Asana (software)

Asana (/ˈɑːsənə/)[2] is a web and mobile application designed to help teams organize, track, and manage their work. Forrester, Inc. reports that “Asana simplifies team-based work management.”[3] It is produced by the company of the same name. (Asana, Inc.)

Asana, Inc.
TypePublic
NYSE: ASAN
Industry
Founded2008
Founder
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
,
US
Key people
Dustin Moskovitz (CEO)
Revenue $142.2 Million(2019)[1]
Number of employees
900
Websiteasana.com

It was founded in 2008 by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and ex-Google, ex-Facebook engineer Justin Rosenstein, who both worked on improving the productivity of employees at Facebook.[4] The product launched commercially in April 2012.[5] In December 2018 the company was valued at $1.5 billion.[6]

History

Moskovitz and Rosenstein left Facebook in 2008[7] to start Asana (named after a Sanskrit word meaning “yoga pose”[8]), which officially launched for free out of beta in November 2011[9] and commercially in April 2012.[4] The company announced that they had closed a $1.2-million angel round in the spring of 2011 from investors including Ron Conway, Peter Thiel, Mitch Kapor, Owen van Natta, Sean Parker, and former Facebook Director of Mobile Jed Stremel, followed by a US$9-million Series A round in investment led by Benchmark Capital in late November 2011.[10]

On July 23, 2012, Asana announced a $28-million Series B round of funding, led by Peter Thiel and Founders Fund, along with existing investors Benchmark, Andreessen-Horowitz, and Mitch Kapor, Thiel then also joined Asana's Board of Directors (3.1). According to an article in The New York Times and someone briefed on the funding, the investors valued the company at $280 million.[11]

On March 30, 2016, Asana announced a $50-million Series C round of funding, led by Y Combinator's Sam Altman.[7] Other investors ranged from Tony Hsieh to Mark Zuckerberg.[8] The round valued the company at $600 million.[9]

On January 31, 2018, Asana announced a $75-million Series D round of funding, led by Generation Investment Management.[8] The round valued the company at $900M.[12]

As of January 2018, Asana claims more than 35,000 paying customers, including AB-InBev, Viessmann, eBay, Uber, Overstock, Navy Federal Credit Union, Icelandair, and IBM.[13]

In September 2018, Asana announced that it had reached 50,000 paying customers and a 90 percent YoY revenue growth rate.[14]

In November 2018, the company raised $50 million during the fifth round of funding, despite having another $75 million earlier the same year. The round valued Asana at $1.5 billion.[15][16] As of the same month, the company is not yet profitable.[17]

In August 2020, Asana filed for a direct listing with IPO plans.[18]

Product

Asana is a software-as-a-service designed to improve team collaboration and work management. It helps teams manage projects and tasks in one tool. Teams can create projects, assign work to teammates, specify deadlines, and communicate about tasks directly in Asana. It also includes reporting tools, file attachments, calendars, and more.

In May 2013, Asana launched Organizations, a way for companies of all sizes to use Asana, reporting tools to help teams monitor project progress, and IT admin tools.[19]

In 2014, Asana launched Calendar View for projects and tasks, its native iOS app,[20] and Dashboards.[21]

In January 2015, Asana released its native Android app.[22] Later that year, the company added team conversations.[23] In September 2015, Asana unveiled a completely redesigned application and brand.[24]

In 2016, Asana added administrator features including member management,[25] team management,[26] and password and security controls.[27] Then, status updates were added so teams could communicate the state of a project to stakeholders,[28] and task dependencies followed in July 2016.[29] In September 2016, the company launched custom fields, “an interface and architecture that will let you tailor Asana’s information management to cover a variety of structured data points”.[30] A few months later, Asana launched Boards so teams could organize and visualize their projects in columns. The Verge reported that, “By integrating lists and boards into a single product, Asana may have just vaulted ahead of its rivals.”[31] The company also released pre-made project templates.

In March 2017, Asana announced its integration with Microsoft Teams,[32] followed by the launch of custom project templates in June.[33] In fall 2017, start dates,[34] a new integration with Gmail,[35] and comment-only projects were released.[36] Also in November, Asana launched its app in French and German.[37]

At the beginning of 2018, Asana launched a new CSV importer[38] so teams could upload their data into the app. In February 2018, the app was released in Spanish and Portuguese. In March 2018, Asana announced a new interactive feature called Timeline, which businesses can use to visualize and map out their projects.[39]

API and integrations

In April 2012, Asana released its API to third-party developers. Asana's open API provides a means to programmatically read information in Asana, input information into Asana, and create automations within Asana. This allows customers or third-party developers to build on the Asana platform and customize Asana to the unique way their teams work. Common use cases include automating repetitive tasks, chaining processes, automating reporting on tasks and projects, and syncing with databases or other tools.

The Asana API is a RESTful interface, allowing users to update and access much of their data on the platform. It provides predictable URLs for accessing resources, and uses built-in HTTP features to receive commands and return responses. This makes it easy to communicate with a wide variety of environments, from command-line utilities to browser plugins to native applications.

Asana has integrations with other SaaS tools, including Gmail, Slack, Microsoft Outlook, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Zapier, IFTTT, Wufoo, JotForm, Okta, OneLogin, Harvest, Instagantt, and Zendesk.[40]

Reception

Asana received a 4.5 / 5 from PC Magazine (October 13, 2017), which named it an Editors' Choice and called it "one of the best collaboration and productivity apps for teams."[41] The article remarked on Asana's "thoughtful design, fluid interactive elements, and generous member allotment."[41] In December 2020, Asana was named as one of the Best Workplaces for Parents in the US by Great Place to Work.[42]

Etymology

Asana (the third “limb” of Ashtanga Yoga outlined by the sage Patanjali) is a Sanskrit term used in Yoga, often as a suffix, to refer to a body position that is held for a sustained duration. While it originally meant being seated in a firm, pleasant, and relaxed position,[43] many of the Yogic Asanas are physically challenging and require extreme flexibility, core strength and/or coordination, and are neither seated, nor pleasant, nor relaxed until proficiency is achieved.

See also

References
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  2. "About Asana". Asana. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
  3. "The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Collaborative Work Management, Q4 2016". www.forrester.com. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
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  5. Guynn, Jessica (April 24, 2012). "Asana, software start-up from Facebook vets, launches paid version". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
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  10. "Term Sheet -- Wednesday, January 31". Fortune. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
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  12. "Al Gore Buys Into Facebook Co-Founder's Vision for a Better Workplace". Bloomberg.com. January 31, 2018. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
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  14. "Asana celebrates 50,000 paying organizations and 6 quarters of accelerating growth rate". The Asana Blog. September 27, 2018. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
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  18. Owens, Jeremy C. "Facebook co-founder's Asana caps wild day of IPO plans with filing for a direct listing". MarketWatch. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  19. Hardy, Quentin (May 1, 2013). "Re-Re-engineering the Corporation". NewYorkTimes.
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  30. "Task management app Asana takes on the spreadsheet with 'custom fields' – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  31. "Asana introduces boards as part of an all-out assault on Trello". The Verge. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  32. "Learn More About the New Asana Microsoft Teams Integration". The Asana Blog. March 13, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
  33. "Your recipe for success: Introducing custom templates". The Asana Blog. June 14, 2017. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
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  42. "Great Place to Work's Best Workplaces for Parents™ 2020". Great Place to Work®. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  43. https://www.ananda.org/yogapedia/asana/
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