Ron May, a Chicago tech-community institution, recently passed away. He was 57. Here’s the Chicago Tribune’s obit.

Ron ran The May Report, a long-running, unique commentary on the Chicago tech scene. The best way to get a feel for him is to check out these videos.

He was a reporter, a curmudgeon, a sweet guy, a total pain in the ass. He’d been writing his May Report email newsletter since the late 90s. He rarely missed a tech event, conference, gathering, meetup. That’s commitment.

He’d usually sit in the front row of a talk/event and just interrupt the speaker and ask questions — loudly. He wanted answers and really didn’t give a damn about decorum. No one quite followed up on a non-answer like Ron did.

He loved to get the scoop. He’d record everything with his handheld mini recorder. He’d basically shove it in your face.

A lot of people in the Chicago tech scene would talk shit about him. He was annoying, he was irritating, he’d print things that were supposed to be off-the-record, he’d rarely fact check and often get things completely wrong. Ethics wasn’t his thing. The story was.

But I really liked him. He was an original, a character, a true one-of-a-kind. He’s covered me… awkwardly... over the years — even calling me a socialist (which is hilarious) — but that was always fine by me. It was so refreshing to see someone truly interested in the scene and subjects he was covering. The May Report wasn’t just a job to him. He was really into it. He wanted to be doing this and he did it like no one else could.

This guy was curious. To me, curiosity is his legacy. And what a great legacy for anyone to have.

Ron will be missed. He even scooped his own death in his heartfelt and honest final May Report, published on June 24th. How’s that for doing what you love right up to the end? We should all be so lucky.

About two years ago, The Starter League set out to teach absolute beginners how to code. Since then, they’ve expanded their offerings to include HTML, CSS, and design.

To date they’ve graduated over 600 students from all over the world. A true success story on so many levels.

One thing they’ve noticed along the way is that their best students return back to take additional classes in different disciplines. They may start learning Rails, but then they want to learn advanced HTML/CSS. And then they want to learn visual design.

Further, these students seem to want more than just the independent skills – they want the whole integrated package. They want to know how to build a product and turn that product into a sustainable company.

Announcing Starter School: A truly unique program

So today The Starter League announces their newest — and most ambitious — initiative: Starter School.

Starter School is an intense, full-time, 9 month program. It’s basically the grad school for people who want to learn how to build software and start companies. It’s small and hands on: there are only slots for 52 students. This way every student can get the attention they deserve.

They’ve lined up an outstanding roster of teachers, and put together a thorough, full-time, 9-month program where you’ll learn everything you need to know to build the back-end, design the front end, and bring your product to market. It’s the most well-rounded curriculum I’ve seen yet.

A few folks from 37signals will be teaching. Ryan Singer will be teaching product design. Mig Reyes will be teaching visual design. I’ll be dropping in to teach a few things, too.

Tuition for the 9 month program is $36,000. The inaugural class will get $3000 off. To help, I’ll also be providing partial scholarships for three highly motivated, sharp students. Other scholarships will be available too. Details will be provided after you submit an application.

If you want to learn the whole stack – programming, design, and business – from some of the best, don’t delay. This is a one-of-a-kind program. Apply to Starter School today or just find out more.

Disclosure: 37signals is an investor in The Starter League.

Today our first five customers started using Know Your Company, our newest product. We’re hoping to roll out around five new customers every Monday for the foreseeable future.

I thought this was a great time to talk a bit about how we’re building Know Your Company. Not the tech, specifically, but the approach.

From the start, I wanted to approach the development of Know Your Company as if we were starting a separate company inside 37signals, not just building another product at 37signals.

So I went back to 2003. That’s when we originally built Basecamp. Basecamp was basically a new business inside 37signals. I looked back at how we did it.

We had a small team of four – two designers (me and Ryan), one programmer (David), and one person who could help with a variety of things (Matt). We were building something to scratch our own specific itch.

We didn’t have much tech to lean on. We didn’t have Rails, we didn’t have a centralized billing system, we didn’t have a centralized log-in system, we didn’t have much experience launching a product with a new business model (subscription pricing), we didn’t have a server farm (we just had a shared server slice on another company’s machine), etc.

Basically, a lot was very new to us, and the newness was invigorating. It allowed us to approach problems objectively rather than fitting our problems into solutions we’d already built before. Think of it more as a bespoke suit than something off the rack.

Basecamp was a bespoke suit, but just about everything we’ve done since then has been trying to fit into Basecamp’s clothes in one way or another.

I wanted to get away from that way of thinking with Know Your Company. It’s just too easy to continue to lean on the things you’ve done, the decisions you’ve made, and the infrastructure you’ve already built.

So here’s what we’re doing.

We’re starting with a small team of four. Me and Jonas on design. Trevor on programming. And Dan as the multipurpose jack-of-all-trades. I’m also doing sales/demos, which is something we’ve never really done before.

Further, just like when we launched Basecamp, I did all the customer support for the first year or so. That’s what I’ll be doing with Know Your Company too.

As for billing, we’re not using Queenbee, our centralized billing system that powers Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack, Campfire, and a variety of other things we sell. Instead, we’re building a bespoke billing system from scratch. Just what we need, nothing we don’t.

This way we don’t have to compromise a business model approach because our billing system is only set up to do things one way. If we have a different idea for how we want to bill customers (or accept payments), I don’t want to be hamstrung by old decisions. I want to have the freedom to make new decisions.

Queenbee also has a bunch of admin tools built in so we could comp accounts, change ownership of an account, look up a customer and update their information, etc. We’ve left that all behind with Know Your Company. Know Your Company has its own custom admin built right into the product. This way we can build specific admin tools to onboard new customers, update accounts, generate invoices, and everything else that’s unique to Know Your Company.

Another thing we’re doing differently this time around is sales and setup. Our default position when building new products is to make them self-service, just like Basecamp’s been since day one. No interaction with us is required to sign up. Just click a button, pick a plan, sign up, and you’re off and running.

That model has obviously been very successful for us. No question about that. But let’s learn something new. Let’s get a feel for what the opposite approach is like. What if we were full-service instead of self-service? What if we were very hands-on, rather than completely hands-off?

So that’s what we’re doing with Know Your Company. There’s no self-service sign-up. If you want to use Know Your Company, we have to give you a personal demo first. Want to sign up? We’ll walk you through it step-by-step. We’ll even load up your employees for you so you don’t have to do any work. And we’ll also populate your account with a specific set of questions so you don’t have to think about what to ask your employees if you aren’t sure what to ask.

Isn’t full-service harder, more time consuming? Yes it is. And wow it’s been worth it. I’m getting to have a nice conversation with every customer we have. I’m getting to learn a lot about their companies, their struggles, and their goals. This is very healthy for us. The product is going to be way better for it – especially in the long-term.

The business model is all new, too. Instead of defaulting to our Basecamp-famous monthly subscription fee, we’re treating Know Your Company more as a one-time investment in each employee rather than an ongoing recurring expense. So instead of charging a monthly/annual fee, we’re just charging $100 per employee one-time. Once you’ve paid $100 for an employee, you never have to pay for them again. You can use Know Your Company with them for as long as they work for you.

Now, we’re not entirely free from the past. There are still a few things we’re leaning on because they aren’t hampering our flexibility.

For one, we’re using 37id – our centralized sign-in system. Know Your Company customers can sign in with the same username/password they use for their Basecamp accounts. That’s easier for them than having to sign up with another username/password.

We’re also using Rails, which we didn’t have the luxury to use when we built Basecamp. And we’re leaning on our sophisticated server infrastructure and the things we’ve learned about email, too. But the load we’re putting on the system is barely a pimple so I don’t feel so bad about that.

And of course we have the reputation and trust build up behind 37signals over the last 14 years.

But as far as our development approach goes, this feels the closest to the feeling we had when we were building Basecamp nearly 10 years ago. Lots of new things, lots of new approaches, a feeling that we can build whatever we need rather than fitting new ideas into old decisions.

If you’re interested in becoming a customer, please review the introduction letter I wrote. If it resonates with you, and you fit the profile, drop me an email and I’d love to show you around and maybe even get you started.

For a long time I’ve felt like the only thing worth working on is the next most important thing. Why spend time working on something that’s less important if there’s something more important that needs work?

I’ve changed my mind on this. I think it’s always good to be working on two things: The next most important thing, and the next most interesting thing.

It’s hard for an interesting thing to compete for your attention if your only criteria for attention is criticality. Interesting things are rarely critical. They’re exploratory. And if you only think in terms of what absolutely needs your attention right now, you’ll never leave room for things that might satisfy your curiosity. That’s important too, just on a different level.

It’s in this spirit that I hope we have the courage to be more experimental at 37signals. Experimental design, experimental tech, experimental business models, experimental strategies, experimental experiments that may lead to brand new insights and outcomes we didn’t know we were capable of before.

I’m looking forward to the surprises.

Customers don’t just buy a product — they switch from something else. And customers don’t just leave a product — they switch to something else.

The last workshop sold out in just a few days, so if you‘d like to attend, register now.
It’s in these switching moments that the deepest customer insights can be found. On the 21st of June, a select group of 32 people will attend a unique, hands-on, full-day workshop to learn about “The Switch”.

Most businesses don’t know the real reasons why people switch to — or from — their products. We’ll teach you how to find out.

The workshop will be at the 37signals office in Chicago. The cost to attend is $1100. The workshop will be led by 37signals and The Rewired Group.

You’ll participate in live customer interviews.

You’ll learn new techniques for unearthing the deep insights that most companies never bother to dig up.

You’ll understand why people switch from one product to another and how you can increase the odds that the switch goes your way.

And you’ll be able to put everything you learned to immediate use.

There’s only one simple requirement: You’ll be asked to bring something with you. It won’t be a big deal. Details will be provided one week before the workshop.

Spots are limited. Only 32 people will be able to attend and participate. Want to be one of the 32? Register now. We will see you on June 21.

We’re working on a entirely new product, and I’m looking to meet some potential customers. We can meet in person, over the phone, or via Skype, etc.

The tool is for the small business owner who runs a company of between 25 and 75 people. You used to be smaller, but now you’re bigger. And you experienced some personal growing pains along the way.

When you were smaller, you used to know everyone a bit better. When you were smaller you used to be in the loop a bit more. When you were smaller you used to have a better feel for what everyone was thinking and feeling. When you were smaller you used to know what everyone liked – and didn’t like – about the direction of the company.

But now you’re bigger. And now you’re struggling to stay on top of it all. Or maybe you didn’t really care that much before because things took care of themselves. But now, you have to pay closer attention since you’re responsible for a lot more people. You care deeply about your team, and your company culture, but sometimes you feel like you don’t know enough to act decisively.

This is my story. And I have a hunch there are a lot of small business owners out there just like me. This tool can help you individually, and together we can all help each other.

We’re using this tool as we’re building it, and in the past few weeks I’ve learned a lot about my own company. We’ve already implemented some of the company-wide changes that bubbled up from what I’ve learned. These insights wouldn’t have materialized without this tool.

We’re only looking for 25 perfect customers right now. I want to get to know every single one personally. And I want to do everything I can to make this product outstanding for those 25 people. I want to help each customer to make incredible progress using this tool. I want it to change their company for the better.

So if you’re a hands-on business owner running a company with anywhere from 25-75 people, and you kept saying “yes, I totally know what you mean” when you read the story above, I’d love to hear from you. Please email me at [email protected] and tell me your story. If I feel like you’d be a great fit for this product, I’ll tell you more.

Thanks.