Celebrating 15 Years!

15
years

How it started

Intervals was launched in 2006, but our journey began six years before. Our company spent its formative years building hundreds of web sites for clients throughout California. We’d always been a team of problem solvers and tinkerers who love building stuff but managing client work was hard and we made a few mistakes that cost us money.

Our problem was a common one, but, our approach to solving it was not. We needed more than a to do list or a Gantt chart. We needed to create an atmosphere of accountability with every client and team member so that we could be better stewards of project budgets and make sure we got paid on time.

We experimented with both open source and proprietary software. After exhausting our search — and finding nothing that fit — we tapped into our collective maker spirit and started building our own solution.

We started by creating a workflow management methodology we called Estimate, Track, and Learn. The idea behind it is simple. First, estimate a project by breaking it down into smaller tasks. Second, track your time on each task. Third, learn by comparing the result to the original estimate. This methodology would be the foundation for every feature in our software.

We spent the next year developing the flagship version of Intervals, which launched on June 3rd, 2006. We watched and waited as businesses from all over the world started signing up for a free trial. It wasn’t long before our first customer, an agency in Sweden, started paying for our software. The rest, they say, is history.

How it's going

Since our launch thousands of businesses have adopted Intervals on their journey toward success. It's a journey we share as we also continue to use Intervals in our day-to-day work. Our customers have shown us over and over that the lesson we learned fifteen years ago still holds true today — accountability is absolutely necessary for running a successful small business.

Pragmatically speaking, our Estimate, Track, and Learn methodology is still the foundation upon which every feature is built or improved. Here's what we've been up to:

  • Time tracking
    We've collaborated with countless customers and incorporated their feedback into a better time tracking experience. As a result, we regularly hear from customers who have experienced up to a 30% increase in hours tracked after deploying Intervals.
  • Workflow management
    Our comprehensive task management features have benefited from customers who demand more sophisticated work tools. Much of our recent efforts have been focused on collaboration and automation.
  • Invoicing
    We help small businesses get paid for their work by creating beautifully detailed invoices based on actual time tracking data. This was one of the first major features we added to help round out the client billing experience.
  • Reporting
    Our reports remain unparalleled as we continue to grow our portfolio of data visualizations, graphs, and charts. More recently, we've been adding features for sharing your data with clients and colleagues.
  • Mobile
    It's hard to believe we launched Intervals before the iPhone even existed. Today, it's hard to imagine life without a smart phone at your side. We've adapted by making our software more responsive and introducing a mobile app for Android and iOS devices.
  • We’re proud to say that we are helping small businesses and teams succeed in over 100 countries and every time zone. Even here in the US, where we are based, we have customers in every state but one (we’re looking at you, South Dakota). We’re also fortunate that a product we launched 15 years ago, in an industry that was still in its infancy, is still thriving. We’ve learned so much and are forever grateful to our customers whose immeasurable support and feedback has blazed the trail to where we are today.

Intervals launches

Apple launches the iPhone

Google launches Android

Bitcoin launches, starts trading from around $0.0008 to $0.08 per coin in July 2010

Instagram launches

NASA officially ends the Space Shuttle program

Raspberry Pi is released and soon becomes the catalyst behind a growing Maker movement

An undiscovered meteor strikes the Chelyabinsk oblast in Russia

The Rosetta spacecraft's Philae probe becomes the first to successfully land on a comet

Liquid water is found on Mars

Chicago Cubs wins the World Series for the first time since 1908, ending the Curse of the Billy Goat

A solar eclipse passes throughout the contiguous United States for the first time since 1918

Steven Hawking and Stan Lee die

The COVID-19 global pandemic begins in Wuhan, China

Parasite wins the Oscar for best film