Unicorn Work-Productivity Startup ClickUp Is Boldly Advertising On Super Bowl LVI

Zeb Evans, CEO of ClickUp, is a bright and bold entrepreneur. He’s as colorful as his flamboyant Hawaiian-style shirts. In a wide-ranging interview, Evans shares his thoughts on the future of work, the four-day workweek trend, his booming multibillion-dollar unicorn startup and the hilarious ad he’s running in the upcoming Super Bowl.

His company, ClickUp, is the world’s only all-in-one productivity platform that “flexes to the way people want to work.” It replaces all individual workplace productivity tools with a single, unified platform that includes project management, document collaboration, spreadsheets, chat and goals. 

Founded in 2017 and based in San Diego, ClickUp is on a mission to make the world more productive. As one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world, ClickUp has helped more than 800,000 teams and millions of users lead a more productive life and save at least one day every week.

After a near-death experience as a young kid, Evans adopted a stoic-like philosophy. He said the key to success “isn’t in the clarity of vision, [as] all the best intentions don’t mean anything if you don’t know how and where to put in the work.” He explained,  “I had to find a way to work toward my goal every single day.” To this end, ClickUp’s goal is to “grow 1% each day.” 

He is a believer in being in the moment, stating, “Even the most motivated, intelligent person will fail at making the most of their time if they don’t establish a system for success.” What you do every moment of the day matters and has an impact. Similar to the compounding of interest on money in the bank increases your net worth, “It all begins with making that 1% growth every day.” This is an apropos mindset for a company whose business is focused on enabling workers to be more efficient and effective by using his platform.

For a distributed workforce, remote, hybrid and digital nomad workers, ClickUp is a godsend to keep everything organized and making it easy for employees to work more effectively and efficiently. In light of his laser focus on maximizing time, Evans has strong opinions of the growing trend of a four-day workweek, saying it may turn out to be a “fad.” It’s not that he has anything against it, rather Evans feels that much thought should go into before a decision is made. He says that as organizations look to transform their workplace, in an effort to deliver more flexibility, prioritize well-being and increase retention, the idea of a four-day workweek has been brought center stage. 

However, in order to implement this successfully, business leaders need to take a closer look at internal functions and processes to ensure their company is already operating at its best. The key areas businesses need to be ready to support a four-day workweek include improving knowledge sharing, transparency, alignment and eliminating duplication.

In another contrarian take, Evans contends that if the economy and job market slows down or corrects, companies may go back to pre-pandemic ways of conducting business. If that happens, a lot of the employee-centric benefits may go by the wayside, as management will then have the upper hand and won’t need to cater as much to the workers, as they are now. 

Evans is a big thinker and a big doer. In that right, his company will be airing a Super Bowl LVI ad on Sunday, February 13. The commercial, entitled “Declaration,” features a humorous take on the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and highlights how having all of your work in one place would have made life easier for our founding fathers. 

The television spot will premiere during the third quarter in U.S. markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, Boston, Miami, San Diego, Austin, Seattle, Charlotte, and Raleigh.

ClickUp’s in-house creative team, led by Melissa Rosenthal, the company’s chief creative officer, conceptualized and created the ad. “This commercial is a natural progression of our overall advertising strategy and the large investments we’ve made in out-of-home advertising to-date. We’re excited by the opportunity to amplify the voice we’ve developed on the biggest national stage,” Rosenthal said.

The television ad is also a way for the company itself to celebrate its fast growth trajectory. The productivity startup raised $535 million in funding, including a $400 million Series C round in October 2021. The unicorn-status company “tripled its revenue and grew its user base from 200,000 to 800,000 teams worldwide, including teams at McDonalds, Booking.com, Papa Johns, and Netflix.”