Silverstripe success is an open secret

ROBERT KITCHIN/Dominion Post

SITTING PRETTY: Silverstripe chief technology officer Sam Minnee (L), and CEO Brian Calhoun. The web development company says it has had an explosion of global interest after open-sourcing its webpage building software.

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Silverstripe figured that to make a difference in the world of web development, it just needed to open up a little.

As a result, the Wellington company has increased its team from 15 to 22 in one year, has revenue growth of more than 60 per cent each year, was named as a finalist in the 2008 Wellington Gold Awards, and has moved to accommodate expansion.

The secret to its success was about being less secret.

By "opensourcing", or making its webpage-building software available online and free of charge, Silverstripe risked having its ideas stolen by competitors and paying customers opting for the freeware.

What actually happened, says chief executive Brian Calhoun, is not what one might have expected.

The company was started in 2000 by three entrepreneurs. Two years ago, it laid its main platform bare on the Internet as a free download.

"We saw an explosion in interest globally. People all over the planet started downloading it," Mr Calhoun says.

The company has been profitable for five years and taking its main product to market as freeware created so much goodwill in the online community that existing customers stayed with it, and new customers sought it out.

Silverstripe now makes money from the added extras to the free capabilities its open-source software provides, and as expectations for websites grow, the add-ons are becoming more necessary.

"That's why we need a whole new floor," Mr Calhoun says.

The do-it-yourself web-design platform has become well-known in the area of "agile" software development, which puts people and usability before process, he says.

"Be more human" is Silverstripe's mantra, and it runs all the way from the online code it writes to the humorous "pants optional" office dress policy to the bosses' attitude to running the company.

The three Silverstripe founders, Sigurd Magnusson, Sam Minnee and Tim Copeland, all work as employees and have never needed to seek outside investment.

"You have to have people with skin in the game, and the best way to do that is to have the owners working in it," Mr Calhoun says.

By looking after employees - who flock to work for Silverstripe despite getting less than the top market pay rate - and developing more user-friendly products, Mr Calhoun says it is trying to make websites easier, more interesting and accessible.

"We are in this to make the Web better."

- © Fairfax NZ News