6Wunderkinder / Wunderlist

6Wunderkinder GmbH, the Berlin-based startup behind the popular task management application Wunderlist, was founded in August 2010 by Christian Reber, Frank Thelen, Marc Cowal, Robert Kock, Daniel Mickisch, and Charlette Provot. The founding team's journey began with Christian Reber's vision to create a simple and elegant to-do list application, a project he initially started as a freelancer. His background in web design and development was instrumental in shaping the user-centric design of Wunderlist. The company secured early-stage funding, with High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) being one of its initial investors.

The company's core product, Wunderlist, was a cloud-based task management application that allowed users to manage their to-do lists from various devices, including smartphones, tablets, and computers. Its business model operated on a freemium basis; a basic version of the service was offered for free, while a premium subscription, Wunderlist Pro, provided access to advanced features for a monthly fee. This premium tier was aimed at professionals and teams, offering functionalities like unlimited subtasks and file attachments. The application served a broad market, from individual users seeking personal productivity tools to small and medium-sized businesses needing a collaborative platform for task management.

Wunderlist distinguished itself through its clean interface, cross-platform synchronization, and collaborative features. Users could create lists, set due dates and reminders, and share tasks with others, making it a versatile tool for both personal and professional projects. A significant milestone for 6Wunderkinder was its acquisition by Microsoft in June 2015. The acquisition was part of Microsoft's strategy to bolster its mobile and cloud-based productivity suite. Following the acquisition, the Wunderlist team was integrated into Microsoft, and the application's technology was eventually used to develop Microsoft's own task management tool, Microsoft To Do.

Keywords: task management, productivity software, to-do list app, freemium model, cross-platform, collaboration tool, startup acquisition, mobile application, cloud-based, personal organization