An evening in Providence with Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals

Last night was a night well spent. I, along with a few others from Boston, drove down to Providence, RI to attend an event with Jason Fried, CEO of 37signals taking place at the Bravo Brasserie. The event was a casual get together organized by the Business Innovation Factory and included many who were in attendance at the BIF-3 conference (see coverage here and here). The event was also co-sponsored by Providence Geeks, AIGA Rhode Island, Basics Group, and RI Nexus.

Jason spent about 10 minutes addressing the crowd of 100+ people with an overview of how 37signals came to be, how their business has changed over the years and where they are today, followed by a 20 minute Q&A. Having started out as a web design company in Chicago, 37signals now focuses strictly on making simple web-based project collaboration software such as Basecamp, Highrise, and Backpack.

It was interesting to see/hear Jason speak, since I, along with countless others, have been using 37signals’ products for quite some time. Jason and his elite team of 7, have a really clear understanding for what works in software design, project team collaboration, and customer/user experience. Often citing influences such as nature, yoga, and art, the philosophies of simplicity, ease of use, and logical design come through loud and clear across all of their products. Check out their acclaimed Signal vs. Noise blog for further insight into their product development philosophies, and if possible, read their brilliant book, Getting Real. Also, a bit more can be found on Jason and 37signals in this MyBusiness magazine article.

Pictured in the photo above from left to right is Todd Galloway of Fafarazzi.com, Jason Fried of 37signals, Colin Nederkoorn from TopStartup.com, and yours truly. Not pictured is Andrew Mitchell of LinkSpank.com who was quite busy entertaining the crowd at the time, and couldn’t get in the lineup.

Thanks to Jack Templin, co-founder of Providence Geeks for putting us on the invitation list, and Wayne Franklin of Urban Sun Investments for putting his drink down to take the picture.