How 2 people started Remember The Milk (simple todo list with 300K users) | Hacker News Reader

How 2 people started Remember The Milk (simple todo list with 300K users)

blog.rememberthemilk.com

36 pointsterpua13 comments

I wonder what they did to get the word out about RTM?

Vote it to the top of sites like this? I'm pretty annoyed I read that article/advertisement.

34th rules of business. Everything and Everyone is a product... no explanation needed :)

My guess? Not a darn thing. It was valuable, people liked it, and told their friends.

Why doesn't Google buy them? The stuff they've done to integrate it with GMail (via a Firefox extension [I think]) looks impressive!

My goodness, that couldn't possibly have been the plan all along! Nobody would want to work for an evil corporation like Google. Also, acquisition is not a viable exit plan. Last but not least, they don't seem Googley enough.

Oh, wait -- you were serious? Because I wasn't... I will feel a teeny tiny bit bad for these guys if Google doesn't buy them, because it's so obvious that acquisition is their desired endpoint. Not that they haven't created a desirable product for people to use and Google to acquire, mind you -- it just doesn't seem like any sort of an afterthought.

My goodness! You couldn't possibly think I was stupid enough to think this wasn't the plan!

Do any of you guys use it? I do, and so far it has worked. I created a smart list that shows all the tasks I have completed so far because if you only make it show you what you have to do, it can be overwhelming, but if you use it to show also what you have already acomplished, that sort of balances out the effect.

An alternative I develop in my spare time: http://tudulist.com

Tudulist stresses the "tool to work together" point btw.

What is your source for 300k users?

http://www.rememberthemilk.com/about/ : they say they have over 350K users

Thanks!

nice little story, they were a bit slow with the pro accounts but I like the pricing. If they get 1 percent of their 300k users to upgrade thats $75000 a year.

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