Pounce is built on a short list of beliefs about work. They're here up front so you know what you're getting.
Task software has spent twenty years adding features, and it still loses work. Not because it can't do enough, but because it does so much that nobody can see the work any more.
Most work isn't a project.
The big tools are designed around phases, milestones and a manager. Most work is smaller: a call back, a quote, an order to check. Pounce is built for that work first. When you do have a big project, it gets a proper home in Pounce too, and its tasks work exactly the same way.
Write first, file later.
If adding a task means choosing a project, an owner, a priority and a label, people stop adding tasks. They keep them in their heads instead, and heads are terrible task systems. In Pounce, the only required field is the words.
Unowned isn't invisible.
Plenty of work arrives before anyone has decided whose it is. Pounce keeps it in Anytime or its project where people can see it, not in a filter nobody checks.
Today is a short list.
A to-do list you can never finish isn't a to-do list. It's a backlog. Today holds only what you've chosen for today, and at midnight it empties, sending anything unfinished back where it came from. Every day starts clean.
Do dates, not due dates.
Due dates are wishes, and most of them end up overdue. A do date is the day you'll actually pick something up. When that day comes, the task turns up in Today on its own, so you can plan the whole week or just the morning.
Waiting is work.
Chasing people is a real part of most jobs, but task software treats it as a dead end. Pounce gives it a status, a note and a chase date, right where the team can see it.
No price per head.
Charging per person pushes teams to leave people out of the tool, and then the work gets tracked in someone's head again. Every Pounce plan is one flat monthly price, and Extras put the supplier, the freelancer and the client on the work without inviting them in.
Questions, not filters.
Sixty filters and a saved-view picker means everyone sees a different version of the truth. In Pounce everyone works from the same views: Inbox, Today, Anytime and Projects, with Upcoming for what's coming and the Logbook for what's done. When you need your own slice, a tag gives you one.
No theatre.
No boards. No custom statuses. No dependencies. No automations. These aren't missing features; they're decisions. Each of those things turns a task list into a second job, and we'd rather you did your actual one.
Quiet by default.
Software shouldn't compete with the work for your attention. One notification per task, emailed later, and only if you still haven't seen it.
Mistakes should be cheap.
People move the wrong thing. Undo should be instant and honest, and the record should show both the slip and the fix. Nobody should be nervous about clicking.
A number should tell you what to do next.
If a chart doesn't lead to an action, it's decoration. Insights asks questions you'd actually act on.
Keyboard beats clicking.
Press c from anywhere to capture a task, ⌘K to find anything, 1 to 4 to jump between views, and t to put a task into Today. The fastest way to get something done is one that doesn't need a mouse.
Pounce isn't for everyone.
If you plan sprints, estimate in story points or need a Gantt chart for the board meeting, there are good tools built for that. Pounce is for teams who want all their work, big and small, in one place where nothing gets lost.