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The former founder of a to - do lists app which sell for as much as $ 200 million , comes back , nine years later , with yet another app to do the same thing . Really ? It ’s a chronicle that would be hard to make up , but it ’s go on .
I think you ca n’t keep a good founder down . After trade his first startup — to - do lean app Wunderlist — to Microsoft in 2015,Christian Reber(pictured above ) could have give up back with his Angel Falls enthrone ( he ’s an investor in Notion for instance ) . Instead , he launched a new company , Pitch , for whichhe ’s now had to find a young CEO . But long ago he also decided his “ to - do app ” itchstill needed scratching .
This calendar week he at long last broughtSuperlistout of beta . It ’s a smartphone and desktop app that takes the slick port approach of the onetime Wunderlist and bring in it into the 21st hundred .
Now , before we get into why the heck Reber decided to jump off back into a startup , allow ’s cover the basics of the app .
Superlist is a well - rounded to - do list app ( it should be , it spend a whole 12 calendar month being beta tested ) which , remarkably , allows you to part off personal to - do list and partake in them with family members , friends or even conscientious objector - workers ( that latter point is central to what come next ) . These to Department of State or tasks can also be enhance far more deep than other apps of this eccentric : with tenacious notes , images , you name it , giving it a lot more firepower than standardized platforms .
There is also a evenhandedly canonic “ AI ” function that can turn unstructured emails or Slack content into tasks and their contents with other productiveness cock like Gmail , Slack , GitHub and Google Calendar . The minimalistic exploiter interface is simple to habituate , but the main item to think back is that Superlist is plan for teams . you’re able to make a list for a labor , share it with a team and then pack it full of notes , files , tasks , images etc . The Pro news report is $ 8 per calendar month per substance abuser , but a free account will actually be enough for most the great unwashed .
So yes , it ’s designed to be personal , but it has an port that makes it easy to switch between personal and work spaces . Reber enunciate he found when surveying Beta user , that most of them did n’t want to use their society tools “ due to privacy concerns or usability issues . ” Instead , they are more likely , he says , to add their personal task tilt into the oeuvre environment , and begin using it there . In other words , Superlist has a “ Trojan horse ” scheme where it will use hoi polloi ’s personal job lean — which also include work lists — to countermand into the enterprise .
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As for the fellowship , it has a extremely experient founding team in Reber and Niklas Jansen ( founder of Blinkist ) . To date , the society has raise € 13.5 million in funding from Cherry Ventures and EQT .
What is key to all this is that Reber is convince there is a space between planning apps and to - tilt apps that Superlist will fill . And you’re able to calculate he ’s puddle - off that Microsoft turn his baby into a rather boring version of his original visual sense , andthen exclude it down . Ironically , Superlist has no desegregation with Microsoft 365 . Perhaps they will have to buy Superlist all over again ?
This is an emended conversation with Reber on what he plans to do :
Reber : The full story is that in 2015 , we sold , and I personally as a founder and the head of product , I felt I had n’t actually finish the Book of Job . What we desire to fulfil was a honorable to - do app that mold for individual user , and that scale into teams , essentially . We ’d want to establish a merchandise for multitude to handle their personal as well as their professional projects . Because out there you have tools like affair or Reminders . These are well - craft tools to organize your personal life , but you’re able to never lend them into the business world because they ’re not really mean for sharing and collaborationism .
TechCrunch : What about all the planning tools out there ?
Reber : In the clientele universe , you have tools like Asana , Monday.com , Basecamp and other pieces of software that are optimise for project managers . But we did a lot of enquiry that showed us 75 % of drug user do n’t use those tools . They get bought for the company but multitude do n’t really enjoy using them . When we sell to Microsoft , Microsoft decided to rework the product into the Microsoft stack , but honestly , the Cartesian product was n’t for me . I used it . I respect the oeuvre , but I did n’t really enjoy it .
There have been other bill and project - making tools though . What did you see that was wrong ?
Evernote was this case-by-case first productiveness app to take notes and write down tasks and put in job poster . And then Notion ( I was a seed investor ) took this to an entirely new level where you have workspace . you could add squad penis , you could collaborate on really simple papers character . I absolutely love the company and it grew into a $ 10 billion Jagannatha in the productivity space . And I ’m a business leader substance abuser of Notion . I use it in every undivided labor I ’m in . But for me , it always felt like , if someone built the successor of Evernote , why is no one build the heir of Wunderlist , like a team - first app ? A collaborative to - do app that bridges this gap between personal life and business life ?
And I really honestly consider it ’s a multibillion - buck business organisation opportunity . I believe it ’s a gigantic market . Every person in in the world is influence with lists , prepare their life personally and professionally . I try as an holy man investor to find the ship’s company that excited me but then COVID encounter .
Why did it take you three years to build up Superlist ?
There were hassles like in reality figuring out what the ass is Superlist and how do we work this problem ? And how do we make the product feel gracious , unique and not just like a tatty Wunderlist copy . So there was a lot of thinking and a lot of iterations and a little bit of founder clash .
Did you see the chance in the fact that we ’ve had an explosion of tools for collaborative working , like Slack , Teams , Notion etc ?
Apple Reminders is a very personal product . Asana is a very business - oriented ware . I do n’t in person know why every single company in this infinite is either working on the consumer outer space or the concern blank . But no one is undertake the tangible problem . What we mark is that people want flexibility . They also require to add long paragraphs to a quick side note , or they want to add additional headlines or add images into the list , attachments , PDFs , numbered lists and so on . What we did legal injury in the software package globe was , for instance , Evernote was all about notes . And that ’s still the job . Lists are so much more .
What is going to be the AI vista ?
We ’re playing around with a lot of AI features at the consequence , like ‘ create me a due diligence list for a Modern troupe . ’ Maybe you could require Superlist to create a short sum-up out of something .
How do you see this becoming more than simply a consumer app and something that integrates with other concern program ?
you could be a part of multiple teams . You actually start using this mathematical product by yourself , and then afterwards on , you add your own software into a business . And then you just start organise your lists at work as well . And then you invite your co-worker to grow the teams that you create . That ’s the approximation that we have here and that ’s , I think , a nice part of the whole experience is that you may just switch off these squad and then your workplace inclination disappear . And if you ’re in your work , you’re able to disable your personal inclination . You do n’t have this ravel of switching between a ton of dissimilar workspaces .
It cue me a bit of the Dropbox scheme where people would use it in their personal lives , because it was much easier than trying to use an internal intranet or something .
Right . That ’s what we failed at with Wunderlist . We had 10 of millions of users . All we accomplish was build a squeamish interface to manage shopping list . But we had a couple of user using it at Fortune 500 companies , and none of them paid . None of them really invited their team because it was too messy . It just did n’t function . And I retrieve that ’s the challenge that we ’re trying to try on to focus on . How can you bridge this . How can you organize your life and study , but not be distracted by either .
Do you see this being pluck up on exit by Notion or Slack or Salesforce or somebody else ?
Look it always sounds bum , but I do n’t want to start a company to sell it . I did n’t require it with Wunderlist and I hope we can avoid it with Superlist . I learned the hard direction that whenever you write a line of codification , it can be overwrite the next day , the next month , or the next year , so nothing last forever . I also have to take my Centennial State - founder ’s vote into the equating , like if they need to have an opportunity where they turn their percentage into existent money and so on . There are always way that we can discover to figure out this . But I do n’t need to sell this . I really trust that Superlist can be a decacorn , if we just centre on execute it very , very carefully , we do n’t get into a feature war with competitors , and just really focus on our mission .
