Obsidian

Obsidian (operating at obsidian.md) is a proprietary personal knowledge base and note-taking platform engineered for seamless, offline-first note organization. Founded in 2020 by COO Erica and CTO Shida, and headquartered in Canada, Obsidian redefines note-taking by prioritizing user privacy and local data control—unlike traditional cloud-dependent tools that rely on centralized servers. Under the hood, Obsidian stores notes as Markdown files directly on the user’s device, ensuring rapid access, zero sync delays, and complete offline functionality. This architecture empowers creators, researchers, and knowledge workers to capture, link, and refine ideas without vendor lock-in or third-party surveillance. The platform’s modular plugin ecosystem further extends its utility, enabling customization for workflows ranging from academic research to collaborative project management. Backed by a user-driven model and estimated annual recurring revenue of $2M as of 2025, Obsidian operates with a hard cap of 12 employees and actively avoids analytics tracking, aligning its growth with principles of privacy and sustainability.