Driven to IFTTT

No, its not mine. The legendary Kevin Ebaugh beat me to it :)

“Startups aren’t easy” is an understatement by any measure. Like many early startups, the IFTTT journey has had its share of ups and downs, but we’ve been lucky enough to attract some of the most talented people, smartest investors and wisest advisors who have helped us find our way.

We went from a website with an about page URL and swag that literally stood for “What the fuck is IFTTT” to a fast growing business with a clear strategy and a meaningful purpose. Through it all, IFTTT remains the most exciting thing I could imagine working on with a group of people I couldn’t imagine not working with.

Early swag. Perhaps a sign that we were thinking different, but also still had a lot to figure out.

We started with a couple of big bets. First, that every business, product and organization was going to become a digital service. Second, that we could make the task of getting all of those services working together easy enough that anyone could do it.

After endless waves of new apps, disrupted businesses and connected devices it is pretty safe to say we were spot on with the first bet. As for the second one: 14 million users and 75 million Applets later we’ve made great progress towards making IFTTT simple and approachable, but we are still just getting started.

An early and complicated idea (left) for what we would eventually call an Applet (right).

Now, almost eight years in, we are ready to make another bet. We believe IFTTT can help businesses build compatible, personal and useful services that their users will love and trust. Today’s consumers increasingly expect every company to deliver a personalized experience. At the same time, privacy is starting to get the attention it deserves and consumers feel increasingly uncomfortable sharing too much of their personal data. Unfortunately, this data is exactly what companies will need in order to deliver those personalized experiences in the first place!

An early homepage and tagline. IFTTT was about empowerment right from the start.

I believe privacy is really about human empowerment in the digital age. It’s not a fixed state, but an ongoing series of choices about how we protect AND benefit from the information in our world. Customers will be willing to share more information in return for meaningful personal experiences and the confidence that they are in the driver’s seat.

IFTTT is a trusted neutral platform that helps people and businesses make that series of choices about how information is shared, together, one Applet at a time. Our new investors Salesforce, IBM, Chamberlain and Fenox all believe in the incredible magnitude of this opportunity and are excited to help us realize it.

If this also gets you excited enough to help us make it happen, then email me at ltibbets@ifttt.com.

Linden