Wunderlist co-founder Christian Reber
Pitch
In 2015, Microsoft purchased Christian Reber’s to-do checklist app, Wunderlist, for a sum that was once reported to be between $100 million and $200 million.
It was once a vital sum of money and an enormous second in Reber’s lifestyles nevertheless it did not depart him feeling as one may be expecting.
“I believe promoting Wunderlist was once a peculiar enjoy for me,” the Berlin-based entrepreneur instructed CNBC.
“I felt like I misplaced a kid in some way and as a father of 2, I think like I will be able to say that,” he added. “I in point of fact felt like I were given depressed. I felt in point of fact unsatisfied.”
Wunderlist was once a easy app that collected round 16 million customers in its lifetime. One in every of its largest promoting issues on the time was once that customers may get right of entry to it on their telephone in addition to their laptop.
It was once a large a part of Reber’s lifestyles and promoting it wasn’t simple.
“I felt like I completely disconnected from my staff and from the corporate that I would created,” he mentioned.
When requested to additional give an explanation for his emotions at the moment, Reber spoke back: “You must ask my therapist.”
Reber now believes he wasn’t mentally ready to promote Wunderlist, which he have been looking to make as large as conceivable for 5 years.
“Promoting it the entire unexpected felt utterly unintuitive,” he mentioned.
When Microsoft got here knocking with the be offering, Reber’s spouse, Charlette Prevot, was once pregnant. Prevot co-founded Wunderlist with Reber and 4 others.
“The selection I needed to make as a founder was once I both raised a enlargement spherical and attempted to show this right into a winning industry, or I promote this for an overly winning sum of money and my circle of relatives will get independence.”
Reber and Prevot sooner or later determined to step off the start-up rollercoaster, which had virtually observed their industry crash and burn on a number of events.
“I used to be utterly burnt out and I used to be drained and I felt love it was once the most efficient determination for everybody concerned to promote the corporate,” Reber mentioned, including that he needed to placed on a “poker face” as he did it.
“Once I bought it I by no means celebrated it, I did not celebration, did not opt for fancy dinners. I identical to muted each electronic mail and felt like I used to be unhappy. I am not even joking. There have been moments the place I used to be retaining my kid and I requested my spouse to take him as a result of I felt so unhappy that I did not need him to peer daddy being unhappy.”
Reber mentioned it took him a yr or two to begin to come to phrases with the sale.
“I were given financially unbiased, which is superior,” he mentioned. “I constructed one thing that had a in point of fact sure affect. Other people will at all times have in mind Wunderlist. It was once a super product and loads of nice folks were given superb jobs at Microsoft. So there may be in point of fact no reason why to be pissed off about it.”
Plea to Satya
What came about to Wunderlist a couple of years after Reber bought it was once nonetheless laborious for him to abdomen.
In 2019, Microsoft introduced it deliberate to close down Wunderlist and exchange it with Microsoft To Do.
In September of that yr, Reber made a bid to shop for the app he’d invested such a lot of his time in again from Microsoft.
“Nonetheless unhappy Microsoft desires to close down Wunderlist, although folks nonetheless love and use it,” Reber wrote on Twitter in Sept. 2019.
“Please let me purchase it again,” he added, directing his plea instantly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Marcus Ash, vice chairman of product and engineering at Microsoft.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pay attention to an target audience member query all the way through the corporate’s annual shareholder assembly in Bellevue, Wash., on November 30, 2016.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Pictures Information | Getty Pictures
His bid was once unsuccessful and Microsoft pulled the plug on Wunderlist in 2020.
Reber wasn’t able to surrender, then again.
Superlist is Wunderlist’s ‘unofficial successor’
In 2021, he based a brand new to-do checklist app known as Superlist, which he describes because the “unofficial successor to Wunderlist.”
Some of the primary causes Reber felt pissed off when Microsoft close down Wunderlist was once as a result of he felt that the app by no means was the product he sought after to construct.
“What we would have liked to do was once construct the de facto same old utility to collaborate on non-public initiatives and in industry,” he mentioned.
There are both endeavor merchandise like Asana and Trello or non-public to-do checklist apps like Issues or To Do.
“I think like not anything in point of fact nailed the bridge between each,” Reber mentioned. “You both get like very cluttered device this is mainly optimized for venture managers, otherwise you get like those very non-public to-do apps that make it inconceivable to collaborate.”
Superlist is meant to be the “highest bridge” between non-public to-do apps and endeavor collaboration device. It is designed to assist customers scale a venture from one individual to 100 or 200 folks.
Up to now, the corporate employs round 20 folks and has raised $3 million, with any other investment spherical coming quickly.
“I’m dreaming of establishing my very own Salesforce, my very own Microsoft, my very own Atlassian,” Reber mentioned. “That is in point of fact what is riding me.”
He does not have all his eggs in a single basket despite the fact that. Reber has co-founded any other corporate known as Pitch, which competes with Microsoft’s PowerPoint.
“The explanation we began this corporate is as a result of we felt like shows as a medium are in point of fact riding the arena and affect the largest selections in industry and politics,” Reber mentioned.
He added: “Recall to mind it as like PowerPoint mixed with SlideShare and Doctors.”
The four-year-old industry, which employs round 160 folks, has raised slightly over $130 million and it was once maximum lately valued at $600 million.
“I believe it is extremely simple to boost investment for era corporations presently as a result of it is like there may be extra money than corporations available on the market,” Reber mentioned. “As a founder who’s beginning corporations extra often, I think love it’s by no means been higher to boost.”