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Bootstrapped productivity and asynchronous communication software
Todoist ~$5/month or ~$4/month annual · Twist about $600K annual revenue
The first paid feature was not a grand platform: it was reminders, sold because the founder wanted the product to cover its server costs.
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Doist’s productivity products began as Amir Salihefendić’s personal task list. He launched Todoist in 2007, after setting aside an earlier social-network project, and initially added paid reminders to cover server costs. At the time of the interview, Todoist and the asynchronous team communication app Twist were Doist’s two core products. The founder described the company as bootstrapped, profitable in most years, fully remote since day one, and serving hundreds of thousands of customers. Todoist premium cost about $5 monthly or $4 on annual billing, and the interviewer said the business was approaching a $14 million revenue run rate, up from about $10 million the prior year; Salihefendić broadly confirmed the trajectory. Twist contributed about $600,000 in annual revenue. The founder also recalled over 200 paying customers and a few thousand dollars per month in profit by the end of 2007. These figures are founder-reported in an interview and were not independently audited.
For a low-priced task app, first users are easiest to reach through a specific audience that already trusts the maker. Salihefendić said his popular personal blog brought most of Todoist’s early customers.
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Data credibility: Founder-reported interview figures, with interviewer summaries confirmed broadly by the founder. Todoist was described as near a $14M revenue run rate; historical customer milestones and early profit were approximate. No independent financial verification was cited.
The first paid feature was reminders. Todoist started as a side project in 2007, and the founder said he made reminders paid because he did not want to keep covering server costs himself.
The strongest growth step the founder named was native mobile apps, which helped move Todoist beyond a nearly flat side-project curve. He said the team passed 10,000 customers before roughly 2012–13 and estimated 100,000 around 2015–16, though he was not certain of the dates.
Habit products can take years to become meaningful businesses, and a long flat stretch is not automatically proof the idea has failed. Todoist began as a side project; Salihefendić described spending years maintaining it before growth accelerated with mobile apps and a larger team.
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