Companies that started as Side Projects
Companies are an evolution that often spawn from within another company. Here are a few brief stories of how some internal ideas became full companies.
Basecamp, HootSuite, and MailChimp all have something in common. It's not that they use a similar programming language, or that they're web companies, it's that they all started out as side projects.
Many years ago there was a little design agency based out of Chicago. They helped design websites and eventually needed something to help manage their clients projects.
It all started back in 2003. Back then we were a web design firm. Companies hired us to re-design and simplify their web site.
Business was great and we were busy. But we were disorganized. With so many concurrent projects, things began to slip through the cracks.