Tasklet

Alumni Q&A

How did your company get started? (i.e., How did the founders meet? How did you come up with the idea? How did you decide to be a founder?)

The founders met while working at Firebase and stayed together at Google after its acquisition, leaving in 2020 to start a company. They first built an email client called Shortwave, and while adding an AI agent to it in late 2024 they found some users wanted the agent and integrations without the email client. In 2025 they built Tasklet as a standalone cloud AI agent for knowledge work.

What's the history of your company from getting started until the present day? What were the big inflection points?

Founded in 2020 by ex-Firebase/Google engineers, the company first built Shortwave, an AI-powered email client, and after ChatGPT's launch focused on a conversational email assistant. In fall 2024 they shipped an AI agent inside Shortwave, added integrations with CRMs, project management, and messaging tools, and were early to support MCP; users indicated they wanted the agent without the email client. In 2025 they built Tasklet, going from idea to first user in under six weeks, and by January 2026 Tasklet was adding more monthly revenue than Shortwave had in its first four years.

What is the core problem you are solving? Why is this a big problem? What made you decide to work on it?

The founders note that AI chatbots can answer questions but are not connected to a user's tools, cannot take actions, and stop when the tab closes, leaving knowledge workers switching between many SaaS apps and moving data manually. Tasklet is built to connect to a user's tools, run continuously in the cloud, use a computer, and handle entire workflows.

What is your long-term vision? If you truly succeed, what will be different about the world?

The founders expect most knowledge work to eventually be done by AI agents rather than humans, with Tasklet as the platform for managing and directing those agents across tools. They anticipate legacy SaaS becoming background infrastructure accessed by agents via API, with workers shifting from doing work to directing it.