Collaborating and getting work done remotely has long been a problem for business owners and teams. The ongoing pandemic has intensified the problem and made real-time collaborations far more difficult. Thankfully, technology has helped teams reconnect successfully, but real-time brainstorming and project management are still pain areas for many remote teams. Taskade is one application that has successfully addressed and resolved the above problem by making real-time communication and task collaboration easy and effective. It has gained widespread popularity due to its powerful, aesthetically designed, and user-friendly collaborative tools that suit all kinds of teams’ needs.
In conversation with Mr. John Xie Co-founder & CEO of Taskade
We are lucky to have interviewed Mr. John Xie, the CEO, and Co-founder of Taskade, to tell us about his and his company’s journey so far and the road ahead.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Dear John, firstly a warm welcome from SoftwareSuggest. Our readers are eager to know about your journey so far.
Hi, I’m John, co-founder, and CEO of Taskade. We founded the company back in 2017 in New York and Singapore, with a clear mission, to create a real-time organization and collaboration tool that is a simple yet sophisticated platform for getting things done.
Our team since day one has been remote, and the founders have worked together over the years in a fully distributed workplace, spanning across multiple time zones.
Taskade today lets you map things out in mind maps, organize and manage tasks, and communicate with your team in chat or video, all on the same page, in one unified workspace. Taskade is truly the all-in-one workspace for remote teams.
What differentiates Taskade from its competitors?
Taskade’s main focus is to help remote and distributed teams get things done in one unified workspace. You can manage tasks, write product specifications, and video chat with your team, all on the same page.
Cost-wise, Taskade is essentially free to use for personal individuals and growing teams. Our free tier has unlimited usage limits, and unlimited team members can be included for free compared to other collaboration tools.
Our project editor is much simpler, more visual, and due date/project-driven, instead of wiki/documents driven. With one project (same data), you can transform and visualize it in multiple views and collaborate in real-time using:
- Task list view
- Mind map view
- Kanban board view
- Action sheet view
- Org chart view
What prompted you to come up with such a unique collaboration & communication tool?
We were tired of having to hack together multiple tools to get work done and wanted one single place to manage tasks, organize and write product specs, and chat and communicate.
The idea behind Taskade is also to build a new way to think, visualize data, in an infinite hierarchical tree structure, so you are able to connect the dots and create infinite webs of thoughts, tasks, action items, and notes. Then visualizing it across multiple persistent views.
Taskade ultimately lets users transform a task list into a mind map, into a kanban board, so you have the most powerful, simple, and flexible productivity system, all in one.
We have seen a significant increase in demand since the Covid-19 hit, and that has only pushed our team to go even faster on our product roadmap. We are still very much focused on product and customer development as we get towards our original vision of Taskade. It is closer than ever before. To build one simple yet sophisticated platform for getting things done.
Was it a conscious decision to make Taskade more inclusive and customizable, given that there is an overflow of basic communication tools in the market?
Yes, we wanted to build a productivity platform that is collaborative, multiplayer, and yet flexible for everyone on the team.
Meaning I can create a project and work in the ‘task list’ view while working on the same project, in mindmap or kanban board view. The projects are fluid, they are truly alive.
Given that Taskade is created especially for remote teams, and most teams are working remotely due to the current pandemic, how has the engagement been? Has Covid-19 been a blessing in disguise?
It has indeed; however the bar is much higher now than ever before, given every team is a remote team. We have to double down on simplicity, and ease of use, as more teams are finding it tough to switch to remote working completely, Taskade is here to help them understand what it means to collaborate both in real-time and asynchronously.
What features and updates can we expect from Taskade in the near future?
We are rolling out many exciting improvements to Taskade. This includes the ability to schedule reusable templates for your personal or team workspace along with the ability to import and upload files from Google Drive, Dropbox, Instagram, One Drive, Box.com, and others.
And of course, more ways to share and collaborate on the same page. This means more VIEWS on the projects, from GANTT Chart views to Table views and more for Taskade. Stay tuned on
What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs starting out in this field?
Ans: Apply to Y-Combinator. Learn about startups through their free Startup School program. It is never too late, or too early to step out of your comfort zone and simply start building. Keep sailing and don’t give up.
Tell us about the biggest learning you have gained from your journey so far?
I’ve personally had both successes and failures in the past for my startups, and a common theme I have been following is to keep on iterating, to “really” talk to the customers, to not give up so easily, and ultimately to survive through fundraising or revenue towards profitability. Every startup as Paul Graham says is by default dead until you are alive.
What is your personal success mantra?
Not my quote, but something I live by:
- Success is never final.
- Failure is never fatal.
- It’s courage that counts.
What motivates and strengthens you to keep up with the competition?
The chance for Taskade to help and touch millions of people and teams around the world, to help them become more organized, productive, and have a sense of belonging together, in a remote and distributed workforce.
Reading customer feedback and talking to our customers, and seeing their passion and love for Taskade.
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