When 37signals first started out, we didn’t make products. We did client work.
From the beginning, we allotted plenty of time for side projects. Things that would get us attention (eNormicom), experiments with new ways of selling our services (37express), ways to show off our design thinking (37Better Project), etc.
Here are a few of the key non-client projects that enabled us to build up an audience before we launched Basecamp:
The 37signals manifesto
We started with a philosophy. The 37signals manifesto, which explained our approach to design, was our original site from 1999-2001. This collection of 37 nuggets of online philosophy and design wisdom was our initial “declaration of intent.”
We’ve changed a lot over the years. But the manifesto set the table for what followed. Usability, valuing people over org-charts, simplicity, speed, anti-jargon, small teams, emphasis on copywriting, eliminating bells and whistles, etc. It was all there, in the manifesto, back in 1999.
The 37Better Project
In “The 37Better Project,” we’d take frustrating online experiences and show how we thought they could be better.
Complaining is easy. Offering solutions is the tough part. When we have an idea about how to improve a specific web site or concept, we post our pro bono “better” design comp here.
The 37Better Project included: 37BetterBank, 37BetterFedEx, 37BetterPayPal, 37BetterMotors, 37BetterGoogle. Some examples (click image for full size version):
eNormicom
eNormicom was a parody site we made mocking the new media branding foolishness that was all the rage during the web bubble.
It takes a lot to differentiate your brand in today’s “me too” world of electronic business solutions. At eNormicom, we create and develop campaigns that break through the chatter clearly and consistently.
“Homing In on ‘Intelligent’ Web Design” is an article in the NY Times about the site.
Design Not Found
We also started collecting good and bad error messages at our site “Design Not Found.” The site’s no longer around but it eventually evolved into our book on the same topic: “Defensive Design for the Web: How to improve error messages, help, forms, and other crisis points.”
37express
With 37express, we offered quick, effective, subtle revisions done for a fixed price in one week. It was our way of getting work done quickly without having to deal with all the back and forth headaches that typically accompany client work.
Research
We also published this E-Commerce Search Report (1.2 MB PDF) which analyzed, reviewed, and rated the search engines and search results at 25 popular e-commerce sites. (Originally sold for $79.) There was also the Holiday E-Commerce Ideas and another report titled “Sites that Don’t Click” (now out of print).
Signal vs. Noise
And of course there was Signal vs. Noise too. We would trade lots of interesting emails or have conversations over lunch that seemed like they would be interesting to others too. So we converted these emails and topics into blog posts.
I remember thinking we were a little late to the blog party but, in retrospect, we were fortunate to get a blog up and running still relatively early. (Lesson: Technology that’s a year or two old may seem like old hat to us web freaks, but there’s still a while to go before saturation.)
Building an audience
Since we didn’t advertise and relied on word of mouth, projects like these were essential. They kept us in people’s heads.
They also freed us from the restrictions inherent in client work. We were able to play and experiment which, in turn, kept us happy/sane.
We built up an audience that turned out to be an invaluable headstart when we eventually launched Basecamp. It’s a lot easier to market a product when you already have thousands of fans — ones who are the perfect target market for what you’re trying to sell.
It’s also worth reemphasizing one thing that’s been there from the beginning: Our philosophy. By knowing what we stood for, we always had an internal compass to guide us. We knew which clients were right/wrong for us. We knew which projects we wanted to spend time on. And we knew what we stood for.
P.S. A big shoutout to early members of the 37signals team who have moved on: Ernest Kim, Carlos Segura, and Scott Upton. They’re all brilliant.
LBDG
on 14 Jul 08Nice trip down memory lane. I’ve been hooked since reading the manifesto and the old 37Better projects and drawing great inspiration from them. And don’t forget that old eCommerce study you once sold. Good stuff.
Dan Donald
on 14 Jul 08I think as much as anything it’s seeing how you guys evolved past purely client work, which I find interesting. It must’ve been a difficult balancing act to get right initially until you had an app that could generate income. I guess these other streams of awareness would’ve really helped!
As always, thanks for sharing!
Ric
on 14 Jul 08Thanks for sharing how you generated initial buzz. Your “Getting Real” book has also been a great inspiration for us.
We face a similar challenge at Swirrl, where we’re trying to generate traffic before we launch by posting relevant articles on our blog.
We also started out working on our product as a side-line, until we thought it was mature enough to take on full-time.
someone
on 14 Jul 08ah, the late 90s: memories of 45-degree angles as design element, #ff6600, browser wars, the web standards project… good times.
not really.
peter
on 14 Jul 0837bettergoogle? i would like to see that screenshot!
Riddle
on 14 Jul 08I second Peter’s comment.
Steven Fisher
on 14 Jul 08I found the 37bettergoogle, but I have to admit I was really unimpressed with it. Especially distasteful was the “Slight variations on your search for african coffee trade yielded:” If you’re serious about copy writing, surely you could come up with something better than that.
Greg T
on 14 Jul 08What about 37shirts?!!? I still have my ePimp tshirt and wear it proudly!
Matt Radel
on 14 Jul 08Holy crap, I didn’t realize that the 37better project was that long ago! I loved that – it made sooo much sense.
Also – I think the 37signals logo would be ten times better if it had a swoosh. ;)
JF
on 14 Jul 08I would also add that eNormicom led to our first speaking gig. Ernest, Scott, Matt, and I acted it out on stage in San Francisco at an AIGA event.
ML
on 14 Jul 08Good call LBDG, added e-commerce report.
And Greg T’s right, we sold t-shirts too. Kottke in an ePimp tee.
Dhrumil
on 14 Jul 08Matt: Wonderful post. Often people focus too much on the things you are doing now and feel that some how you are demi-gods. They forget all the little steps it took to build up to your level.
Jason: I’d love to see a video of that skit. Or maybe an encore reenactment at the next SEED conference. Toss Vaynerchuk into the mix.
john
on 14 Jul 08browser wars, the web standards project… good times.
not really.
We still hack for individual browsers, funny how not much has changed. Granted it is way easier now than it was back then, but still, far from perfect 9 years later.
Etienne
on 14 Jul 08Very interesting ideas. I’m in the process of creating a buzz for my business myself; this is very helpful.
What was your client work / side project ratio when you started?
Sandeep Sood
on 14 Jul 08Someone forwarded me the Manifesto back in 2000, and since then, you guys have been my marketing degree in a box.
Thank you for the review today.
Charles400
on 14 Jul 08If 40 is the new 30, then 47 is the new 37.
Dudu P
on 14 Jul 08Great trip back in time!
But you guys forgot the thing that made me come here at first: Design Not Found! (37signals.com/dnf).
I was an amazing collection of good and bad pieces of design. I also learned a lot from the metaphors that you used to explain each item.
Sure, we have Screens Around Town which is great, but I really miss the old DNF, as it was a great source of inspiration.
Peter Urban
on 14 Jul 08You did a great job in attracting and captivating your audience. A good mix of humor and information seems to work for us. SmibsTv is going to launch on July 25th, it’ll be a lot of work for us but I am sure it will be just as much fun.
Chris Tingom
on 15 Jul 08You should share some photos! That would be awesome.
Al Abut
on 15 Jul 08What an absolutely wonderful trip back in time. I still vividly remember 2 key 37s-related events from my first year or two of design that made up my mind that this was the career for me and this post brought the memories back, so after a few years of just reading svn, it’s time to delurk and share.
The first was coming across the 37s manifesto site in Curt Cloninger’s book Fresh Styles for Web Designers: Eye Candy from the Underground. It was the first book of its kind I read that was inspiring and hard to put down, rather than a how-two manual and something to be studied. The comparison of similarities between Jimi Hendrix and Bing Crosby in the introduction is still a must read to this day. All of the different styles showcased in each chapter was fascinating, but none of them felt like “me” until I got to HTMinimaLism and the example sites, which included 37s, the gettyimages stock library and a few others. I don’t care if anyone calls me a kissass but it’s hard to overstate what an effect finding the manifesto site had on me at the time. It was like a lighthouse in the noisy, bandwidth-heavy, flashturbation-choked and generally stupid world that I was trying to make a living in. I felt like Jodie Foster at the end of Contact – I’m not alone!
The second pivotal moment was after reading the book, I got totally fired up to finally redo my personal site the way I wanted, with a nice clean whitespace look inspired by both 37s and the then-popular 5k.org site that Caterina Fake (yes, that Caterina Fake) designed. Here’s the archive.org snapshot from 2002 – every page came in under 5k and validated, which I was very proud of at the time. And what happened? After pouring my heart out about what made me tick and what I thought about the false dichotomy of the usability-versus-design debate, I got an unsolicited email from Jason with a one liner – “thanks for the usable and cool-looking shoutout”. It was so long ago that I don’t even have the piece of crap email hosting service I was using at the time but I’ll never forget it – it’s when I realized that the web was made by real people and all you had to do was genuinely care about what you made.
I’ve been too busy working for startups the last year and a half to update my ancient personal site but I took those lessons with me wherever I worked since and it’s served me well. Thanks for the inspiration and memories gang, and apologies for the length, hope this serves as a little bit of appreciation.
Speaking of early 37s members, I’d like to give one of my own personal shoutouts – there were a few other friendly co-commenters to svn those earlier days that made everyone feel welcome and made it feel like my own personal Cheers bar. The one that comes to mind first was Don, who posted everything from photos of his MR2 to stories about his kids. He was always on topic and often hilarious.
Joe
on 15 Jul 08I do believe I found your operation all early-days via Mr. Fried’s Plastics Hi-Fi band… haha summer somewhere.
Soyapi
on 15 Jul 08@Peter and @Riddle, here is 37BetterGoogle http://37signals.com/better_google.php
Bernd Goldschmidt
on 15 Jul 08Hu? What happend to my comments? Deleted?
Eduardo
on 15 Jul 08The 37Better Project was a very good idea, still is for a starting design company that wants to show their talent!
Nice post!
Bernd Goldschmidt
on 15 Jul 08Strange: My last comment stays there fine, but the previous two, in which I mentioned a big company 37s has a close relationship to, are mysteriously lost.
Come on guys: Censoring comments? Cheap. Anyone care to explain?
eric shannon
on 15 Jul 08Matt, thank you for the “how we did it”. You guys are true entrepreneurs and your story is inspiring. Well done!
Adam
on 15 Jul 08I remember first learning about 37signals from your article on the Yellow Fade Technique.
http://www.37signals.com/svn/archives/000558.php
Sounds kind of silly, but that is what really got me hooked on reading your blog and using your products. Your willingness to share and take the time to writeup all this great stuff has always kept me coming back for more.
JF
on 15 Jul 08Bernd, we aren’t censoring your comments.
We use a spam filter called Askimet that may filter comments due to something suspicious in the comment. We don’t have control over why it marks a comment as spam.
Why don’t you try posting it again and see what happens.
JD
on 16 Jul 08I GOT CENSORED!
Bernd Goldschmidt
on 16 Jul 08Maybe askimet didn’t like the link I provided.
Okay, I’ll try again: I just wanted to ask if amazon wasn’t on the enormicon swoosh logo site when it was first published. I thought I saw it there all these years ago.
ML
on 16 Jul 08Bernd, sorry to disappoint any conspiracy theory, but we haven’t touched the eNormicom site in years. So there’s been no cover-up.
mike
on 17 Jul 08we just started using basecamp at my job. itsmaking life a hell of a lot easier. keep up the awesome work!!!!
Bernd Goldschmidt
on 17 Jul 08Okay, and I thought I’m up to something at least once in my life :)
Keep up the good work of awesome webapps and inspiring blogposts.
This discussion is closed.