with which you can extend your trial to full activation of Flexcollab. Simply go to the Shop in the app, choose your plan, use the discount code PRODUCTHUNT and get 50% off on extending your activation or buying a new one (e.g. you can tell others to use it too)! 🔮 What do we have in mind for the immediate future? For sure it would be nice to implement in-app direct communication between users. Also, currently you can collaborate using any service you like (Samba, NAS, cloud…) for as long as there’s a local sync folder which an attached client of the service you’re employing. It would be nice to ship Starling soon with direct integrations for some popular services, to ease setting up collaboration channels. :) We’d be glad to hear your feedback!

Hello hunters, when I got the first Starling Desktop beta version, I used it to clean up my whole data picture. Deleted what was absolute rubbish and archived all files that might become relevant in future again. From that time on, for the first time in my professional life, I had a clean data picture for myself. Starling Desktop knows where my files are, even when archived and not visible. For example: beginning last year I tracked and archived a whole folder that contains more then 100 files from a project that was on hold. Business plans, calculations, contracts etc. And all files had numerous versions. (I was searching for right versions like crazy) With the Starling clean up function I got rid of all those versions and archived the whole bunch. . Suddenly, a month ago, the project got actual again and I dearchived all these files. Having all relevant data at my disposal again. The funny part is that people that are collaborating with me on the same project are asking me for their own files! With Starling Flexcollab I can get them in sync in no time. All updates and versions are again available to them. A big plus for me is that I got rid of emailing. No more digging though emails, no more attaching.

Congratulations on the launch Willem

Amazing job guys.

Much needed Product.

Wonderful!!! Congrats,

Fantastic idea and product, I am looking forward to seeing amazing things from this company in the future.

Yesterday we had the launch of Starling Desktop and it's been such a pleasure. I want to thank everybody who voted, commented and/or followed for their attention and feedback. Since the first idea entered my mind for this application it's been 7,5 years, so launching on Product Hunt was a pretty big milestone, for me personally as well as for the company and all its stakeholders. I'm looking forward to what lies ahead and seeing Starling Desktop grow: in usefulness, adoption, functionality, people contributing to the project, etc. The goal is for Starling Desktop to be a collaboration staple. Anybody who shares that vision and has something to contribute, even if just a thought, I'm happy to listen to you. Thanks again!

Loving the features! Congrats on the launch