Easy does it could be software developer's motto
Chicago software developer 37signals has run with it: Its simple collaboration software has won rave reviews and a cultlike following and earned the company a 2006 Chicago Innovation Award.
Jason Fried, 32, co-founder of 37signals, said, "While other software is filled with features, 37signals creates software with minimal features, but a strong focus on simplicity."
37signals' software can be set up in minutes and is free of the complicated features that frustrate people (37signals espouses its own manifesto in which it rejects the common computer industry word "users").
37signals offers tools at its Web site, www.37signals.com, for project collaboration, group chats, information organization, collaborative writing and to-do lists.
The idea has resonated. The company quietly launched its Basecamp software, a project collaboration tool, in February 2004. As word spread and new products were released, 37signals has attracted the masses: it recently registered its 1 millionth customer. At the end of 2005, it had 500,000 registered people. Fried said he considers the company's Campfire -- a Web browser-based group chat for up to 60 participants -- 37signals' most important product.
"We, as a company, live in that product," he said.
The company also offers Backpack (personal and small business information organizer), Ta-da List (a simple to-do list manager) and Writeboard (collaborative writing tool). Sunrise, a customer relationship management program, is due out early next year.
Individuals and small businesses, as well as large companies, use the products. All the products are available for free for personal use, although charges vary for some products depending on use levels. Fried started the company as a design firm in 1999 as the Internet boom was taking off. But it was the collaborative software that 37signals developed internally to manage projects that really grabbed its clients' attention.
37signals dropped the Web design business and developed the software into products with the philosophy of "doing less" and steering away from the "bloated mess" of software that "tries to solve too many problems and make too many promises." He said his company reflects its philosophy: "The discipline is to keep things clear and simple. Everything in business pushes you in a different direction. . . . The more-more-more battle cry never ends -- unless you ignore it and just focus on building a simple, streamlined, elegant business that builds simple, streamlined, and elegant products."
37signals takes its name from the SETI project, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The project analyzed millions of radio waves from outer space. Only 37 signals are unexplained, possible signs of intelligent life out there.
The company has eight staffers, including five in Chicago, and others in Idaho, New York and Virginia. 37signals has shunned venture capitalists, jealously protecting its independence.
However, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, recently bought a minority stake through his Bezos Expeditions investment arm, making himself available as an adviser.
Fried said, "We don't need the money. The business is cash-flow positive, and we're profitable. We brought Jeff Bezos on board for his advice and knowledge. He built a $1 billion company from scratch, and weathered the storm of the dot-com crash."
Does 37signals want to be a $1 billion company? "Why not?" said Fried. "Our goal is to be one of the great companies of the next 20 years. We're here to stay and to make great products."