Sunrise
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Sunrise was a beloved calendar app for mobile and desktop, founded in 2012 in France by Jeremy Le Van and Pierre Valade (Sunrise Atelier Inc.). It synced calendars from Gmail, iCloud, and Microsoft Exchange into one beautiful native interface, with integrations to third-party services - widely praised as the best calendar app ever made. The company raised $8.2 million. In February 2015 Microsoft acquired Sunrise for a rumored $100 million; the app was shut down on August 31, 2016 and its technology was folded into Outlook's mobile apps.
02 / Sunrise FAILURE REASONS
Failure reasons
Sunrise didn't fail on its own - it was killed by its adoptive parent. But the underlying problem was real: calendars are notoriously hard to monetize, with a very low entry barrier and plenty of free competitors, so even a beloved product with great reviews struggled to build a standalone business. The Microsoft acquisition (February 2015) was the exit; Microsoft then merged Sunrise's technology into Outlook and shut the app down on August 31, 2016. Product Hunt's verdict: 'Got killed by its adoptive parent who merged it into Outlook.'
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Acquisition
The company or its assets were acquired.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
In February 2015 Microsoft acquired Sunrise Atelier Inc. for a rumored $100 million; the company had raised $8.2 million.
- 02
On August 31, 2016 the Sunrise app was shut down and removed from app stores; its technology was integrated into Outlook mobile apps for iOS and Android.
- 03
The Sunrise team moved to work on Outlook; no bankruptcy or debts were involved.