To Infinity and Beyond

We wanted to take a moment to talk about our road map for the future. But first, a little history …

When we started this endeavor as a side project, we thought Dribbble might hold interest to a small niche community. Upon emerging from our beta 8 months ago, we (and our servers) were floored by the response. The niche was bigger than we thought. We quickly saw potential to create something significant, and perhaps even make a living doing it. The Dream! The timing was right (or as right as it would ever be with families involved), so Rich came on board full-time. We didn’t have enough revenue for the long haul, but hoped we could survive on ads and savings as we attempted to evolve Dribbble from hobby to business.

We’ve covered a lot of ground since then: Debuts, an API, Highlights, Playoffs and contests, vanity urls, Sign in with Twitter, Spectators, and countless incremental improvements. Behind the scenes, we’ve also sunk a lot of time into scaling and infrastructure, marketing, management and recruitment of advertisers, and user support.

Over the next few months, we’re concentrating on sustainability. We want Dan to come on full-time. We want Rich to make a full salary. We want to spend less time surviving and more time on features. We want to buy ourselves the breathing room and resources to do Dribbble justice.

How? Based on popular demand from members, fans and employers, we’ll offer Pro features for those who want their work to get more exposure.

We get countless reports via blog, Twitter, email and word of mouth that Dribbblers are getting discovered and hired via the site. This one is an interesting read:

http://justcreativedesign.com/2010/10/21/how-i-got-a-job-using-dribbble

We’re making the process even easier. Dribbblers for hire will be able to announce their availability and expertise, be found by location, and have a simple mechanism for being contacted.

We’re also creating a back channel (perhaps a Backboard) where Dribbblers can

Find great jobs

and promote their …

Icons

Fonts

Prints

iOS apps

Games

Software

Conferences

As you can see, members have used the site creatively to show their wares. We’re creating a dedicated space for those who want a more targeted spotlight. We will not upset the core Dribbble experience. Dribbble will continue to look and work as it does today and it won’t cost a thing.

We mention all of this because the tweets, emails and other requests for support, features, API additions, etc have reached a fever pitch. This is great - we know we’re on to something. But in order to meet the demand, we need stability, resources and the luxury of being able to focus on progress. Sustainability.

We’ll definitely be fixing bugs and squeezing in core improvements along the way. But if we don’t expand the API or get to your favorite feature request for a while, it’s not because we don’t want to. We’re laying the groundwork for Dribbble to endure.

We hope we’ve earned your confidence that what we’re building is a tasteful addition to the current site. But the proof is in the pudding. So it’s time to go make the pudding. Perhaps we’ll even share some screenshots of our progress along the way. If only there were a site for that …

Find more Updates stories on our blog Courtside. Have a suggestion? Contact stories@dribbble.com.

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