Word: 37signals
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...37signals isn't shy about dispensing one thing without charge: advice to small-business owners. On the company blog, Signal vs. Noise, Fried shares what he's learned about the art of streamlined teamwork with more than 65,000 readers. First, kill all your meetings; they waste employees' time. "Interruption is the biggest enemy of productivity," he says. "We stay away from each other as much as we can to get more stuff done." Use asynchronous communication and software instead to exchange information, ideas and solutions. Next, dump half your projects to focus on the core of your business...
...help build Basecamp, Campfire and the company's other core applications, Hansson developed Ruby on Rails. It gives 37signals' software a consistent look: sleek, friendly and without the extraneous bells and whistles that plague much of the bloated software sold by larger companies...
...plus employees have a growing suite of Web-based software tools called Google Apps that is attracting interest from companies of all sizes. And so far, all of it is free. But Fried is convinced that there is plenty of room in the market for smaller players like 37signals and that people should--and will--pay for tools that benefit their business. "Some people would rather pay $50 for something that works than get something for free that doesn't," says Fried. Critics, though, complain that the monthly costs quickly mount for tools available in more primitive form for free...
...eight years since 37signals launched, Fried says he has fended off more than 30 venture capitalists offering to fund his company. He turned them down, Fried says, because he wants to keep control instead of selling out to a larger player, as VC-funded start-ups often do. Last July, though, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, bought a minority share of 37signals with his own money, setting 37signals alongside space travel in the Bezos portfolio. Fried says he was impressed with the Amazon chief's appreciation of 37signals' ethos and felt having Bezos on his team would be helpful...
Next up for 37signals? Possibly financial software, Fried says. Like other small businesses, his firm now needs tools to manage its own financial success...