Who we are:
MadMimi.com is a Brooklyn-based startup providing a uniquely simple, powerful email marketing service. They utilize Basecamp, and Campfire for in-house collaboration on development projects, and as their main platform for customer support.

How we use Basecamp and why we like it:
Well we must have referenced Basecamp a hundred times during the conception of Mad Mimi. So to say we like Basecamp is a bit of an understatement. Basecamp helps us handle project collaboration effortlessly. But our affinity goes deeper – Basecamp's simplicity was a muse for us, in that it triggered a shift in our mindset which lead to the creation of our product. Others can debate the logic of this, but to our minds, when you cross Basecamp simplicity with email promotion, you get a fresh, functional alternative to the bloated, template-based services that are currently leading the market. You look at all the reasons why industry leaders are predicting that Mad Mimi will topple the current dominating players in the email marketing industry, and many of those reasons can be credited to the influence of 37 SIgnals' products.

In terms of how we use Basecamp, it's interesting. Before our success in email marketing, we were just another New York music production company. At the time, Basecamp let us exchange music files in a cool way. As artists, we were taken in by what we all called the "Basecamp Vibe," which meant beauty, economy, simplicity. As a company, we had to promote ourselves with email, and we hated the web based apps we found – they were charging quite a lot for the pleasure of using the same tired, dated templates. So driven by necessity, and inspired by the "Basecamp Vibe", we put together a new way to design, send and track our own e-promos. The software was so effective it became our company's main focus, and that's when we brought in big guns like Tobie Langel to bring it to surprising new levels. What's interesting is that we used Basecamp for managing the collaboration of our team in Chicago, Utah, Switzerland, South Africa and New York in developing our software. In short, Basecamp is a muse...that we use.

Which features we like most:
Some months it's one feature, some months it's another. It's a constant process of discovery. For a long time we stayed away from the To-Do lists, and favored only messages.  But now To-Do's are a daily routine. There's a tremendous gratification in crossing off tasks and having that "wow, look at what I accomplished" feeling.

What we used before switching to Basecamp:
Before Basecamp it was an endless swarm of disorganized emails. I just remember a lot re:re:re:re. There were phone calls, conference calls, cell phone headaches, and the time-eating in-person meetings. Our feeling is face-to-face should be over a relaxing lunch, not over papers. Basecamp actually saved us time, and we were able to enjoy more of those lunches. We used Google Docs on occasion before we switched. Basecamp is more fun, easier, nicer to look at, and seemingly bug free. We still use Google Docs for various odd tasks, but coming back to Basecamp is like coming home to a comfy arm-chair or an old pair of jeans.

How Basecamp helped us out:
Well, to begin with, Basecamp helped us out with EVERYTHING. We went from technological imbeciles to technology newbies in no time. Basecamp is much more than a simple app. It was our ENTIRE BUSINESS. Our offices, our conference room, our file cabinets, our calendars, our traffic department, our bulletin board, our lounge, everything. Our team was based in five different cities, so we have to credit Basecamp for taking Mad Mimi from infancy to the launch of a groundbreaking product

Thoughts on Campfire, customer service:
One thing about Mad Mimi is that we want customer service to be like our emails – simple and lovely. Or to put it differently, efficient and human. Outsourcing our tech support is not an option. We use Campfire as our main platform for helping our users when they get stuck or have a question. We have subscribers in five continents – from Utah to Uganda – and we offer Campfire chat support in addition to a phone hotline. We get pinged hundreds of times a day through our chat feature, but we haven't received a single support call since we integrated with Campfire using Tinder. (The only phone calls are from VCs and partnership offers.)

With Campfire our customers can send us data formatted wrong, and we can fix it and send it back to them in minutes. We can paste and send screenshots, too – very helpful. Campfire is the best support infrustructure of any app we've seen. It's quicker than phone support and lets our lead developers handle multiple queries at once. Our users enjoy immediate access to our staff and super-quick file transfer. I look forward to every Campfire chat with a customer because it gives us a chance to be hero. We want them to love us and tell their friends about our great service – Campfire helps to make that happen, as you can see by a few real quotes...