Seven years ago I sat at my kitchen table on a Sunday, writing invoices for my small design studio. It was the third weekend in a row.

The tools that existed were built for corporations or for people who love bookkeeping. For those of us who actually wanted to design, there was nothing.

Northwind is the tool I wished for back then. Today 4,000 studios work with it, and every weekend someone gets back is the reason we keep going.