MadMimi.com is a Brooklyn-based startup providing "a uniquely simple, powerful email marketing service." They utilize Basecamp and Campfire for in-house collaboration on development projects and as their main platform for customer support. Gary Levitt, co-founder of Mad Mimi (that's him in the picture to the left, along with his wife, Leah, also a co-founder), tells us more below.
How we use Basecamp and why we like it
Well we must have referenced Basecamp a hundred times during the conception of Mad Mimi. So to say we like Basecamp is a bit of an understatement. Basecamp helps us handle project collaboration effortlessly. But our affinity goes deeper — Basecamp's simplicity was a muse for us, in that it triggered a shift in our mindset which lead to the creation of our product. Others can debate the logic of this, but to our minds, when you cross Basecamp simplicity with email promotion, you get a fresh, functional alternative to the bloated, template-based services that are currently leading the market. You look at all the reasons why industry leaders are predicting that Mad Mimi will topple the current dominating players in the email marketing industry, and many of those reasons can be credited to the influence of 37signals' products.
In terms of how we use Basecamp, it's interesting. Before our success in email marketing, we were just another New York music production company. At the time, Basecamp let us exchange music files in a cool way. As artists, we were taken in by what we all called the "Basecamp Vibe," which meant beauty, economy, simplicity. As a company, we had to promote ourselves with email, and we hated the web based apps we found — they were charging quite a lot for the pleasure of using the same tired, dated templates. So driven by necessity, and inspired by the "Basecamp Vibe", we put together (collaborating with Dave Hoover and his team at Obtiva Studio) a new way to design, send and track our own e-promos. The software was so effective it became our company's main focus, and that's when we brought in big guns like Tobie Langel to bring it to surprising new levels. What's interesting is that we used Basecamp for managing the collaboration of our team in Chicago, Utah, Switzerland, South Africa and New York in developing our software. In short, Basecamp is a muse...that we use.
Which features we like most
Some months it's one feature, some months it's another. It's a constant process of discovery. For a long time we stayed away from the To-Do lists, and favored only messages. But now To-Do's are a daily routine. There's a tremendous gratification in crossing off tasks and having that "wow, look at what I accomplished" feeling.
What we used before switching to Basecamp
Before Basecamp it was an endless swarm of disorganized emails. I just remember a lot re:re:re:re. There were phone calls, conference calls, cell phone headaches, and the time-eating in-person meetings. Our feeling is face-to-face should be over a relaxing lunch, not over papers. Basecamp actually saved us time, and we were able to enjoy more of those lunches. We used Google Docs on occasion before we switched. Basecamp is more fun, easier, nicer to look at, and seemingly bug free. We still use Google Docs for various odd tasks, but coming back to Basecamp is like coming home to a comfy arm-chair or an old pair of jeans.
How Basecamp helped us out
Well, to begin with, Basecamp helped us out with EVERYTHING. We went from technological imbeciles to technology newbies in no time. Basecamp is much more than a simple app. It was our ENTIRE BUSINESS. Our offices, our conference room, our file cabinets, our calendars, our traffic department, our bulletin board, our lounge, everything. Our team was based in five different cities, so we have to credit Basecamp for taking Mad Mimi from infancy to the launch of a groundbreaking product.
Learn how Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer service after the jump.
Basecamp - we use it for project management and have just started to share with our clients. It took a full day to reorganize the existing account when I started - I also put together a couple of screencasts for our team to learn how to use it. I’m also planning to do a couple for our clients so that they feel comfortable using it.
Backpack - we use this as our own intranet. Anything internal (not project-based) goes here. This has been really successful in terms of adoption - everyone has been adding to pages as well as adding their own.
Highrise - we’re using this for our CRM solution and to track our new business process. As of right now, only the crayonistas involved with new business have access.
How do you use Basecamp and why do you like it?
eduFire is a fully virtual company at this stage with employers and contractors spread across a number of states. We're an early-stage start-up and so two things are important to us: the ability to move quickly and keeping costs low. 