Doist: The Most Async Company in the World
Doist, the company behind Todoist (task manager) and Twist (async team messaging), has operated as a fully remote, radically async company since its founding in 2007. CEO Amir Salihefendic built Doist while finishing university in Denmark - distributed from the start, not by necessity but by design.
In 2026, Doist employs approximately 90 people across 35+ countries. They have never had a physical office. They built a $50+ million ARR business on this model, and they have been some of the most vocal advocates for async-first work in the remote work conversation.
The No-Meeting Default
Doist does not just minimize meetings - they have made async the structural default for virtually everything. Most companies say they are async-first but still schedule weekly team calls, daily standups, and quarterly all-hands. Doist goes further: even their company-wide communications happen primarily through Twist threads, not video calls.
The argument Amir makes: meetings privilege people in certain time zones, compress thinking into whatever can be said in real-time, and generate less thorough documentation than written discussion. Async communication, when done well, produces better-considered responses, includes voices that might be quieter in real-time discussions, and creates a searchable record of reasoning.
Building a Product to Solve the Problem They Have
Doist built Twist specifically because Slack - which they used - was optimized for real-time, synchronous communication in a way that did not match their async-first culture. Slack channels fill with ephemeral messages; important context is buried and lost. Twist organizes communication into threads where each conversation has a permanent, searchable home.
This product-culture alignment is common among successful remote-first companies: they build for the problems they actually experience. The result is software that embodies their communication philosophy rather than contradicting it.
High Trust and Ownership
With no office, no visible hours, and minimal meetings, Doist runs on high trust. Employees own their work outcomes without close supervision. This requires careful hiring - people who are self-directed, communicate clearly in writing, and deliver without external accountability pressure.
Doist compensates at market rates regardless of location (similar to Basecamp), offers a 40-day annual vacation policy with financial incentive to actually take it, and provides home office budgets and professional development allowances. High trust paired with generous compensation creates strong retention even without the conventional office perks.
What Other Companies Can Learn
Doist represents the extreme of what remote-first can look like when taken to its logical conclusion. Most companies will not go this far - and do not need to. But specific lessons apply broadly:
- Written communication is a skill that can be developed and rewarded explicitly
- Meeting defaults can be challenged without catastrophic loss of coordination
- Async communication creates more equitable participation across time zones and communication styles
- Tools shape culture - choose tools that embody the culture you want
- High trust requires clear expectations, not absence of accountability