Sunrise Calendar
“A calendar that actually brought joy to scheduling.”
The Story
Rise & Demise of Sunrise Calendar
A calendar application founded by Pierre Valade and Jeremy Le Van with exquisite design and cross-platform sync.
Connected Google Calendar, iCloud, Exchange, Asana, Trello, and Facebook Events into a unified, gorgeous agenda view.
It turned the dreaded task of scheduling into a visually calming, joyous interface with delightful weather icons and timezone dials.
Acquired by Microsoft for $100 million in 2015. The team and core code were absorbed into the redesigned Outlook mobile app, and the standalone app was sunset.
Post-Mortem Wisdom
“Great design makes you a prime acquisition target, but independent survival requires owning your distribution or enterprise monetization.”
Selling early before building sustainable B2B team scheduling features.
Built team scheduling and enterprise calendar sync to remain standalone and profitable.
Memories & Condolences
Reflections left by the builders, users, and community who remember Sunrise Calendar.
“Sunrise was the gold standard of mobile UI craftsmanship in the iOS 7 era.”