Get 10% off Connectify Pro for our 2nd Birthday!

Posted by rhaldar on October 26, 2011 under News & Announcements

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYoszzMuaJE[/youtube]

With Connectify’s birthday just around the corner, we wanted to take a look back at how far we’ve come since the very first Connectify Beta release in October 2009.  So much has happened in such a short period of time, and in all fairness, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you, our growing legion of Connectify users. Some of you may have just discovered Connectify today, while others have been using our software since the early days (ok, “early days” meaning a little shy of two years ago)! Whether you’re downloading Connectify for the first time, or you’re a long-time user checking out our blog for the latest updates, let’s pause for a moment, look back on Connectify’s humble beginnings, and even take a peek at what’s in store for Connectify in the near future.

 

 HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Let’s start at the very beginning. Once upon a time in 2009, our team was developing wireless hardware technology for the military. On one particular occasion, we found ourselves on an Army base demonstrating that you could drive a full-sized Humvee from miles away using our wireless network. It was a fantastic demonstration, but, behind-the-scenes we spent the day passing USB thumb-drives back-and-forth to transfer files because only one of us had a 3G-card to connect to the Internet. After a hard day’s work, we returned to the hotel to find that they not only wanted to charge each one of us to get on the Wi-Fi, but for each device as well.

After this trip, we briefly decided to carry our own router, but that didn’t last long. None of us wanted to be stuck carrying another brick-like device and power cord, and when we needed to use it, we needed another power outlet. Our frustration with the state of wireless networking finally boiled over. We simply wanted to connect to each other, share Internet connections, and get our devices online, without paying a fortune or carrying more hardware in our already overstuffed computer bags.

Connectify was born in a marathon of late-night software development. Once we had a working beta in-hand, it seemed like everyone around the office was finding a different use for Connectify.  We no longer needed our hardware routers on-the-road, and some team members found Connectify useful for extending the range of their home Wi-Fi networks. It soon dawned on us that if we found the software to be a lifeline in so many different situations, then surely the rest of the world would find Connectify to be useful too.

 

IF A TREE FALLS, AND NOBODY’S THERE TO HEAR IT…

There was no dazzling product reveal at CES, or fanfare at TechCrunch50. Connectify was months away for anything like that. We simply posted an early beta of our software on the Internet in October 2009. The team wondered if anyone would find Connectify, save a few outliers wandering the furthest reaches of the web. But, with doubts only starting to creep into our minds, something astonishing happened: Slashdot.

Not 24 hours after we’d uploaded Connectify Beta 1.0 to our servers, the Slashdot community picked up on it. Slashdot is a messageboard and forum created for, and moderated by geeks. It’s the biggest and most influential site of its kind. And in the tech world, the geeks that read and moderate Slashdot are the early-adopters and trendsetters. It didn’t take long for a post about Connectify to get “modded up” (in Slashdot parlance) to the front page of their site, where millions of the most influential tech nerds and computer geeks would quickly learn about it. We weren’t a hip startup, and of course we didn’t have hot-shot VC funding at that time, so coverage from the tech blogosphere seemed all but out of the question. Still, Slashdot spread word-of-mouth about Connectify in a way that no other site could have. Within a matter of hours, our servers were running at full-tilt as tens of thousands of people started downloading Connectify. Our mouths were agape as many of the very same sites that seemed like a pipe dream just hours before, took notice. Lifehacker, PC World, GigaOM, and many other influential technology blogs wrote complimentary articles about our software, spreading word that much further. It was an amazing moment, to be sure. But, positive reviews and through-the-roof metrics aside, we realized in an instant that people needed software that made these often complex networking tasks simple; they wanted Connectify.

 

BUILDING STEAM WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

The day we launched Connectify was indeed a turning-point. The feeling of being onto something was palpable, and it rooted itself deep into the company psyche. With downloads for that early, barebones beta growing by the hour, we collectively made the decision to shift the focus of our company. Even in the beginning stages, so many of you reached out to us, each time with new and inventive ways of using our application. We heard from college students who were finally able to get all of their devices online in their dorm rooms. There were the soldiers in Afghanistan who used Connectify in the field, to stay connected with family back home. And, we can’t forget the hundreds of thousands of users who had more pedestrian use-cases, though still just as important to us. Business travelers, coffeehouse owners, homemakers, and people from most any background imaginable, contacted us to tell us how they had come to rely on Connectify.

And of course, we saw a business in Connectify. But, before there could be a business there had to be a feature-rich, error-resistant product with wide adoption. We understood that, and we started slowly. Each iteration of the software was slightly better than the last. We’d make Connectify a bit easier-to-use, or add a nifty new feature. The development team spent hundreds of hours in those early days, poring over user logs to iron out bugs and compatibility issues. Our users became a vocal part of the development process too. Through our social media channels, like Facebook and Twitter, we received feedback, both positive and negative, and watched as a bona fide Connectify community appeared before our eyes.

While the Connectify product evolved through its 2.0 milestones, broad adoption grew in spades. Sometime in the spring of 2010, we remember people having already heard of us when we mentioned who we were. Gratifying as that was, it was simply an anecdote to what was really happening. A lot of people were using Connectify. By September of the same year, we surpassed 1 million downloads. “Not a bad run for ten months,” we thought to ourselves. But what we knew from our constant vigilance with metrics and analytics was that the growth of our user-base was growing exponentially. Low-and-behold, in half the time it took us to pass the 1 million mark, you had helped Connectify reach 2 million downloads.

 

FUNDING AND THE FUTURE OF CONNECTIFY

Fast-forward to our upcoming birthday on October 29, 2011, and the Connectify software has garnered 4 million+ downloads in a matter of two years, becoming an essential app for people all over the world. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Today, with Connectify Pro, users are increasingly taking advantage of new value-added premium features that go beyond Wi-Fi sharing, allowing users to interact and share files with connected computers and devices, and much more. And while our users’ networking needs continue to grow, the Connectify team is hard-at-work developing additional features and new, cutting-edge Connectify applications across an increasing number of computer and mobile operating systems. As reported by TechCrunch, Connectify’s recent round of funding from IN-Q-TEL (an organization that helps fund new technologies for use by the US Intelligence Community), will help us bring the next-generation of secure, easy-to-use networking software to users all over the world. With so much happening here at Connectify, we wanted to take a minute on our birthday, to thank you, our users for using our products and being active members of the Connectify community!

 

…AND FOR OUR USERS, A VERY SPECIAL 24 HR. ONLY, 10% OFF COUPON FOR CONNECTIFY PRO!

For helping us make Connectify what it is today, we’re offering a 10% OFF coupon for your Connectify Pro purchase! Starting at 8p EST tonight, until 8p tomorrow, you can head to the Connectify Store, and use COUPON CODE: HAPPYBDAY on your Connectify Pro purchase!