[HN Gopher] Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) - Daily Planner for Busy...
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Launch HN: Sunsama (YC W19) - Daily Planner for Busy People
Hi HackerNews! I'm Ashutosh, one of the founders of Sunsama
(https://sunsama.com). Sunsama is a daily planner for busy folks.
Each day, Sunsama walks you through a guided daily planning process
that helps you create a calm, focused, and intentional plan for the
day. Sunsama pulls together your calendar, emails, and tasks from
other SaaS tools into a single place. Travis and I started
building products in the calendar and productivity space a couple
years after graduating and working our first jobs. The idea that we
were going to spend the next 40 years behind computers, working,
and that Outlook or Google calendar would be the best way for us to
be thoughtful and intentional with what we did at work felt
unacceptable. Before Sunsama, we built, launched, and shut down
six different products in this space over the course of four years.
I'll spare you the postmortem on each failure but my favorite
boondoggle was the first product we built. We tried to build a
"social network for time" (think Calendly meets LinkedIn). In
retrospect, it was doomed because it wasn't something we needed
ourselves nor did we have a real user in mind, we just thought that
"networking calendars" would be an interesting problem to solve.
After shipping this and learning that no one wanted it, we just
kept frankensteining our software from one pivot to another, mostly
unsuccessfully. In one of our last pivots before Sunsama as it is
today we hit a breaking point when our biggest customer churned and
we realized we only had a few months of runway. It was a gut punch
because we felt we'd finally run out of "if we just change <blank>,
this will definitely work" ideas. This time, instead of
frankensteining our idea, we took a step back and started fresh.
Luckily, all the products we built were calendar/productivity
related and over the years we'd talked to thousands of users and
customers about their calendars, their work tools, and how they
went about their work day. This intuition and expertise for how
people work coupled with a fresh perspective got us to the
realization that everyone started the day by asking themselves
"what am I going to do today?" but answering that question was
difficult and there wasn't a great place to answer it. The calendar
works well for planning meetings but is too clunky for heads down
work. Project management tools work well for documenting all the
work a team might do over long periods of time but it's stressful
to look at hundreds of Jira tickets when you just want to work on a
couple of them today. Text lists or written notes are flexible but
don't connect back to the actual source of work. And simply keeping
a mental list seems to break down once your job becomes
sufficiently busy or ambitious. So we decided to build a calendar
+ daily todo list for people who function on a hybrid of a maker
and manager's schedule (to use Paul Graham's terminology). We're
excited to officially launch on HackerNews now that product is self
service! It took us a while to get to this point as we originally
started out as a product with a concierge onboarding (a la
Superhuman). Right now, we integrate with Google Calendar, Gmail,
Asana, Github, Jira, Todoist and Trello. In the future, we hope to
add more integrations and open up signups to folks who use those
tools as well! We'd love your feedback on how it feels to plan out
a workday with Sunsama!
Author : priyadarshy
Score : 76 points
Date : 2020-11-04 16:06 UTC (6 hours ago)
| jbverschoor wrote:
| Needs access to google calendar. Also onboarding questionnaire is
| cumbersome.
|
| I don't like it.. too many steps and effects in the interface for
| a list.
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Yup, right now we've only been able to build an integration
| with Google Calendar. Turns out building a near replica of
| Google Calendar isn't easy! Once we add more services, we'll
| open it more broadly and make the questionnaire less
| cumbersome.
| jbverschoor wrote:
| It's always good to see productivity tools, but I'm also not
| really sure what the integration would do. At least it limits
| signups.
|
| As for the form, it almost felt like one of those RPGs, where
| you're basically forced to answer "yes I'll pay". I can only
| assume that this is done for basic research. What's good for
| you is that you actually capture the No->Yes flow, which
| means "No".
|
| I used 2 accounts, as I don't like giving apps full
| permission to my calendar.
|
| Good luck!
| stillmotion wrote:
| So strange that your survey basically tells me I'm not a good fit
| if I'm not willing to consider paying for your product after a 14
| day trial. How about let me try the product first and then I can
| make that assessment?
| kwanbix wrote:
| It is also weird that I cannot see the prices right away.
| Sunsama could be great, but if the asking price is too much, I
| won't even bother.
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Thanks for that feedback. We put that in place so that folks
| weren't surprised after using it that Sunsama doesn't have a
| free tier since people assume that all productivity tools have
| a free version. If you just change your answer, you can
| proceed!
| stillmotion wrote:
| Yes, but the sale shouldn't end because I just said no. There
| should be room left for me to be delighted by the product,
| such that I convert into a paying user. Instead, I feel
| alienated and not at all interested in trying it in the
| future.
| Zenbit_UX wrote:
| Indeed, this should have been incredibly obvious and is the
| whole reason free trials exist.
| Ensorceled wrote:
| This is confusing, you said in your original comment that
| you were filtered out because you said you wouldn't
| consider paying for the product, now you say you might if
| the product delighted you.
|
| So which is it? Why are you alienated by a product that
| says "we're not for you" if you have no interest in being a
| paying customer?
| bnj wrote:
| Not OP but I had a similar emotional reaction when
| getting to that point of the survey. It's not logical...
| on reflection I think it has to do with the sense of los
| of autonomy. The survey wants me to say that I'd be
| willing to spend money on it before I can try it, but I
| want to try it before I decide if I'm willing to spend
| money.
|
| I think it could be solved for stubborn people like me if
| the survey got to that point and said "okay, if you're
| sure, you can still click here to request access but
| after 14 days you won't be able to continue to use it
| without signing up. We think you'll be persuaded!" -- or
| whatnot.
|
| Seems fair enough that people should be able to try the
| free trial without having to agree that they're
| theoretically willing to pay 20/mo
| joshgev wrote:
| I have to question the premise of such a service. The statements
| in the "Why Sunsama?" section are comically grandiose. I
| sincerely doubt that people who are "struggling to keep up" are
| hindered primarily by poor scheduling or, if they are, that they
| will listen to reminders coming from yet-another piece of
| software or that the software will magically know how best to
| prioritize tasks. Based on these claims, I would easily toss this
| product in the "snake oil" category of products and services
| which promise to make my life awesome but which, at best, might
| make a marginal improvement. If there is more to the software,
| awesome, but that should be front-and-center because as it stands
| I see no real value proposition.
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Thanks for being so frank. Perhaps that section needs to be re-
| written since Sunsama doesn't do reminders or use any sort of
| any algorithm to prioritize your tasks. Instead, we provide a
| guided daily planning workflow that nudges the user to make
| good decisions about what to do. In fact, one thing we feel
| strongly about is that you will make a better decision about
| what to work on than an algorithm.
| gazelle21 wrote:
| Onboarding was deff rough but just signed up, will test and see
| how it goes! Is there anyway we could add subtask to the regular
| task?
| MarcusT8088 wrote:
| Did not appreciate being forced to answer survey questions and
| then find out at the end this only works with Google calendar.
| Borderline dark pattern move...
| [deleted]
| priyadarshy wrote:
| We put this in place so that folks aren't going through the
| entire product onboarding which takes several minutes only to
| find out later there's no way to add an Outlook calendar.
| ticmasta wrote:
| >> only to find out later there's no way to add an Outlook
| calendar.
|
| I haven't even looked at it but seeing this in the comments
| means I can't use it. Many (most?) of your target "elite
| professionals" are running Outlook in the enterprise.
| priyadarshy wrote:
| That's true and one of the reasons we're keen to add an
| Outlook integration ASAP. We're a tiny team of five so
| building an integration with Google and Outlook from the
| get go wasn't feasible.
| tdeck wrote:
| You might consider using something like Nylas to handle
| all the different calendar APIs at once. Not sure if
| their pricing is workable for you though.
| shostack wrote:
| They do say on the homepage that it syncs with your Google
| calendar... But yes, perhaps it could be more prominent?
| jcr8888 wrote:
| 14 days too short a trial for a productivity tool. No one can
| change their work habits that quickly. I'd say 30 days would be
| wiser.
| pxtail wrote:
| > for elite professionals.
|
| > Request an invite.
|
| Ahh, good ol' artificial scarcity & elitism trick, good luck :)
| petemir wrote:
| Congratulations for the launch!
|
| One quick issue: iPad Mini 2019 (5st. gen), part of the text is
| covered by images in the front page. https://imgur.com/wRwMSjv
|
| Edit: this picture is just one example, but it happens along all
| the page, and images cannot be seen in full neither.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| > for _elite_ professionals
|
| This is not a beginning of a beautiful friendship.
|
| It's like saying "we are an X for really good people only", which
| leaves one to decide if they are brazen enough to consider
| themselves really good and try this wonder X or just accept the
| reality of being somewhat OK and move on.
|
| Perhaps you are trying to be selective with whom you want to
| accept as clients and this is meant to be a filter, but it comes
| across as snobbish at best. There are other ways to phrase it
| without rubbing unwashed gray masses the wrong way.
| czbond wrote:
| You're either really good, or have aspiration to be that much
| better - right?
|
| Those who don't meet one of those criteria probably won't pay
| for a planner. But I agree the phrasing is odd.
| priyadarshy wrote:
| We are definitely shooting for the "professionals who perform
| their job at an elite level" vibe more than a socioeconomic
| distinction. That being said, this is a valid criticism since
| "elite" has some obvious connotations.
| erokar wrote:
| I had the same reaction as others to "elite". I think you
| risk putting off the actual elite professionals and attract
| the aspirational with that phrasing. If that's not the
| intention, cutting "elite" will probably help a lot.
| dayjah wrote:
| "executive" fits that notion for me.
| Zenbit_UX wrote:
| Imo you already figured it out with this HN thread. "Busy
| People" got me to click, 'elite' added to your bounce rate.
| kome wrote:
| I wanted to say exactly the same thing!
|
| I need to schedule stuff, but I am not elite or anything. Is
| there a market niche for my identity? ;)
| czbond wrote:
| As a product/CompSci person - I like your onboarding workflow.
| (do agree it is a bit long), but understand from customer
| discovery perspective.
|
| Was allowed to proceed - but I need a path that doesn't require
| access to my calendar. (no product trust to do so that early). A
| comparison is I'm dropped right into Todoist
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Thanks, we've worked tirelessly on it and it's still not
| perfect!
|
| Yup, the one thing about Sunsama that's different than Todoist
| and other task tools is that it's not useful unless you use it
| with your calendar.
| zild3d wrote:
| what's the pricing? I recall signing up for sunsama last year and
| it looked great, but the price was hard to justify for personal
| use
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Sunsama is $20/user/month if paid monthly, $16 if paid yearly.
| Thanks for giving it a shot so early on!
| kareemm wrote:
| The potentially killer features for me are:
|
| 1. Pulling in tasks from multiple sources. Clubhouse and Things
| are the ones I use, sadly not supported.
|
| 2. Sharing tasks with teammates / seeing what they're up to
| regardless of the to-do tool they use. This is huge - always
| wondered why there was no team todo tracker that respected the
| idea that tasks are tracked in different tools but cross-
| departmental collaboration is necessary. For example dev work
| might happen in GitHub and marketing work in Basecamp. Marketing
| depends on dev but without a higher-level tool pulling in todos
| from both it's opaque to understand what other teams are working
| on.
|
| There's a lot of other stuff going on and Sunsama is a pretty
| opinionated tool (Channels? Estimated/actual time tracking?)
|
| On first blush comparisons to Superhuman are premature...
| priyadarshy wrote:
| 1. One of our challenges will be to quickly add robust
| integrations with lots of other tools. Clubhouse is already a
| highly requested tool. 2. Yes, we think this the direction the
| world is moving is one where task tools specialize by role, if
| that isn't already the case.
|
| And yes, the daily planning workflow is definitely opinionated,
| I can't disagree!
| agordhandas wrote:
| We have been using Sunsama for quite some time. It's great to
| manage your to-do's or bite-sized tasks. I heartily recommend
| giving it a shot! It's good to have something that forces you to
| plan your day every morning, so you only take on things that you
| can do. Being able to see what others are up to is also nice, but
| I don't use that functionality.
|
| edit: /s/hardly/heartily
| [deleted]
| orliesaurus wrote:
| I really like the idea and I did an in-depth analysis of your
| company's homepage here [1]. I always struggle with getting the
| tasks that matter ready for the next meeting so I totally
| empathise with your vision. I have quite a few remarks about your
| page and the missing information, empathy with the ISSUE at hand
| is ultimately what made me not sign-up for an account. Also
| what's the pricing? Should mention somewhere at least that you
| can try the product for FREE, for at least 14 days or something?
|
| [1] https://youtu.be/zwuvX4zc6aA
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Nice little growth hack, I see you cover all the HN launches on
| your YT Channel!
| orliesaurus wrote:
| No, only the ones I like ;)
| ahstilde wrote:
| This seems like it's in the vein of Superhuman -- it's just 10x
| better, but you pay for the privilege.
|
| I found this review of how it can slot into someone's workflow --
| https://amontalenti.com/2019/11/04/work-is-a-queue-of-queues .
|
| Seems like you're making at least one person very happy!
| priyadarshy wrote:
| We found a lot of inspiration from Superhuman but there are
| some key differences: there's no required concierge onboarding
| and we don't require an invite from another user.
|
| Andrew Montalenti's post on work being a queue of queues is
| fascinating in its own right. One of the things we're betting
| on is that we'll live in a world with more work queues as SaaS
| tools proliferate and specialize. We're hoping to build a place
| where you can build your queue for the day.
| _1tan wrote:
| Any pointers to further reading on this concept?
| priyadarshy wrote:
| Do you mean work being a queue of queues or superhuman?
| franze wrote:
| Shitty headline.
|
| >The daily planner for elite professionals.
|
| Not gonna try your service.
| six0h wrote:
| It took way too long to get going with this, I bailed. The idea
| of pulling tasks from all project managers is extremely enticing
| to me as a consultant and contractor as I heavily use multiple
| task platforms. The completely guided walkthrough and survey were
| too much, I won't be back.
| alphagrep12345 wrote:
| I really like this app, but 20$ pm is too much as a student :)
| dreamer7 wrote:
| I've not felt the need for an integration between my todo list
| and other tools like Github / Gmail / Calendar / Jira.
|
| I manage fine with just making notes on a monthly, weekly and
| daily level. To populate my todo lists, I review the other
| systems manually.
|
| Rolling over unfinished work to the next day is as simple as
| copy+paste though that can be run as a cron job daily
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