AgileBits may be one of Canada’s most successful software makers but you couldn’t tell by its low profile. The Toronto-based company’s flagship product is 1Password, one of the leading ways to create strong passwords for your online accounts.
While acclaimed by people in the security and password communities, AgileBits probably doesn’t get the attention it deserves. To get some insight into the company’s growth, I touched with AgileBit’s David Chartier:
1. Can you give me a mini-history of AgileBits? When was it started and who’s behind it?
We started in 2005 when our co-founders Dave Teare and Roustem Karimov began working on projects together. At the time, they simply got annoyed at all the passwords they needed to remember for all their apps and web services.
Like many of our favorite products, they set out to solve a personal problem and built a tool that would create strong, unique passwords, remember then, and log them in automatically. The weren’t even planning on releasing it publicly until they showed it to a few friends and realized they had created something special.
Recently we gained a CEO, Jeff Shiner, and we are now a team of nearly 60 people spread across languages and the globe.
2. 1Password is one of the leading password tools. How do you manage the product’s evolution in terms of driving innovation, customer demands and the competitive landscape?
We believe there is a balance to maintain between security and convenience. Our job is to make the secure thing to do the convenient thing to do, all the while saving you time on the web.
We spend a lot of time polishing our vision for 1Password and listening to our incredible customers. We also have a huge beta team (over 25,000 on Mac alone) that is very influential in our direction.
The thing about security is that it’s a process, not a destination. Tools and techniques on all ends of this spectrum are constantly evolving, so as we’re building new features we have to constantly evolve 1Password’s foundation to stay secure and resilient.
3. What’s AgileBit’s marketing/brand strategy? Would it be fair to say the company has a modest profile in broad market terms but strong within its niche?
Since we started, we have relied largely on word of mouth and educating both the press and our customers. Most people know they need help getting things done so they seek out a task manager. But far too many people are still not aware that reusing their birthday + pet’s name as a password everywhere is a catastrophic security bomb waiting to happen.
We’ve found education and a strong, human-powered customer support system to be invaluable in showing people that 1Password is a better, more secure, yet convenient way to work and play on the web.
4. What were the biggest challenges transitioning the company from startup to small business?
Well to start, I should probably note that AgileBits has never taken funding. From the beginning, we set out to make a great product that people would pay for, especially because we’re dealing with some of the most sensitive information of all people’s passwords, credit cards, addresses, and more.
But given 1Password’s nature and origin, I’d say the largest transition was when we realized that it was becoming much more than an internal tool or even a side project. People started to really care about 1Password (“1Passwd”, back in this time), a lot of them, and we realized we could help people everywhere get more secure online.
5. What are the biggest growth challenges?
Scaling the company to support our growing customer base and deciding where to go next. Our customer base is larger and more diverse than ever, and we get just about every request you could imagine. The trick is to keep building, keep listening to our customers, and staying focused on 1Password’s mission to save time and make you more secure online.
For start-ups looking to jump-start their marketing, I offer strategic planning, core messaging, product marketing and content development.
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