The 36 people of 37signals have lived and worked from the following cities during their time at the company:
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
- Austin, Texas
- Bangkok, Thailand
- Belleville, Illinois
- Boulder, Colorado
- Buffalo, New York
- Caldwell, Idaho
- Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Chicago, Illinois
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Durham, North Carolina
- Edmond, Oklahoma
- Fayetteville, Tennessee
- Fenwick, Ontario
- London, United Kingdom
- Malibu, California
- Malmö, Sweden
- Manchester, United Kingdom
- Marbella, Spain
- Moscow, Russia
- Mufreesboro, Tennessee
- Parksville, British Columbia, Canada
- Pasadena, California
- Phoenix, Arizona
- Pittsburgh, PA
- Portland, Oregon
- Provo, Utah
- Rapid City, South Dakota
- San Diego, California
- Saratov, Russia
- Solana Beach, California
- Tampa, Florida
- Tempe, Arizona
- Vancouver, Canada
- Vineland, Ontario
If we had limited ourselves to only looking within a commuter’s distance of the Chicago office, we would have missed out on a lot of great people.
David wrote this on Nov 27 2012 There are 28 comments.
Scott 27 Nov 12
I think you need 37 people working at 37Signals. It just makes sense. The universe is calling for it. I’d like to be that 37th person if you need a product manager or CEO (Chief Encouragement Officer). ;)
Excel_Geek 27 Nov 12
I see Nebraska is not yet represented…you’re missing out, David… :)
Ajit 27 Nov 12
Interestingly no Indian city in the list. And I thought India has emerged giant in software and IT services.
Adam 27 Nov 12
For those, like me, who like maps:
http://batchgeo.com/map/85bb6ca1b00c6960da49a47fdfe99533
Anonymous Coward 27 Nov 12
You need someone from Wisconsin on board…if you need an agile scrummaster, holla back. astubbindeck@gmail.com
DHH 27 Nov 12
Adam, thanks, I’ve added that to the post!
Jim Vallandingham 27 Nov 12
Might enjoy a quick visualization representing all these locations:
37 signals locations as Delaunay map
Adam 27 Nov 12
No worries David….
Glad it was useful!
Daryl 27 Nov 12
I basically agree with the idea, but I also note that the implication that you could not find 37 talented people in a region of 10 million people (and hence are missing all of them) is a little questionable. I think perhaps the best perspective is international companies not only want talent but a match to company philosophy and wide cultural diversity. Geographic diversity also makes “out of hours” support a whole lot nicer!
Cezar 27 Nov 12
I wish more companies got this. I live in suburban Chicago and have a wife and kid. There’s very very little chance I’m up and moving my kid away from his grandma so I can work some place in the valley. Not going to happen no matter how many times recruiters ask.
More than that, even though I’m a train ride out of the city, it’s much more productive for me to do work in the morning, help out with the kid as a break in the afternoon then work into the evening. If I’m making the trip into the city every day, I’m not nearly as likely to sit down to code for work in the evening when my mind is more rested.
Work should be asynchronous as much as possible. It’s all about getting work done and doing well at it. Whatever helps that should be given at least serious thought.
Warner 27 Nov 12
The conclusion of the list is simple and beautiful.
This example is one of many things that are part of the future regarding employability, yet many fail to see.
Cezar (not the one from Chicago) 27 Nov 12
Interestingly enough, you guys have no one working from the southern hemisphere, which makes me curious about how your customers are distributed along the globe latitude-wise. Regarding time differences, this is a non-issue, since you can cover pretty much all of the time zones with a single-hemisphere presence. But thinking on the lines of finding great people everywhere, you might be missing a whole lot of ‘em. And in order to support customers in South America, for example, offering English language support is often not enough.
Andy T 27 Nov 12
Nice to see Bellevegas represented
Tyson 27 Nov 12
Being from southern Illinois, I just can’t imagine why a person would want to work out of Belleville when they can work out of Bangkok.
Tom Ordonez 27 Nov 12
I don’t see any Latin American country. Why is that?
Jon 27 Nov 12
More a question of curiosity rather than any type of critique. How much additional HR work is required to hire someone who lives in a different country and is subject to different Labour Laws?
DHH 27 Nov 12
Jon, depends on how you do it. By far the easiest is to retain their services as a contractor.
MR 27 Nov 12
@Scott — The universe called for it.
Jared 27 Nov 12
Vineland, Ontario – that’s where I live and there’s hardly a few thousand people there. Did not expect to see that on this list!
Devan 27 Nov 12
I too am curious as to why there is no one in the Asia/Pacific region. I would have though that having a support person based in, say, Australia would be beneficial in having an English speaking person being able to work the ‘back of the clock’ and provide complete 24 hour support coverage.
Areg Sarkissian 28 Nov 12
Interesting that not a single person mentioned is based in Silicon Valley, but there are four from Southern California.
Chris from Brisbane 28 Nov 12
I’d love to know if you get everyone to spend actual physical time in your head office as part of the induction process?
MR 28 Nov 12
@Chris from Brisbane — We hold meetups a few times a year at the Chicago HQ, Bonus fun, Nick got everyone to show their battle stations.
Martin 28 Nov 12
No love for the Southern Hemisphere?
dmr 28 Nov 12
Who’s from Tampa?
AK 29 Nov 12
Why you no lie India? :( :)
Victor Daniel Tremblay 29 Nov 12
Any French speaking dude yet? How about me joining the team from Québec Canada, the most beautifull city in the world.
Avec amour!
Tim 30 Nov 12
I note with sadness you are missing Byron Bay. I would like to extend an invite to you and JF to come check it out. Rad coffee, rad organic food, growing food, yoga/health/fitness, surfing every day (in boardies, no wetsuits ever), rad cycling (and racing cars up hills wink wink), dolphins in the Bay, humpbacks too.
I will even let you pick some mangoes and avocados from our trees.
Not sure what I could add. Chief coffee wrangler (I grow coffee, too. And macadamias and pecans).
That sure would be a little fillip on that map.
Tim
This discussion is closed.