No hype; just good software

Hi. I'm Jay Batson, the founder and CEO of Plum Canary. Though it's not a common practice on company web sites, I thought you might want to hear directly from the CEO about what makes our company, and our software, what it is.

I've been building software - either writing it myself, or as an executive - since 1986. Over the last 20 years, I've come to have some strongly-held feelings about software, and what makes companies work. You can read about my software thoughts on an ongoing basis at my blog.

But a few key things define how I think, and thus, how Chirp is built.

• We want to build software that is easy but deep. I'll make no bones about it: I think Apple shows the rest of the software industry the “right” way to do it. Their applications are deceptively powerful. They appear simple on the surface, but can still do everything you want. I think software vendors too-often provide a panoply of tempting, but marginally–useful capabilities that few users can master. I don't want software that is too dumb. I want easy, but deep.
• Build what we want to use. This sounds like vanity. But it isn't – it's a life choice, and a test. First, I want myself, and my staff, to love our products so much that we all race to work on them.
• Get the subtle things right. Building software is all about details. It's very easy to talk at a conversational level about what software should do. But great software happens when you use experience and wisdom to make the hundreds of small, subtle choices during implementation. For example, should software work while “offline,” or is a website “enough.” That single, seemingly-trivial choice can make a huge difference in whether someone likes, or doesn't like a product.
• Keep life light, and in perspective. Hey - we've got a fun company name, a product name that's not overly-serious, and we like humorous banter with each other. We occasionally close the office and go have fun on sunny summer afternoons, and have good life. Don't worry - we'll take care of you. But in the process, we want to take care of ourselves, too.

To realize these things, I've built a team from all over the world including some of the greatest people I've met in my 20 years building software.

• Our primary software team is in Barnaul, Russia. And it is as good as any I have worked with in 20 years.
• Our PR team is in a suburb of Raleigh, North Carolina.
• And we handle support, product management and administration from here in North Andover, MA, USA, a town in Boston's high-tech corridor with a tradition of innovative technology companies including FTP Software, PictureTel, and FitDay.

We are privately-held, and internally-funded.

I hope you appreciate this slight variation from the normal corporate About page. Feel free to give me a call and talk about what you want. I'll listen.

P.S. - Where'd our company and product names come from? We were thinking about our product's value as an early-warning system for trouble. Which made us think of the old “Canary in a coal mine” warning system. So, we put Canary in the company name, and put a color in front of it to make it fun. And the canary gives a Chirp to provide the warning, so there's the story behind the product name!