On February 19th, 200+ startup founders, team members and entrepreneurs crammed into 1871 to spend some time with a local startup hero and world renowned startup icon and best-selling author, Jason Fried, the founder of 37signals. Jason would not disappoint.
37signals was founded in 1999 by Jason and two others as a web design firm. Project size for 37signals waxed and waned alongside the boom and bust of the economy. Along the way, there came a need and a solution to fulfill that need. Jason Fried and 37signals created an ultra-simplistic project management tool for themselves, known as Basecamp. And so the story goes, brilliant founder builds a brilliantly simplistic solution to solve his own problem. I smell a recipe for success.
In 2004 Jason Fried and 37signals transitioned from web design to software development. Following Basecamp, 37signals released Backpack, Campfire and Highrise all in the spirit of simplicity and easing the pain of managing a small to medium sized business. Jason and friends also have a blog, Signal vs. Noise that gets over 100,000 readers per day. Let me say that again, per day! Oh, and in 2010 Jason Fried and David Heinemeier published REWORK, a New York Times best seller.
Asked what inspired him, Jason responded, “Paper clips, staplers…simplistic solutions that solve everyday problems.” Genius.