Sunrise Calendar

Sunrise Atelier, Inc. was the company behind Sunrise, a discontinued calendar application for mobile and desktop platforms. Founded in 2013 by former Foursquare designers Pierre Valade and Jeremy Le Van, the company was established with a focus on solving time management issues through superior design. The founders, both with design backgrounds, felt that existing calendar apps were inadequate and saw an opportunity to create a better user experience. Valade's background is in engineering, while Le Van focused on product design and user experience, making for a complementary partnership.

The company's product, Sunrise Calendar, was a free application that distinguished itself by integrating with a wide variety of third-party services. It allowed users to connect their Google Calendar, iCloud, and Microsoft Exchange accounts, consolidating their schedules in one place. Beyond basic calendar syncing, it featured integrations with services like Foursquare, GitHub, TripIt, Asana, Evernote, Trello, and Songkick, pulling relevant information directly into the user's schedule. The application was available across multiple platforms, including iOS, Android, macOS, and a web app, ensuring a consistent experience. A notable feature was 'Meet', a mobile keyboard that simplified scheduling one-on-one meetings by allowing users to select and share available time slots without leaving their current app.

Sunrise operated on a freemium model, providing its core application for free to a user base of millions. The business strategy focused on building a large user base with a product people loved before exploring monetization, which the founders admitted they had not yet figured out at the time of their acquisition. The company's growth was fueled by venture capital, raising a total of $8.2 million over several funding rounds from investors such as Lerer Hippeau Ventures, SV Angel, and Balderton Capital. In February 2015, Microsoft acquired Sunrise for a reported sum of over $100 million. Following the acquisition, the Sunrise team was integrated into the Microsoft Outlook mobile team. Microsoft ultimately discontinued the standalone Sunrise app on September 13, 2016, incorporating its features and design philosophy into Outlook Mobile.

Keywords: Sunrise Calendar, Pierre Valade, Jeremy Le Van, calendar app, mobile productivity, calendar integration, Outlook Mobile, Microsoft acquisition, venture capital, Foursquare alumni, user experience design, schedule management, cross-platform calendar, productivity tools, tech acquisition, New York startup, app integration, time management software, digital calendaring, freemium model, Evernote integration, Trello integration, Asana integration