Introducing the first Asana (micro) incubator

Published in

Asana / minimalist work

6 min readSep 10, 2017

Update December 2017: Asana Experts is the first project to emerge from the incubator.
Update January 2017: the incubator is now part of Asana Superheroes.
Update July 2018: the chrome extension Asana2Go and its founder Larry join the incubator.
Update July 2018 #2: Josh is joining the incubator, he is working on a tool to migrate from Basecamp 3 to Asana.
Update July 2018 #3: Millor and Fred also joined with their secret project!
Update January 2019: what you can read below is the incubator I first envisioned. Since then, the incubator evolved and turned into a simple “team” of Asana lovers discussing their respective projects. We do share a small part of our revenues with the incubator, but did not plan on using it yet!

After both working with Asana and building services around Asana for years, I became convinced that Asana is one of the best services to bet on and is here to stay. Knowing this, over the years I have created many projects around Asana:

Templana, a collection of pre-defined templates for Asana.
three-dots CMS, the first Content Management System for Asana.
I authored of the second edition of Do Better With Asana, an ebook about getting the best out of Asana.

I created three additional services — Asanews, an Asana newsfeed; Coachana, a spin-off of Templana specializing in coaching templates; and Mailana, a service which allowed you to download CSV contacts for each of your Asana projects to email tasks to them. I have since moved on from these projects to focus on even better Asana solutions.

Today, I would not only like to share my knowledge and contacts, but an entire codebase, that will allow anyone to create his/her own service around Asana.

Anyone with some basic web development skills, good motivation and an entrepreneurial spirit can apply for the program and use our code and knowledge to build the service they’ve been dreaming about. The program is open to any candidate, be it a student in Computer Science from the United States, a mom learning PHP in the UK, a retired French grandfather with an entrepreneurial mind, who is eager to learn…

The Program

The incubator program includes the following:

1. Complete access to a codebase (in PHP) to bootstrap any project, allowing you to:

Enable users to connect with their Asana account
Discuss with the Asana API about organizations, workspaces, tasks, subtasks, projects, tags…
Setup webhooks to get notified of any events in your users Asana accounts
Accept PayPal and Stripe payments

2. Online services such as domain names, servers, mailing service, logos, themes, virtual assistants… and access to my amazing virtual assistant in the US, Meagan. All for an investment of $100 a month.

3. Online presence with the opportunity to appear in a monthly newsletter sent to 12k+ Asana users and advertising slots on templana.com.

4. Regular one-one-one discussions about code challenges, strategy, marketing…

5. Anything needed that I can provide!

What is expected of you

In return, here is what the incubator expects from the “incubee”:

Hard work, dedication, honesty, transparence.
Part of the revenues generated by the service. At the moment, the agreement with other incubees is: 45% of revenues for the incubee, 45% for myself and 10% goes back to the incubator to support other projects. The agreement stays as long as both the incubee and myself stay involved.
Access to advertising slots and appearances in your newsletter for the other incubees.
Having fun while working hard to make a living!

Q&A

Is there any requirement about my age, gender, experience, location?
There is absolutely no requirement, apart from speaking English and having some basic web development skills. (Already knowing and using Asana would be great, obviously).

Do I need an idea for a service before applying?
No, we can brainstorm for an idea together!

Do I have to work full-time on the project?
Not at all — you can work a few hours per week or fulltime, as long as it fits your schedule, personal goals, and allows you to still earn a living.

What would the program look like in term of schedule?
Once we get in touch and find an idea, we both sign an agreement. Then we get to work! We build the service, step by step, and measure our progress along the way. After a few weeks/months we decide together if the service is worth pursuing or if we should pivot.

If you already have the code and some ideas, why don’t you just create new services yourself?
Because it would be a shame to not share what I learned and created.

How good is the codebase? What does it include?
The code is written in framework-less PHP. It is pretty basic, but works well and will save you hours of work. You will have access to the entire codebase of my projects templana.com and three-dots.io.

How to apply

Send me an email (siebmanb@gmail.com), tweet me (@siebmanb) or comment this post. Not sure you qualify or if you are interested, but you are still intrigued? Get in touch anyway!

Our team and advisors

Bastien Siebman founder of Templana and three-dots CMS, author of Do Better With Asana will guide the incubee and provide anything needed.

Alexandre Aminot founder of Dual Cat Studio will advise on any mobile dev or mobile marketing challenge.

Bastien Libersa founder of Templana will be here to help with any admin sys issue (including domain names, SSL certificate, web hosting…).

Quentin Fouré founder of Templana is our web design advisor.

Todd Cavanaugh founder of Asana training can advise about training and general Asana challenges.

Sebastian Paash is the founder of Asana Consulting. He holds a master degree in industrial engineering from the Helmut-Schmidt-University and Dartmouth College (Ivy League). His company implemented Asana in big corporations as well as SMBs and startups. Sebastian and his team can advise about how to successfully and sustainable implement Asana in organizations including change management, trainings and adapting Asana to the client’s needs.