Our team of 10 is distributed across 8 countries and 3 continents. We have no central office. When we first started, a couple years might go by without ever meeting in person, now we meet in person for at least a week each year. Even if it weren’t for the massive timezone differences making business meetings a challenge, we’d still hate them. Our weekly “state of affairs” calls were at best boring and at worst, a disruptive waste of time.
We rely on the internet to bridge the physical gaps between us. Over the last five years, we’ve tried just about every piece of software out there.
Skype and IRC/Campfire/HipChat/IM are great, but they require everyone to be online at the same time otherwise the conversations just blow past them while they’re sleeping or working.
Basecamp messages are only a small step above email and incapable of supporting long-running complex discussions.
Google Wave looked promising, but never quite delivered on the promise and has since been shuttered by Google.
With nothing better on the horizon, we started building Ginger. The goal for us was simply a better way for our team to communicate. We wanted a way for people to digest and contribute information on their own time, when they are fresh and focused, not at an arbitrary meeting time that we dictate.
Ginger serves multiple purposes for us:
- It is our board room where important decisions get made and meetings of the mind happen.
- It is our whiteboard where we brainstorm and share ideas.
- It is our water cooler where we joke around and share stories.
After using Ginger for a few months, I can’t imagine running our business without it. Despite all the miles and hours between us, our team is closer together and better informed than ever before.
We’re ready to start introducing Ginger to the world and are looking for the next round of users to test and give us feedback. Does Ginger sound like it could help you and your team? Join our waiting list at gingerhq.com to get an invite and follow us at @gingernews. Want to jump to the front of the line? Send us an email at info@gingerhq.com to tell us about yourself and how Ginger might help you.
