Our Open Source Membership SaaS Is Used By Thousands Of Businesses
Over the years we have stayed true to our vision which is to Organize the World’s People. Do Good. Tendenci AMS software was founded by none other than Ed Schipul, a political science major who wrote the software 24 years ago.
The software was first known as Schipul the Web Marketing Company, with a mission to ethically sell web marketing and software services that connect people for a win/win within the global community. As a great leader who foresees the future in the tech industry, Ed Schipul decided to rewrite the software in 2001 to go fully open source. This was to help support the complexity of nonprofits and associations across the globe, as associations are the fabric of our society.
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What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
Taking Tendenci open source was always the goal, a return to the roots of the Internet itself. We are big believers in sharing information which leads the way to greater ideas and visions that can be realized when we work together. Tendenci is an Association Management Software that supports many industries in addition to small businesses who want to go from spreadsheets to a full online AMS. It is a robust software, completely customizable, and integrates with everyone! The more you explore what our software is all about compared to AMS competitors or other business models that don’t care about privacy or other people - you’ll notice that Tendenci is not just for hosting websites, but rather an investment in our client community across the globe with more features and for less money. And that makes us your best option.
We have clients in a variety of industry-specific such as (a) Professional Associations who need full support for handling online events, memberships, job banks, directory listings, rich media, and reporting (b) NonProfits and Small Businesses who need a single integrated platform to manage donations, fundraising and volunteers within their website (c) Festivals and Event Websites who can benefit from our rich media management and event calendar (d) University and Educational Organizations that need a website easy to add and edit content, LMS integrations or something as resourceful as a research library (e) Churches and Faith-based Organizations that need an affordable platform to spread the word (f) Government / Public Organizations who need a business directory and extra layers of security as an example and much more.
Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.
We fired away with a vision of connecting people and communities throughout the world, and while the technology involved in the software has changed rapidly over time, our commitment never has and never will. Tendenci AMS was rewritten from scratch back in 2001 in Python, Postgresql, and Django and was released to the world’s people in 2009. Most of our growth is international with less than 50% in the U.S., which means we are constantly adapting our business model, even right now. We are a small virtual team, mostly living in Texas and Puerto Rico, behind a much larger community of developers who contribute to the code every day. All of the code is on GitHub - no gimmicks, no back doors, none of that stuff - because we are very big on security and privacy.
The company started the old-fashioned way with mailing letters and cold calls and was originally named Schipul Technologies after the company’s founder. You can appreciate the
company’s brand history in our clients’ footers. Although initial sales efforts were local, Ed Schipul traveled the world in hopes of engaging a more global community.
As an example, the team launched and then managed the website for the World Health Organization for nine years, and from there began managing sites for many other international organizations. At this point, Ed and the team sat down with a world map and started to pinpoint associations and nonprofit organizations from around the world that needed the software. This was the only way the team could grasp the vision of a truly global community.
Check out Schipul The Web Marketing Company's 10th anniversary:
Other reasons for our growth (and it’s not all necessarily good) are: (a) Not everyone wants to host in the United States. (b) Years ago we started a project on Transifex, which is an open-source translation project. Although most clients do business in English, you still need landing pages in other languages. We have about 80 languages in the Transifex project currently, though not all are fully translated and not all the translations are perfect. Yet again, it is being built by a community of disrupters trying to make a difference in this world and continuing the efforts of making Tendenci accessible to the world.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
Perhaps the biggest draw to Tendenci software is that it's open-source - you own all of your data and can export your database at any time. What does this mean? Cause-based organizations under oppressive governments can help their communities without interference; small businesses on shoestring budgets can continue to operate. We love that so many organizations are using Tendenci “in the wild”.
We also pride ourselves on our security-focused operation, which is another draw for clients who conduct business with very sensitive data and activities. For example, we vastly increase resources for our clients by hosting live-stream events with prominent speakers. Tendenci was ahead of the curve in offering containerized hosting services years ago and continues to look to new technology to help keep our clients and their members’ data secure.
While many looks to launch a Tendenci website using the open-source code found on GitHub, we also have many clients who rely on the expertise and support of our core team to develop and host their websites. When we develop a website here at Tendenci, this is not just launching a site - this is a collaborative process by which we and the organization teamwork together for months to implement a successful membership management strategy and other revenue-generating activities. While Tendenci AMS software certainly has the most bang for your buck, we do not consider the software an expense to the client - we consider it an investment. Associations nearly always see an increase in revenue-generating activity in the months following a Tendenci site implementation or upgrade.
So when it comes to the million-dollar question “How much is Tendenci?”, our Founder Ed Schipul teaches us that “For any organization – whether a nonprofit or a business – it is essential to rise above the noise and focus on community building rather than selling." The reality is, that you don’t write open-source software as a get-rich-quick business plan. We have stayed true to our vision but it’s getting more expensive every day with COVID-19 and it is a stress on all of us. But the beauty of open source is that you own your data and all of the code is on Github, and that makes Tendenci a gift to the world. This is how we ultimately measure our years of success. We are a major market player, the software is considered “Top of the Line AMS” by our clients like John Stutervant, rock-solid when it needs to be, yet flexible and scalable with room for growth and innovation.
The bottom line? We genuinely care. And it shows. Many of our clients have been around for 15+ years.
Photos of Client Involvement:
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Tendenci has fought a lot of battles to be where we are today. However, the future looks promising. Especially now during COVID-19, we maintain a positive attitude and strong approach towards the future as we continue to enter SaaS marketplaces such as AWS, Alibaba, Azure, and Digital Ocean. Entering the marketplace through international cloud hosting providers makes it much easier and more cost-effective to deploy Tendenci. We currently hold an official AMI (Amazon Machine Image) listing in the AWS Marketplace for associations looking for One-Click site deployment.
Tendenci is constantly being forecasted on global market insights as one of the top 10, if not 5, leading Association Management Software thriving online.
Currently, our only sales come from inbound leads - this is possible because of our strong foundation in SEO and our historical presence in the community.
Tendenci looks to a more global community again as it continues to expand upon its most recent Chapters module - this has once again attracted international attention. Tendenci has always supported chapters via the use of a main hub website and microsites, but now offers a more cost-effective solution for clients who would like to host chapter landing pages under one umbrella. As we continue to expand upon this, national and international clients will be able to give their chapter leadership more autonomy, while all reporting can still roll up to the national and/or international level.
We look forward to our continued collaboration with clients and the open-source developer community to provide innovative software globally!
Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?
People. People are smart, and they’ll know if you’re not working in their best interest. This is why many clients come to us after ending their relationship with a proprietary solution.
Knowledge sharing is key. No one truly benefits if your cards are always held too closely. It behooves industry leaders to Knowles to pave the way for future innovation.
Another thing we’ve learned is that while associations evolve a lot over the years and become increasingly more complex, fundamentally they do not change, and there are just certain universal truths - things that work, and things that don’t work. This is why our clients trust our combined 20+ years of knowledge and experience to help them launch successful membership management strategies and beautifully designed websites.
And lastly, go with your gut and where the evidence points. Unfortunately, people will not always listen, but if the right people had listened back in 2014, many of the critical cybersecurity issues that have made headlines these past few years could very well have been prevented.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
Tendenci was written as an all-in-one solution on a Python/Django/PostgreSQL framework. The only additional platform integrations we recommend as a must for associations to conduct day-to-day business are a mail provider and a payment processor, but we integrate with many other third-party platforms so our clients have the freedom of choice. Tendenci’s vendors of choice to help send newsletters and collect payment through our website are Mailgun and Stripe, respectively, though we also integrate with other mail sending and payment processing platforms.
Tendenci also has SEO tools baked into the code, but we integrate with platforms such as SEMRUSH and HubSpot for more specific or enhanced functionality.
Common integrations include:
● Newsletter Sending: Mailgun
● CRM: Salesforce
● Analytics: Google Analytics and Tag Manager
● Videos: YouTube, Vimeo
● Languages: Transifex, Google Translate
● Social Media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram
Check out our Works With page to see which platforms we most frequently integrate with.
Tendenci likes to put our social media outlets to good use as well - this is how we share industry and company-specific news, as well as how we show our support for our clients and share their good fortune. We have a strong domain authority so we always have people wanting to collaborate with us for backlinks.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Ed Schipul always assigned reading to new employees during their onboarding phase. He is a big believer that we should never stop learning, and that developing a well-rounded set of skills is far more important than centering your work around a defined position. There’s a saying that’s so commonly misused - “a jack of all trades in a master of none..”. People often leave out the ending “but oftentimes better than a master of one”. Being well rounded in all aspects of business is important, which is why many employees early on did not have titles - titles can often lead to self-imposed limits. Staying true to this idea, Ed often sponsored training and conference
attendance, and frequently offered opportunities for eager employees to rise from interns to leaders.
Some frequently assigned readings that are oldies, but goodies include:
Getting Things Done
Crucial Conversations
The One Minute Manager
Who Moved My Cheese
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
22 Immutable Laws of Marketing
The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
As someone who loves to continuously learn, our founder Ed Schipul reads often and spends time on Blinkist to stay apprised of interesting new ideas and what’s going on in the world. When on-site meetings were more prevalent, Ed often attended and encouraged others to attend client events and meetings. You’d be surprised how much industry-specific knowledge you gain from doing this.
Ed also regularly attended conferences such as SXSW, TEDxHouston, Drupal Summit, NTC, Netsquared, DEF CON, and even our very own SchipulCon - where knowledge was shared amongst members and leaders in the tech industry.
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
I received this great advice from Seth Rao, Founder of SecReliant a couple of years ago at a Cybersecurity conference Luxembourg American Chamber of Commerce was hosting down in New York City. I remember Seth saying to me that for those who are looking to pursue a career in technology, they should consider studying Liberal Arts first because we must learn to be humans as this industry can lead you to dark places. -Shirley Rodríguez
Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?
Tendenci is always on the lookout to hire amazing people with strong leadership skills to join the team. We provide a creative environment that breeds good ideas, grows strong leaders, and cultivates the tools needed for our clients to succeed in the online world. Our overachiever employees are in a state of constant learning. If you are someone who doesn’t love reading then Tendenci isn’t right for you as we are also very passionate about knowledge sharing and our clients! Our awesome team consists of designers, programmers, and people with great attitudes in general. Most of us on the team wear more than one hat daily, so flexibility is extremely important. We have wonderful people sending us resumes all the time and the majority of our team members were brought in as interns - one of them is Nicole Davis who is currently President of Tendenci.
Where can we go to learn more?
- Website
- Learn about what can open source do for your association
- What is Tendenci
- Github
- Documentation
- Tendenci Updates
- Rich Media
Social Media
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Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
Download the report and join our email newsletter packed with business ideas and money-making opportunities, backed by real-life case studies.
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