When Dan Zhang joined ClickUp in 2021, she stepped into a company intent on unifying how the world works. Two years later, she entered the CFO office—just as ClickUp’s strategic bet on AI was beginning to reshape its platform and its future.
ClickUp is not just a place where work is tracked, Zhang tells us—it’s “where work happens.” The company combines project management, chat, docs, whiteboards, calendars, and more in a single AI-enabled platform. And with the launch of ClickUp Brain Max, the company aims to give every employee “a second brain”—one that automates manual processes, captures meeting notes, assigns follow-ups, and even suggests next steps.
Read MoreAs CFO, Zhang helps drive ClickUp’s mission with a sharp focus on scale and efficiency. “We’re over 1,000 employees around the world,” she tells us, adding that the momentum from AI has become a true growth engine. The company now supports more than 4 million teams globally, from three-person startups to Fortune 500 giants. And its AI business? It’s quadrupled year over year.
Zhang sees ClickUp’s all-in-one foundation as key to its AI differentiation. “This allows us to deliver AI that shows up with the right context, at the right moment, in the right place,” she explains.
Despite the company’s rapid growth, Zhang isn’t resting. “Even after four years here,” she tells us, “it still feels like this is day one.” That mindset—a blend of urgency and vision—continues to shape how she leads.
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CFOTL: What brought you to ClickUp, and how would you describe the company today?
Zhang: ClickUp is an AI productivity platform. We unify the entire suite of work applications—everything from project management to chat, docs, whiteboards, calendars, and even connected search across all your tools—all in one place.
On top of that, we’ve built a powerful contextual AI engine. Over time, ClickUp has become both a system of record for work activities and a system of engagement. That means we don’t just store your work data—we’re the place where work actually happens.
This foundation enables us to do something incredibly powerful: deliver AI that shows up with the right context, at the right moment, in the right place.
With our latest launch, ClickUp Brain Max, we’re helping our customers give every employee what is essentially a second brain. It can automate manual processes, take meeting notes, assign follow-up actions, and even suggest next steps—essentially planning an employee’s day in the most optimal way.
Today, we support more than 4 million global teams—from scrappy three-person startups to 30,000-person Fortune 500 companies. Hundreds of millions of AI actions are triggered on our platform, helping customers execute faster and more efficiently. At the same time, we give leaders real-time visibility to unblock critical projects and make smarter, faster decisions.
I joined the company four years ago, and we’re now over 1,000 employees worldwide. We’re scaling fast—and doing so efficiently. The momentum we’re seeing, particularly from our AI product, has been incredible. We’re currently quadrupling our AI business year over year. It’s become a new growth engine for us.
Even after four years here, it still feels like day one. We’re just getting started.
ClickUp | www.clickup.com | San Diego, CA