Old City Software Collaboration Show Big Corporate the Value of Staying Agile
Philadelphia, PA, May 31, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Amongst headlines about massive companies collapsing under their own weight arrives Old City’s collaborative coworking space Independents Hall. This group has fostered an agile, collaborative spirit that’s allowed not one, but Two products to be developed for commercial sale. The cool part? Nobody there is anybody’s boss.
How’d they go from a bunch of scruffy dudes sharing ideas over beers to successful software producers?
Independents Hall, fondly known by its shortened moniker “IndyHall”, has become the home for a diverse spread of mobile workers, telecommuters, freelancers, and entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. It is also part of a larger community of similar communities around the world, lending to regular drop-in attendance of industry specialists and “rock stars” as they visit Philadelphia for work, pleasure, or both.
The diversity of the shared workspace and the strong relationships growing between the space’s members has led to some great organic collaboration between those members, contributing to the creation of the ideas that would normally get stuck at water-cooler. Some of those ideas, they’ve realized, can be commercialized. This unique trajectory for product development has produced tangible results, and more importantly, profitability for some.
One full time member’s project, RipIt, has been selling independently of any marketing and distribution deals. And that member, Jason Allum, has been very happy with the results of the project’s sales. So much so that he teamed up with one of the founders of the space, Alex Hillman, to form IndyHall Labs, a self-declared catalyst with the purpose of helping more people taste that same sweet success.
The first project created by “The Labs” was Multiplex, a DVD collection manager for the Mac computer. Multiplex’s team is led by David Martorana and co-coded with Allum, while art direction is contributed by Johnny Bilotta and UI design and usability are led by Jason Tremblay. The project sold while in public beta from January through May 1st, 2009, and officially reached its 1.0 version feature set on May 1st. During that time, Hillman joined the team as a contributor as well to lend a hand with business development and marketing.
“Labs is designed in such a way that it can’t make buckets of money on an project success. The only way to capitalize on a project is to actually contributed something to the production and sale of that project”, says Hillman. “There’s nothing wrong with incubators, except that they’re designed in a way that lets people get greedy. Our community of trust lets us do things a little differently, where all contributors are stakeholders.”
The most recent vote of confidence for the quality of the products being produced by IndyHall Labs is their inclusion in MacUpdate’s 2009 Spring Bundle. MacUpdate is a very popular website that acts as a directory for Mac software. Periodically they run promotional bundles where teams like those in the Labs can sell their software at an extremely reduced rate in return for high volume sales due to extensive marketing and visibility.
Both Allum’s RipIt ($18.99) and IndyHall Labs’ Multiplex ($35) are included in the MacUpdate bundle running right now, contributing to over 10% of the bundle’s value alongside other apps normally ranging in price from $19.95 to $98. The bundle’s total value clocks in at over $500, and is now selling for $49.99.
So far, the bundle’s sales are exceeding the teams’ expectations, with over 16,000 bundles sold in the first 36 hours of the 2 week promotion. “Being alongside industry-recognized software like Parallels increases our profile.”, says Allum. Bundle customers interested in Parallels, for example, get the chance to run across our software and give it a go. If they like it, we’ve not only got a customer for that application, but potentially for new applications developed in The Labs in the future”.
For more information about IndyHall, you can visit http://indyhall.org
For more information about IndyHall Labs, you can visit http://labs.indyhall.org
For more information about RipIt, you can visit http://ripitapp.com
For more information about Multiplex, you can visit http://multiplexapp.com
For more information about MacUpdate’s Spring Promo Bundle, you can visit http://tr.im/IHLabsMUPromo
About IndyHall Labs: IndyHall Labs isn't an incubator. It's a catalyst. It's a community-powered research and development lab, designed to help you focus on what you're good at: creating things.
IndyHall Labs helps water cooler ideas become business opportunities, and thrives on the sharing of ideas driving for organic collaboration. Above all, we help real people find new ways to build real products and make real money.
IndyHall Labs puts the focus on people, instead of business services. We lower barriers to entry. We help people build things, just better.
Contact:
Alex Hillman
IndyHall Labs
215.586.3909
labs@indyhall.org
http://labs.indyhall.org
###
How’d they go from a bunch of scruffy dudes sharing ideas over beers to successful software producers?
Independents Hall, fondly known by its shortened moniker “IndyHall”, has become the home for a diverse spread of mobile workers, telecommuters, freelancers, and entrepreneurs in Philadelphia. It is also part of a larger community of similar communities around the world, lending to regular drop-in attendance of industry specialists and “rock stars” as they visit Philadelphia for work, pleasure, or both.
The diversity of the shared workspace and the strong relationships growing between the space’s members has led to some great organic collaboration between those members, contributing to the creation of the ideas that would normally get stuck at water-cooler. Some of those ideas, they’ve realized, can be commercialized. This unique trajectory for product development has produced tangible results, and more importantly, profitability for some.
One full time member’s project, RipIt, has been selling independently of any marketing and distribution deals. And that member, Jason Allum, has been very happy with the results of the project’s sales. So much so that he teamed up with one of the founders of the space, Alex Hillman, to form IndyHall Labs, a self-declared catalyst with the purpose of helping more people taste that same sweet success.
The first project created by “The Labs” was Multiplex, a DVD collection manager for the Mac computer. Multiplex’s team is led by David Martorana and co-coded with Allum, while art direction is contributed by Johnny Bilotta and UI design and usability are led by Jason Tremblay. The project sold while in public beta from January through May 1st, 2009, and officially reached its 1.0 version feature set on May 1st. During that time, Hillman joined the team as a contributor as well to lend a hand with business development and marketing.
“Labs is designed in such a way that it can’t make buckets of money on an project success. The only way to capitalize on a project is to actually contributed something to the production and sale of that project”, says Hillman. “There’s nothing wrong with incubators, except that they’re designed in a way that lets people get greedy. Our community of trust lets us do things a little differently, where all contributors are stakeholders.”
The most recent vote of confidence for the quality of the products being produced by IndyHall Labs is their inclusion in MacUpdate’s 2009 Spring Bundle. MacUpdate is a very popular website that acts as a directory for Mac software. Periodically they run promotional bundles where teams like those in the Labs can sell their software at an extremely reduced rate in return for high volume sales due to extensive marketing and visibility.
Both Allum’s RipIt ($18.99) and IndyHall Labs’ Multiplex ($35) are included in the MacUpdate bundle running right now, contributing to over 10% of the bundle’s value alongside other apps normally ranging in price from $19.95 to $98. The bundle’s total value clocks in at over $500, and is now selling for $49.99.
So far, the bundle’s sales are exceeding the teams’ expectations, with over 16,000 bundles sold in the first 36 hours of the 2 week promotion. “Being alongside industry-recognized software like Parallels increases our profile.”, says Allum. Bundle customers interested in Parallels, for example, get the chance to run across our software and give it a go. If they like it, we’ve not only got a customer for that application, but potentially for new applications developed in The Labs in the future”.
For more information about IndyHall, you can visit http://indyhall.org
For more information about IndyHall Labs, you can visit http://labs.indyhall.org
For more information about RipIt, you can visit http://ripitapp.com
For more information about Multiplex, you can visit http://multiplexapp.com
For more information about MacUpdate’s Spring Promo Bundle, you can visit http://tr.im/IHLabsMUPromo
About IndyHall Labs: IndyHall Labs isn't an incubator. It's a catalyst. It's a community-powered research and development lab, designed to help you focus on what you're good at: creating things.
IndyHall Labs helps water cooler ideas become business opportunities, and thrives on the sharing of ideas driving for organic collaboration. Above all, we help real people find new ways to build real products and make real money.
IndyHall Labs puts the focus on people, instead of business services. We lower barriers to entry. We help people build things, just better.
Contact:
Alex Hillman
IndyHall Labs
215.586.3909
labs@indyhall.org
http://labs.indyhall.org
###
Contact
IndyHall Labs
Alex Hillman
4845976256
labs.indyhall.org
Alex Hillman
4845976256
labs.indyhall.org
Contact
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