Today marks the 15th year 37signals has been in business.
It also marks the last day 37signals will exist.
37signals has announced that they will be retiring the 37signals name and consolidating all of their products under one brand — Basecamp. If you thought Basecamp was great, you can guarantee that it will only get better as they mount laser precision focus on an already outstanding product:
“Moving forward, we will be a one product company. That product will be Basecamp. Our entire company will rally around Basecamp. With our whole team – from design to development to customer service to ops – focused on one thing, Basecamp will continue to get better in every direction and on every dimension.”
This is not just about marketing and branding, but a way of business. Keep in mind that 37signals did not start out with Basecamp. It was a byproduct of their web design firm. They had a problem, so they developed a solution — much like what they did with Ruby on Rails.
What We Can Learn
There are a number of things we can learn from 37signals Basecamp in this move:
- Stay focused.
- Know what you do well and do it.
- Do not be afraid to say, “No.”
- Just because it is working, does not mean you should keep doing it.
A pastor friend of mine graced me with some words of wisdom many years ago. He said, “Specialize.” Figure out what you do best and do it. When you find yourself faced with something outside of your specialty, find someone who specializes in it and rely on them. Trying to be everything to everybody will only dilute you.
That is exactly what 37signals Basecamp is doing. It is not an easy decision to make, and you can see by reading their announcement post that a lot of thought when into it.
This concept is not new. My grandmother used to always say, “Keep it simple stupid.” Today, 37signals Basecamp reminded us all that keeping it simple and focusing on our specialty is wiser than diversifying. We all can learn — bloggers, ministers, tech teams and more — that less is more.
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