A little over a month ago we (almost) introduced 37signals Accounts — our new single sign-on (and more) system. Development continues, but we’re closing in on the start of the transition. More on this in the coming weeks.

In the meantime, we wanted to show you one of the cool things that comes with every 37signals Account: The Launchpad.

The 37signals Launchpad will list all the accounts you have on Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, and Campfire. You’ll see the Launchpad if you sign in at 37signals.com and you use multiple 37signals products (Basecamp and Highrise, for example) or have multiple accounts on a single product (two or more Backpack accounts, for example).

In time we’ll be adding more functionality to the Launchpad, but here’s a video demonstrating the basics you can expect when we launch:

We hope you enjoyed the preview. Stay tuned for more information regarding the launch of 37signals Accounts.

This weekend I had a problem with my alarm system at home. My alarm had gone off (false alarm), but for some reason it wasn’t releasing the phone line back to the phone. This meant that when I picked up the home phone I got that “there’s a phone off the hook” repeating tone.

I didn’t realize this was the problem until about 1:30am Sunday morning. So I called ADT (alarm company) to see if they could help. I wasn’t expecting a great experience after midnight, but a great experience is exactly what I got.

I called their 800 number, pressed one key, and got a human. She was very well informed and genuinely friendly. This wasn’t an outsourced-to-another-contintent-and-follow-the-script experience. Even though it was a confusing and rare problem, she understood what I was explaining and began looking for a solution.

She wasn’t sure exactly how to fix the problem since my alarm system has a hardwired phone cable (an important detail for this problem, but not worth explaining here), but she politely put me on hold and asked her supervisor. 30 seconds later she had the answer.

It’s subtle, but I think this makes for a better experience than transferring me to someone else who may be able to answer my question. When you’re transferred you feel like you have to start over. Whatever rapport you’ve built up with the first person is missing with the new person. Background information may have to be repeated. Stories may have to be told again. Transfers are frustrating.

Anyway, in order to fix the issue I had to trip the alarm. She stayed with me on the phone while I went through the process and talked me through exactly what to do and when to do it. It really felt like I was talking to a friend. The tone was casual, helpful, and friendly the whole way through. I never felt rushed or stupid or inferior. Everything was handled perfectly.

My experience with late-night call centers or customer service calls has almost always been sub-par. The quality seems to suffer in off hours. But this interaction with ADT was fantastic. It was a great experience and it reminded me of the other great experiences I’ve had with ADT. The salesperson was great and the installer was great too. One experience tends to reinforce other experiences.

The whole experience made me happy to be an ADT customer. It’s been a while since a customer service call reminded me that I was a happy customer. And that reminds me just how important it is to provide great customer service.

“In any other country, Milton Glaser would have been knighted by now,” said Steven Heller about the legendary designer recently. The implication: Americans don’t care about design as much as people in other countries.

A recent email conversation touched on the same nerve…

“I don’t think they could have made it any uglier if they had tried—even if they were trying really, really hard to make it ugly.”

That’s what ex-37signaller and now Nike employee Ernest Kim wrote in a note to a few of us about the 2010 Accord Crosstour (shown here). Looks like others agree with him too.

Ernest wonders why the cars Honda designs for markets outside the U.S. look better than the ones designed specifically for the American market. Could it be that Americans just have bad taste?

The sad part to me is that Honda cars designed for markets outside of the U.S. generally look at least decent (examples being the Fit, Euro/Japan Accord (aka the Acura TSX here in the States), S2000), but the ones specifically for U.S. consumption are horrendous (examples being this awful Crosstour, the Pilot SUV and Ridgeline pick-up).

One reason might simply be that their U.S.-based design team is not very good, but I suspect it has more to do with U.S.-based focus groups and lowered standards for U.S. focused products, which is the approach that led to GM’s eventual bankruptcy.

I know it’s the trendy thing to do to say that Americans, on the whole, have bad taste, but I really believe it’s true. A product that’s just good enough to be wildly popular in the U.S. typically doesn’t make the cut anywhere.

I have to wonder why our standards seem to be so much lower? Having traveled to Europe and Asia, I don’t think the average European or Asian person is any smarter than the average American, but their standards for product design seem appreciably higher. Is it because people outside the U.S. tend to buy fewer items and so have higher expectations for those items? Or some other cultural influence that they have and we don’t?

What do you guys think?

CHICAGO—September 24, 2009—37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1.

Founder Jason Fried informed his employees about the new deal at a recent company-wide meeting. The financing round was led by Yardstick Capital and Institutionalized Venture Partners.

In order to increase the value of the company, 37signals has decided to stop generating revenues. “When it comes to valuation, making money is a real obstacle. Our profitability has been a real drag on our valuation,” said Mr. Fried. “Once you have profits, it’s impossible to just make stuff up. That’s why we’re switching to a ‘freeconomics’ model. We’ll give away everything for free and let the market speculate about how much money we could make if we wanted to make money. That way, the sky’s the limit!”

Proof that 37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company.

A $100 billion value for 37signals is “not outlandish,” says Aanandamayee Bhatnagar, a finance professor and valuation guru at Grenada State’s Schnook School of Business. Bhatnagar points to a leaked, confidential corporate strategy plan that projects 37signals will attract twelve billion users by the end of 2013.

How will the company overcome the fact that there are only 6.8 billion people alive today? “Why limit users to people?” said Bhatnagar.

In order to determine the valuation of companies, Bhatnagar typically applies the following formula: [(Twitter followers x Facebook fans) + (# of employees x 1000)] x (RSS subscribers + daily page views) + (monthly burn rate x Google’s stock price)² and then doubles if it they use Ruby on Rails or if the CEO has run a business into the ground before. Bhatnagar admits the math is mostly a guess but points out that “the press eats it up.”

To help handle the burdens of an increased valuation, 37signals hired former YouTube exec Craig Mirage as Chief Operating Officer earlier this month. Mirage hopes to replicate YouTube’s valuation success at 37signals. “Of course, the investment comes with great expectations. But you should see the spreadsheet models we’re making up. Really breakthrough stuff,” said Mirage.

“37signals will lead the new global movement filled with imaginary assumptions on growth and monetization potential,” he continued. “We’re excited to roll out a list of unconfirmed revenue possibilities that involve crowdsourcing, a robust set of widget creation tools, 3G, augmented reality, social stuff, and an app store. Also, everything we make will include a compass.”