Asana vs ClickUp: Founders, CEOs and History
Asana was founded in 2008 by Dustin Moskovitz, Justin Rosenstein and is led by Dan Rogers. ClickUp was founded in 2017 by Zeb Evans, Alex Yurkowski and is led by Zeb Evans.
Company facts
Founders
Asana
Dustin Moskovitz
Dustin Moskovitz is a US entrepreneur, a co-founder of Facebook, and the co-founder of Asana, which he ran as chief executive officer from 2008 until July 2025.
Justin Rosenstein
Justin Rosenstein is a US software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Asana with Dustin Moskovitz.
ClickUp
Zeb Evans
Zeb Evans is the co-founder and CEO of ClickUp. A serial entrepreneur, he started ClickUp in 2017 with Alex Yurkowski after experiencing how much time teams lost moving between disconnected work apps.
Alex Yurkowski
Alex Yurkowski co-founded ClickUp with Zeb Evans in 2017 and is its chief technology officer. He built the original product, first used internally before its public release, and its flexible data model that lets one set of work appear in many different views.
CEOs and their tenures
Asana
- Dustin Moskovitz2008–2025
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Ran Asana for its first 17 years, from incorporation in December 2008 to a platform with more than 180,000 paying customers, and retains a majority of the company's voting power through its dual-class structure.
Source - Dan Rogers2025–present
Chief Executive Officer
Second chief executive in Asana's history, brought in to restart growth by rebuilding the platform around AI agents while holding the margin gains that produced non-GAAP operating income of $56.7 million in fiscal 2026.
Source
ClickUp
- Zeb Evans2017–present
Founder & CEO
Took ClickUp from an internal tool to more than $300 million in ARR and 20 million users by September 2025.
Source - Alex Yurkowski2017–present
Co-Founder & CTO
Co-founded ClickUp and built the original platform architecture that lets the same data appear as lists, boards, calendars, Gantt charts and docs.
Source
Timeline: Asana and ClickUp side by side
2008Asana
Asana incorporated in Delaware: Dustin Moskovitz and Justin Rosenstein left Facebook and incorporated the company in Delaware on December 16, 2008, initially as Smiley Abstractions, Inc., renamed Asan…
2009Asana
$9 million Series A from Benchmark and Andreessen Horowitz: Asana raised a $9 million Series A round in November 2009 led by Benchmark, with Andreessen Horowitz participating and Benchmark's Matt Cohl…
2011Asana
Product opens to the public for free: After about three years of building a custom web framework called Luna and the Work Graph data model behind it, Asana opened its platform to the public at no char…
2012Asana
Paid plans and a public API: Asana began charging for the platform in April 2012 and released its API to third-party developers the same month, with Twitter and LinkedIn among the early companies runn…
2012Asana
$28 million raised to expand the team: Asana raised $28 million in July 2012 to build out engineering, support and sales as paid usage started to grow.
2016Asana
$50 million Series C led by Sam Altman: Asana raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Sam Altman, then president of Y Combinator, at a valuation of about $600 million.
2017ClickUp
Zeb Evans and Alex Yurkowski found ClickUp, first built as an internal tool before its public release.
2018Asana
Portfolios and the Asana Business tier: Asana launched Portfolios alongside a new Business plan in November 2018, giving executives a single view of progress and resourcing across many projects and pu…
2018Asana
$125 million raised at a $1.5 billion valuation: Asana raised $75 million in Series D funding led by Generation Investment Management and a further $50 million in November 2018 that valued the company…
2019Asana
Workload capacity planning ships: Asana released Workload in August 2019, letting managers see how individual team members were staffed across projects and rebalance assignments without leaving the pl…
2020Asana
Asana Goals links execution to strategy: Asana released Goals on July 15, 2020, a goal-tracking layer that connects company objectives to the projects and tasks underneath them so progress updates aut…
2020Asana
Direct listing on the New York Stock Exchange: Asana went public on September 30, 2020 through a direct listing rather than an IPO.
2020ClickUp
Moves headquarters to San Diego in January; raises a $35M Series A in June and a $100M Series B in December at a valuation above $1 billion.
2021ClickUp
Raises a $400M Series C at about a $4 billion valuation, co-led by Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global; opens offices in Dublin and Sydney.
2022Asana
Workforce cut by 9%: In November 2022 Asana cut about 9% of its global workforce in a restructuring aimed at operating costs after two years of rapid hiring during the remote-work boom.
2022ClickUp
Acquires unified search tool Slapdash and launches Whiteboards.
2023Asana
Asana Intelligence brings generative AI into the Work Graph: Asana announced its first generative AI features in June 2023 and packaged them as Asana Intelligence on October 3, 2023, covering smart st…
2023ClickUp
Launches ClickUp AI and the rebuilt ClickUp 3.0 platform; cuts about 10% of staff in July.
2024Asana
AI Studio opens agent building to non-developers: Asana launched AI Studio in October 2024, a no-code builder that lets teams embed AI agents in a workflow and deploy them inside Asana.
2024ClickUp
Rebrands its AI as ClickUp Brain in January and launches ClickUp Chat in September.
2025Asana
Dan Rogers succeeds Dustin Moskovitz as chief executive: Moskovitz announced his retirement as chief executive in March 2025.
2025ClickUp
Announces $300M+ ARR and 20M+ users in September; acquires Qatalog in November and Codegen in December.
2026Asana
StackAI acquired for $75 million: Asana completed its acquisition of StackAI, a no-code AI workflow platform, on May 28, 2026 for $75 million.
2026Asana
Repositioned as an operating system for human-agent teams: At its Work Innovation Summit in June 2026 Asana unveiled a product suite built so employees and AI agents work from the same plan, context a…
2026Asana
Dan Rogers named board chair: Effective September 25, 2026 Rogers added board chair to the chief executive role, Dustin Moskovitz moved to director, and Jerry Ting and Tom Berquist joined the board.
2026ClickUp
Adds six executives in February for a path to $1B+ ARR; lays off 22% of staff in May in an AI-first restructuring.
Acquisitions
Questions about Asana vs ClickUp
Who is the CEO of Asana, Inc. and ClickUp?
Asana, Inc. is led by Dan Rogers and ClickUp is led by Zeb Evans. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Asana, Inc. founded vs ClickUp?
Asana, Inc. was founded in 2008 — 9 years before ClickUp, which was founded in 2017. Asana, Inc.'s longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger ClickUp.
How many employees does Asana, Inc. have compared to ClickUp?
Asana, Inc. employs approximately 1,767 people, while ClickUp employs approximately 1,000. Asana, Inc. has the larger workforce at 1,767 employees, compared to ClickUp's 1,000. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Asana, Inc. and ClickUp headquartered?
Both Asana, Inc. and ClickUp are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Asana, Inc. and ClickUp?
Asana, Inc. was founded by Dustin Moskovitz, Justin Rosenstein. ClickUp was founded by Zeb Evans, Alex Yurkowski.
Which company has a longer operating history — Asana, Inc. or ClickUp?
Asana, Inc. has been operating for approximately 18 years, making it the more established of the two companies. ClickUp has been in operation for around 9 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Asana vs ClickUp overview