Sounds Like Culture: Threadless and 37Signals

As part of Chicago Ideas Week I had the opportunity to visit two of my favorite local businesses. Threadless is a crowd-sourced t-shirt design company, and 37Signals is a software company known for excellence in virtual collaboration and productivity products (37Signals is also well-known for their agile development method…how meta).

"I AM THREADLESS ROBOT"

There was a firehose of information, insights, and fun (for business nerds) shared at both labs, but what struck me most is that the work environments of these two successful businesses feel completely different from one another.

The two cultures are best imagined via sound. Threadless is more raucous, a bunch of highly creative and talented friends working while they play. In contrast, a visitor to 37signals hears almost nothing at all: there is an intentional and library-like silence that shrouds a collection of modern day craftsmen (writing some of the cleanest code out there), seeming to say “we work best while not being disturbed”.

At Threadless, the hum of the warehouse is augmented by music which always plays–each time a worker fulfills an order, that employee gets to play DJ, heading over to the computer to add the next song to the queue. In the Threadless admin areas, the art, marketing, support, and biz dev departments sit in their work groups; laughter, banter, and work discussions reinforce and reveal a culture about fun and connection that is borne from a foundation of community-focused art. The team built a 20 foot cardboard robot that can read tweets that are sent to it–in robot voice of course. In the large open-entry atrium, a pool table, ping pong table, kegerators, and indoor RVs suggest the after-hours noisy fun of people who love where they work.

At 37signals, members of the team project a very similar confident satisfaction

"Shhh. Geniuses at work."

in their work, only you don’t hear it as loudly as at Threadless. The 37signals space was designed to minimize noise; walls are wrapped in noise-reducing material. Desks are spaced as far from one another as possible, and co-workers are discouraged from interrupting one another–communication is via instant messaging rather than by walking 30 feet (or 3000 miles–37Signals has a mostly off-site workforce) to ask your colleague a question. Phone calls are taken in sound-proof rooms, complete with large red “in use” lighted signs that recall a radio studio. Like great code, the office design is minimalist and elegant, the form following the function as in many great Chicago landmarks.

Like all good founders / entrepreneurial managers, both Jason Fried  (37 Signals) and Jake Nickell  (Threadless) have made conscious efforts to foster their strong respective cultures. Both are highly effective and reflective of the founders themselves.

Which culture would you prefer to work in?

“Undisturbed Peace” or “Pour Some Booze on it and You Got a Party”?

Related articles

• 37signals.com homepage evolution (37signals.com)
• Threadless Weaves its Awesome Customer Support Experience Directly into Facebook, Providing a Smoother and More Interactive Customer Experience (prweb.com)
• Threadless $10 Sale Lets You Dress For A Whole Week For The Price Of One Game [Clothing] (kotaku.com)
• 37signals has hired a full time filmmaker to document its every move (thenextweb.com)

A Reminder from the Digital Detritus: “The Point House”, Playa Flamingo, Costa Rica

I made this video upon returning from Costa Rica about a year and a half ago, and never posted it as when I added Estelle’s music (which was the actual song playing in the moment the video captures in CR) youtube rejected it as I don’t own the copyright. Not my music, so fair enough, and I forgot about it, even losing access to the file / camera, just another in the pile of lost and disassociated digital memories. Recently I recommended that some friends stay at The Point House on their upcoming trip, and in doing some web searches for photos to get them excited, this video came up in the results. Since I thought it didn’t properly upload to youtube, it was a weird, fun piece of serendipity.

In any case, it brought back some happy memories and made me miss CR, certainly a place that provides a profound sense of “home” to me, maybe second only to Chicago. I’ll be back soon.

UPDATE: Figured out the reason why youtube made the video “live” after initially rejecting it–they’ve added a link to buy the song in question. A small piece of progress for a challenged music industry–>

After the jump, a commercial AMEX made starring the famous Chef Joe Mucaria in The Point House after it was recently renovated.

Yoda is Needed in Silicon Alley

Jerry in his Usual "Thinking Man" Pose

It has been to my great benefit to have access to Jerry Colonna, who is featured in this aptly titled article “The Yoda of Silicon Alley”. As co-founder with Fred Wilson of Flatiron Ventures, Jerry was one of the world’s premiere tech VCs before moving on to start a business helping others (usually tech entrepreneurs) via his business as a business / life coach.

I’ve found Jerry to have a unique understanding of the so-blurry-to-not-even-exist line between the business and personal aspects of the entrepreneurial life, equally expert in discussing cap tables and fundraising as leading a life in which the spiritual, the physical, and the commercial are balanced. Quite the unique mix: part tech VC, part therapist, and yes, part Yoda.

Read more of Jerry’s wisdom at his blog, The Monster in Your Head.

Love Me Some Sufjan

Sufjan Stevens may be a socially awkward Christian rocker, but my God (broken commandment) does he make beautiful music. I enjoyed this user generated video treatment of “Decatur”:

Perspective Hits Like a Ton of Concrete

Look out below!

On my most recent trip to Chicago, I was alone driving north on the Kennedy expressway when I had one of those surreal moments where time slows and a memory is indelibly etched on the mind. Immediately in front of me, a 4-foot long block of concrete crumbled from the underside of the overpass above me, peeling away slowly and almost gracefully. I was in the far right lane, and thankfully the concrete landed on the far right side of our lane, partially in the lane, partially on the shoulder. The car directly in front of me calmly tapped the breaks, swerved slightly, and an accident was avoided.

My mind sparked: what if my timing was a 1.5 seconds faster and the concrete a few feet to the left? What is going on in the City of Chicago when overpasses and bridges aren’t maintained and inspected so as to not crumble onto traffic below? Despite government‘s budget problems, President Obama during his campaign so often referred to our “crumbling roads and bridges” and pushed out TARP funds supposedly to fix this exact problem.

I was awarded in that moment with some simple and clear perspective: life is fragile and precious, and we all must do as much good as we can with the time we have.

If a Picture Says 1,000, This Video Says 1,000,000 Words

Whoa, that was a serious case of writers ‘ / bloggers’ block. Let me not let that happen again.

I first heard “Ready for the Floor” as a cover by Lizzie Trullie, and liked it immediately. When I stumbled upon the original by Hot Chip, it was as if rather than watching something that I had enjoyed in black and white (sorry Lizzie), I had been dropped into a vat of technicolor 3D:

On Savings and Productivity: The Cycle Turns ‘Round

Everything Comes Around

At the risk of being optimistic, simplistic, and anecdotal…

Almost everyone I know is working harder and for less money than two years ago, a productivity increase that is such an ingrained response to the recession so as to become cultural.

High unemployment numbers are both prolonged and counter-balanced by an increasing savings rate.

Savings and productivity are leading recovery indicators and are the foundation for a coming period of sustainable economic growth.

The fastest information economy yet hyper-connects and, fueled by necessity, yields cross-pollination of opportunities and quicker iterations of entrepreneurial activity.

Those who buy Chicken Little’s conventional wisdom today are the same that bought high in 2008.

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• Don’t Fear Productivity Increases (usnews.com)
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• Policymakers see faster-than-predicted growth, but recovery still fragile (financialpost.com)
• Economists: The Future A Bit Brighter (blogs.wsj.com)

The Sultan of Penn

Penn Sultan is a friend of a friend, and a great young musician.  I’ve seen him perform around NYC a couple of times now and his music has inspired some obsessive listening at moments. Penn’s voice is distinctive both in the tone of his vocal chords and in the beyond-his-21-years insights in the lyrics.

Penn’s band is currently called “Last Good Tooth” (formerly “Doggy Hi! Yippie”). If you’re around Providence, RI or NYC you should definitely check him out.

I wish I could share a version of his excellent song “Problems Leave Out of Mouths”, but for now, Penn’s music is not widely available or easy to find, though I expect that will change when he wants it to. The song in this dark video, “Take Em”, is a commentary on the modern crutch of prescription medication.

Dogs on Motorcycles? Pura Vida…

You never know what you might see in Costa Rica, which is one of many reasons why I love it so much:

More quick pics from our New Years 2010 journey to Playa Flamingo, my Central American home, after the jump.

1,2,3 Clap!

So, this is my friend Glenn Rischke’s new musical project called 1,2,3 Clap.

At  a time when most ideas and songs are left unfinished, 1,2,3 Clap comes together with a song idea that they complete and record (with video) in a single evening. (They say “1,2,3 Clap!” and the recording starts.) No overdubbing allowed!

This song, “You Love It”, I particularly liked. The goofy costumes come at no additional charge.