Simple In/Out started as a way to solve a problem, and make beer money on the side. One of the team members had a problem with the in/out board used at their “crappy day job,” and bet that they could make a better one.
Simple In/Out was the result. After a weekend fueled by caffeine and Futurama reruns, a prototype was born. Then they created Simply Made Apps, a company developed to building the app as well as developing apps for contractors.
Now, four years later, the Simple In/Out app has “tens of thousands of customers all around the world,” according to co-founder/web-developer Brandon Medenwald.
Brandon Medenwald, Stephen Ruda, and Bill Burgess.
Basically, Simple In/Out is an in/out board for your phone. It uses beacon technology and GeoFences to automatically update your location at the office or elsewhere, and sends push notifications to your boss or fellow employees as well. It also gives users the option to use it as a way to check-in by scanning a QR code.
Since its launch, the app has been featured in a variety of publications, including a Forbes article titled 10 Mobile Apps to Help Organize Your Business.
“If you don’t know where someone is when you need them it can be very unsettling,” writes Forbes’ David Williams. “Painlessly keep track of schedules with Simple In/Out.”
As the user base has grown, the team said they’ve been surprised at the diversity of customers that use the app. Right now it’s being used everywhere from a coal mine in West Virginia, to parishes and fire departments. And the user base continues to grow.
“We doubled our customers this year,” Burgess said. “And we hope to double again next year.”
In fact, it’s doing so well that this month the team announced they have put the kibosh on contract work.
“It’s no secret that Simply Made Apps has been bootstrapped from Day 1,” Medenwald wrote in a blog post. “We’ve taken no money to start our company, and we’ve paid the bills by doing contract work for businesses. That is about to change.”
Mendenwald said they made the decision in order to focus more time on Simple In/Out. They needed the money to get on their feet, and now they’re taking a step forward on their own.
“We now join the list of organizations (like my personal heroes Basecamp) that began as consultants and transitioned to 100% product companies,” Medenwald writes.
The team now consists of Burgess, Medenwald, Android developer Stephen Ruda, and Graphic Designer Mara Paulson out of Denver, CO. Their office is on Broadway, right along the Skyway; a small place, with comfy black couches and a blue ping-pong table.
“It’s funny, we started out doing this for beer money,” co-founder Burgess said. “But I think we always secretly dreamed of being able to quit our jobs and do this full-time. And have the office with the ping-pong table. Now, years later… it’s cool to see that that’s really happening.”
Simple In/Out offers a free 45 day trial and is available for iPhone and Android here.
Photos courtesy of Simply Made Apps
