Startup tools podcast
Speaker 1: All right. I am so excited for you all to listen to this episode of Forward Thinking Founders. Before we get started, I just wanted to let you know that we are officially starting an email list, as we have some big plans for the podcast and we'll be telling people on the email list first and probably only the people on the email list. So feel free to sign up and get on the email list at f20r.com. That's F as in Frank, two, zero, R as in red, .com, and I'll see you over there.
(firmenpresse) -
Speaker 1: All correct. I am so excited for you all to listen to this episode of Forward Considering Founders. Ahead of we get started, I just wanted to allow you to realize that we're officially beginning an e-mail list, as we've some large plans for the podcast and we'll be telling people on the e mail list 1st and possibly only the people on the e-mail list. So really feel free to sign up and get on the e mail list at f20r.com. That's F as in Frank, two, zero, R as in red, .com, and I'll see you more than there.
Speaker 1: All appropriate. How is it going, every person? Welcome to a further episode of Forward Pondering Founders, exactly where we're speaking to founders about their companies, their visions for the future and tips on how to collide. Nowadays, I'm extremely excited to be speaking to John Xie, who is the CEO and co-founder of Taskade. John, welcome towards the show.
John Xie: Yeah, thank you. Good to become right here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, terrific to have you on. Let's just get ideal into it. For people that do not know, can you clarify what Taskade is?
John Xie: Yeah, positive. So, we built this really crazy tool and it's a mixture of several things in one, but eventually, the vision has been to make a unified workspace for remote and distributed teams. And with Taskade, we created it pretty easy for teams to chat and video conference with one an additional, manage tasks and projects, but additionally create product specs and documents, all with one straightforward and elegant tool.
John Xie: And I think one aspect that's actually wonderful about Taskade is that it's not just designed for real-time collaboration, it is also asynchronous. So it can work across with distinctive teams on diverse time zones. As well as the app at the moment nowadays is obtainable on pretty much just about every platform imaginable, from web, to desktop, to iOS and Android, to even obtaining a Firefox and Chrome extension.
Speaker 1: Holy smokes. We'll need to go into that inside a second, right after we dive into a few of the options and whatnot. But, oh wow, just about every platform. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: All right, so let's stay on the product for now. So, are you able to go into a number of the sort of some... I know you have got tons of attributes for the reason that I've used Taskade, but can you go into a number of your favored functions along with the methods that teams can get advantage out of them on Taskade?
John Xie: Yeah, positive. So I consider the key components of Taskade will be the fact that you have the job management portion after which you also possess the communication aspect of it. The projects on Taskade are incredibly one of a kind since it's practically like a piece of origami. You'll be able to develop a task list then you could transform it into a thoughts map using the same information structure. After which one of your teammates could collaborate with you on the same project but inside a column view, and then he or she has to switch it back into a activity list view.
John Xie: When we started this concept, the idea was to assist visual thinkers and people that happen to be like me, which might be just crazy and can not concentrate and concentrate, and have like a Schuyler brain, to become able to strategy, organize and really focus around the huge image, but in addition actually be able to drill down and think tiny and create things down and break it into tiny actionable measures.
John Xie: So Taskade truly is like an outlining tool at its core, that is extremely flexible, seriously real time, using a chat and communication element attached to it. That is fundamentally a chat room subsequent for your project.
Speaker 1: All proper, so we're going to function play slightly, since I am not one of the most ... or I am a person that surely needs a tool within this category of organization and communication. And I am kind of one of those people that scatterbrained slightly bit. I've some papers more than there, I have some stuff on Google docs, whatever.
Speaker 1: So, I'm curious, for people like what you just mentioned which have a scatterbrain, let's say they're founders, develop into a founder. What would be your suggestions or tips on what to accomplish on Taskade very first? What to add in very first? Ways to get by far the most out of it within the starting, then the best way to ramp up? I'm curious in case you had been just providing me advice as a prospective user.
John Xie: Yeah, sure. So I believe one issue that we seriously encourage new users and new teams to do is that you start off with one of our existing templates, correct? And after that from there on, genuinely attempt to get to learn several of the basic keyboard shortcuts, like tab and shift-tab to outdent and indent, and be able to collapse and un-collapse diverse sections within your document, inside your task list. And obviously, playing about using the distinct views and elements.
John Xie: It could possibly sound incredibly complex, but in reality, we seriously try our best to keep this product as basic and as elegant as you possibly can, because we fully grasp, possessing constructed and created products for customers within the past, that definitely the second you make items even two or three clicks away, no one will ever learn it.
John Xie: But given that day one, I assume for us, Taskade has been made for remote and distributed teams which can be looking to genuinely just get points carried out and get operate done, from ideation all the technique to completion. So getting in a position to brainstorm, outline then start off to tracking the job, assigning the process and syncing that along with your calendar. And after that going back to the very same exact app, to ping your teammates to obtain an update, and to ticking that box off and checking it off and finishing it.
John Xie: And I feel currently you see teams doing this across multiple tools. And we ourselves have often been hacking with each other many distinctive tools so that you can get this performed. And that's where the original thought came about, combining collaboration with communication around tasks and notes and getting operate accomplished.
Speaker 1: So, you in all probability never like when people make comparisons like this. So just for understanding, I'm going to produce it.
Speaker 1: Would you say you're type of like a Slack plus Asana combined together with the exact same backend and flow that communicate with each and every other and seamlessly? Are you able to describe it like that?
John Xie: Yeah, certain. I consider in many ways, we've a good deal of teams coming to Taskade from products like Asana, products like Trello, then they have been using Taskade for communication within the very beginning, but not to the sense that it really is hashtag channel-based, correct? Like Slack where it gets a lot more focused about, I assume, group chat or group discussions.
John Xie: With Taskade, conversation and discussion is normally within context and a lot additional focused around a project you are working on. And that was aspect of our philosophy exactly where, okay, if you'd like to chat and also you wish to socialize and you want to have a sense of a neighborhood and belonging, you can do that with quite a few different group chat tools. But for us you can in fact video conference on the project itself. You may also reference the job that you are working on on a project as you happen to be chatting. But it is not about chit-chat, and yeah, in several techniques, our customers come across it better than possessing a group chat tool due to the way that we've developed communication on Taskade, and we'll continue to truly improve that as we go forward.
John Xie: In terms of the Asana comparison, I think it's a lovely product. I think that the reality is the company has been around for 10 years. They've a whole lot of technical debt inside their product, however it is extremely highly effective, and I feel for teams like ourselves and nimbler teams which are technical at the same time as product-driven you truly usually do not want 90% of the features that is there. And to Taskade is at times like... The original mindset was maybe it is much better to just begin a brand new, and start out having a fresh plate, and include a new product thought built on a modern Slack, with writing in thoughts very first and foremost, not only adding one task assignment at a time. And seriously giving customers that natural feeling of pen and paper for tasks and communication and collaboration. That's the thesis.
John Xie: But, yeah, so you are employing, I feel, Asana and Slack will be the bigger or the biggest, a few of the greatest players in this space at this time.
Speaker 1: Properly, I assume what's exciting is that they're major players. There is tons of huge players. It really is like big space, giant market, a great deal of players. But you are tackling greater than one area of it, which I consider is interesting. And so as to do that, it sounds like you've taken this method of becoming everywhere. What I mean by that may be, I'm on your website at this time and it says, "Download our apps on iOS, Android, Mac, Windows, Chrome, and Firefox."
Speaker 1: I am curious how... I do not even know what to ask. How long did it take to develop out all of these? And more importantly, the improved question is, why did you commence with all of them? Or did you not, and that's just lately? I am curious to hear ethos around it, developing there on all of the platforms.
John Xie: Yeah, positive. I consider due to the fact day one, it was incredibly crucial for us to make a tool that's scalable and accessible across just about every platform, since we are designing for teams which might be distributed for teams that could be collaborating with clientele. And you could be on iOS, they could be on Android. You might be somebody that stayed in the office all day. I might be an individual that is definitely traveling a good deal. And with Taskade, given that day one, it was element of our foundation when we were designing product specs and technical specs. And luckily, there is certainly technology right now that makes it possible for us to definitely scale across platforms.
John Xie: And initially and foremost we're web primarily based, proper? But then we're able to create a web-based product natively for every platform due to technologies like React, to React Native and so on and so forth. But, yeah, it really is one thing which is incredibly difficult, and most people when speaking to us earlier onset, "No way you guys are going to frigging do that." And we had been able to seriously pull this with each other within a matter of a year in addition to a half or so using a quite modest group. But even within the pretty starting, we bootstrapped the company for, I would say, almost six, seven, eight months just before we even had a single verify or interest from angel investors.
Speaker 1: I would like to get into an location that we don't discuss a good deal on the podcast which is operating the group and managing that group and whatnot, even if the team is like you in addition to a couple other people. So, let's discuss this.
Speaker 1: In the last year and a half as you constructed out all of these, how huge was your team? And just for context, how large is your team now? Has it changed or you nevertheless staying super lean?
John Xie: Yeah, positive. So we began off with 3 co-founders, Stan, Deon and myself. And after that as we started constructing this product out, we scaled to 5 people total. And right now we are nine total. The group has been completely distributed given that day one. Stan is based in Singapore. Sheila, our 1st engineering employ, she is primarily based in Philippines. Ellis is primarily based in Malaysia. Then, most not too long ago, we added even more members for the team that are spread across.
John Xie: So for us, we are dogfooding our own product. And genuinely, in terms of operations, with regards to truly understanding the aspect of remote work and distributed teams, we do not even believe about it inside a sense of our clients, due to the fact quite a few people inform me remote collaboration to them could possibly be the truth that they're functioning across the building, across the street, or on a different floor, because they don't have time for you to book an office, suitable? Or meeting room. But for us, really, it is across different times zones and figuring out how you can ideal optimize for the time that you simply do have face-to-face with each and every other for real time.
John Xie: Then I believe one philosophy that I definitely do think in is definitely the reality that real-time occasionally, but asynchronous collaboration most of the time. And that has worked definitely properly for us. And additionally, I believe one issue that seriously helps would be the truth that Stan, Deon and I, we're all gamers. Deon and I truly met online playing Star Traveler in middle school. Dan identified out we were neighbors in Queens, and that's how I started working collectively. And Stan is actually a huge Dota fan, Dota 2 fan and I feel for us we're like, "Okay, games have currently figured this notion out with regards to multiplayer, with regards to tips on how to develop this sense of community and to scale." And we wanted to bring a good deal of these components into the workplace, into activity management, into acquiring factors done. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I choose to deviate a bit bit and go down that rabbit hole slightly. I've been thinking the rabbit hole of games. I'm interested to hear, what do you see going on in... Properly, in fact sorry, before I ask any of that, are you currently paying consideration at all towards the gaming industry and Esports or any of that or are you currently quite heads down on Taskade?
John Xie: I will say no. We had been absolutely generally maintaining our eyes open, anything tech associated, yeah.
Speaker 1: Got it, okay. So I'd just love your thoughts on what is taking place in EA sports and what's... I do not know and exactly where do you feel it's going? I am fascinated with that complete world and I assume as soon as VR catches up to it, we're going to be live inside the future for sure. So, I'm just curious, what are your thoughts on Esports and where do you think it is going and are you involved with Esports at all?
John Xie: Yeah, no, positive. It really is actually funny you simply brought up VR mainly because immediately after YC we were like, let's take a smaller break. We really purchased the Oculus Quest then Deon began designing Taskade UX and mockups rather than Oculus Quest. I feel it was the brush paint or one of your paint ups in 3D. I thought that was hilarious and we've screen captured it, but we seriously do think that the way that gaming has evolved, it really is normally been like driving multiplayer and this notion of reduce latency forward, to bring people together no matter exactly where that you are.
John Xie: But with Esports and together with the launch of league of legends one example is, it really designed this complete ecosystem of like people taking games seriously. And I consider that may continue on. It is just a matter of time exactly where this becomes even more and much more mainstream. I'd say inside VR itself although, I haven't noticed something that seriously took off on the subject of multiplayer inside the VR ecosystem but I do feel which will modify. Some thing that which is watchable, as entertainment but additionally in the VR round. That'll be seriously frigging exciting. And I am hunting forward to it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I personally am waiting for... properly, not necessarily waiting, but working for the day exactly where I amass some amount of wealth and then I'll 100% open up a sandbox VR franchise in Phoenix, Arizona. And just kind of make... If I still live in Phoenix and just make that the spot for VR Esports, if it's attainable. I see sandbox VR carrying out their point and I just consider it is so fascinating of being aware of the power of VR. I am definitely interested to view what's going to occur in that. Not inside the next 5 years but more so in the subsequent 15. I assume in 15 years we're going to possess some genuinely exciting stuff.
Speaker 1: And anyways, so you're maybe the seventh or eighth particular person non coincidentally that's come onto the podcast which has this interest in remote function, the remote movement. And I'm type of just curious, I do not think I've ever asked this prior to, why is remote happening now and how far do you feel it is going to go?
John Xie: Confident. I consider for us when we began developing Taskade, there is this whole movement, actually it didn't start off definitely happening back in early 2017 and in 2016. But for me personally, even in the course of high school when I was building my very first company, my group was just like totally remote due to the fact I had to go to school and I was operating a business with people in Canada, within the US, in India and using what ever technologies probable in an effort to function with them. And at that time I remembered there was the PalmPilot. Then there was the Blackberry. There was also like a Windows mobile phone. And just technologies was not there yet to create operate doable and to create remote work and distributed really achievable.
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Datum: 26.12.2019 - 09:03 Uhr
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