Big takeaway for me? An entire page dedicated to each rule.

But my favorite page on the internet, by far, is all about YNABers who are working hard and succeeding.

This is going to be fun!

That worked quite well for us for quite a while, but recently things have begun to change. As we’ve grown in popularity, we have increasingly found ourselves troubleshooting obscure install issues for Adobe AIR on various Linux flavors, many of which we were not familiar with. If a Linux customer had a problem, it took us ten times as long to provide the same incredible level of support that we could for Mac or Windows. Furthermore, our Linux customers were, as a percentage, having more problems getting AIR installed correctly. To paraphrase a recent potential customer who was having trouble getting AIR working: “If you advertise Linux compatibility, I expect it to be easy.” He’s right! We only want to advertise YNAB for platforms that we can enthusiastically proclaim, “This will work great for you! We promise! If it doesn’t, we’ll work until it does.” The fact is, we can’t do that for Linux anymore.

On top of that, Adobe no longer officially supports AIR on Linux, and we don’t want to make implicit guarantees about future compatibility with YNAB 4, 5, 6, etc. So, even though YNAB will probably work on your flavor of Linux (perhaps with a bit of Googling and some command-line know-how), we can’t guarantee it, and are no longer advertising YNAB as “Linux compatible.” If you’re the persistant sort, please feel free to install an older version of AIR and then give YNAB a shot!

—
LITTLE GUY, YOU NEED A BUDGET, RANKS 10th OUT OF 100 FASTEST GROWING UTAH COMPANIES
Business Network Honors Budgeting Software Company at 17th Annual Utah 100 Awards Program

Small but mighty financial software company, You Need a Budget, was named Utah’s 10th fastest growing company at Mountain West Capital Network’s (MWCN) 17th annual Utah 100 Awards Program at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City last Thursday.

MWCN, Utah’s largest business networking organization, chose the top 100 out of thousands of Utah businesses that applied. Those 100 were then ranked according to their percentage of revenue increase from 2006 to 2010. A first-time applicant to the event, You Need a Budget (YNAB) was pleased to find itself sandwiched between elite companies such as Green River Capital (11th) and SkullCandy (9th). Upon learning the exact placement of his seven-year-old start-up, YNAB Founder and CEO, Jesse Mecham, stated, “I was shocked. I knew we had grown tremendously, but when I saw the competition, I had my doubts. To be ranked number 10 is a very welcome surprise.”

But it should come as no surprise. The software company—started when Mecham was newly married and still in college—has achieved 1,577% revenue growth since 2006, an impressive feat considering the doomed fate of most start-ups in the face of the economic downturn. But You Need a Budget didn’t just eek it’s way through the recession, it thrived. Meant to help people take the reins on their finances through it’s Four Rules method, YNAB has become the budgeting software of choice to an ever-growing body of users in a few, short years. With tens of thousands of customers, world-wide, and a new accolade under his belt, Mecham has no plans for slowing down. “As much as people love You Need a Budget now, I know we can make it even better. There’s still plenty to be done and new ways to grow.”
—

On Tuesday, Lifehacker posted: “Most Popular Personal Finance Software: YNAB”

We took 51%, with the familiar Mint taking 26%.

Thanks for your support everyone! It’s obvious that we would have come nowhere close to the top without your participating in our “get out the vote!” campaign :)

Mondays are the day I find out that we’re mentioned on Lifehacker as one of five contenders for Best Personal Finance Software.

You may have already received my giddy email blast as part of our “get out the vote!” campaign we’ve thrown together. We are not a huge company, but I want to make a huge showing if possible :)

You can vote for YNAB here.

Thanks to those Lifehacker/YNAB fans that nominated YNAB in the first place! We wouldn’t have even contended without your comments. If you’re ever in Utah, let me buy you lunch :)

Update: If you’re having trouble viewing the poll, use this direct link.

Update 2 (8/12/11): We won! Thanks for the support everyone! We ended up with 51% of the total vote. Mint came in 2nd place with 26%.

You’re qualified if:

- You can write very, very well. We want you to deliver a clear, concise answer to a customer’s question/plea/concern—quickly.

- You use YNAB. You love YNAB. You’re a YNAB success story. If YNAB sold t-shirts, you’d have one.

- You know your way around a computer. You don’t need to be a computer science major, but you need to have more skills than my father. (Many more.)

- You can handle a steady workload without much oversight.

- You’re a great troubleshooter. You needn’t be an expert problem-solver, but a firm grasp on where to start as you go out on a quest to solve a customer’s issue is key.

- You keep your cool when hotter heads appear to be prevailing.

- You can work from home (or anywhere I guess), with a broadband connection.

- You can show empathy.

- You’re friendly, courteous, kind, cheerful, creative, flexible and passionate.

If you can turn an anxious customer into a happy customer, and deliver the kind of customer service experience for which we’re already very well-known, you’re qualified. If you can have our customers raving about their customer experience with YNAB, you’re qualified.

How to Apply

Please include a cover letter that explains:

1. Why you are gunning to work in customer service. Specifically to serve YNAB’s customers.
2. A great customer service experience you’ve had recently. Why, specifically, was it so great?

Please also include answers to these common customer questions:

1. “I’ve been using Quicken for 10 years, but YNAB looks intriguing. Can you tell me what the main differences are between the two?”
2. “I purchased YNAB, but realize now that it works on a monthly basis, and I’m paid bi-weekly. How do I go about getting a refund?”
3. “I purchased YNAB about three months ago, but have never gotten around to using it. I know your moneyback guarantee is just for 30 days, but could I get an exception?”

Send your application to jobs@youneedabudget.com.

Other Details

This is for a part-time position (20-30 hours per week), with pay between $10 and $15 an hour, based on your experience. You won’t be required to work specific hours of the day, so if you do your best work at 2 AM, our Australian customers will likely be thrilled.

I remember staying up WAY past my bedtime–til probably 9:30–making campaign posters, and putting the finishing touches on my speech. My mom helped me color the final few campaign posters right before I went to bed.

The following day was election day. I had butterflies in my stomach, and campaign posters stuffed into my Jansport backpack. I put up the posters in strategic locations (cafeteria walls, next to the other posters) and gave my speech after lunch, to a packed assembly of elementary school kids who were just hanging on every word.

I didn’t deliver.

Matt beat me.

My crushing defeat still haunts me to this day. If only I had focused on the core issues (recess length) and not tried to convince my peers that what we really needed was a balanced budget, and to pay off some of the school’s debt in order to free some long-term cash flow for big expenses that were headed our way…

Well, I need your help. I don’t want to lose another race.

YNAB is in the running for the 2011 Best Windows Personal Finance Software from About.com. Please vote for YNAB here.

As of 4:55 AM Mountain Time, we’re shy by about 500 votes. I think we’ll crush that deficit in a matter of hours with your help. If you’ve already voted, know that you’re allowed to vote once per day so please vote again!

And yes, I recognize that YNAB is also the best personal finance software for Mac, but we didn’t get enough nominations for the Mac contest (we will next year). If you’re a Mac user, just know you’re helping your red-headed step-brother out by voting for us on the Windows side (and recognize that they’re one-in-the-same software :))

Now what can I give you, to entice you to vote? I can only promise you that we’ll code faster, and continue to bring you great new features to your software.

I can promise that we’ll continue to deliver stunningly-responsive customer service.

I can promise that we’ll keep offering free live classes to educate you, or just to keep you motivated.

And if we win, I can promise you longer recess, and no more soggy french fries from the cafeteria.

Please help us best our noble competitor (AceMoney), by voting today. The vote closes at 11:59 PM EST tonight, so don’t delay! Join the fray!

If you have friends that love YNAB, please forward this along to have them vote as well.

If you’re still reading, and haven’t voted yet, even though I’ve already dropped the vote link a half dozen times, I’m going to do it one more time–just for good measure. Vote here.

:)

Thanks everyone.

Please tweet this, put it on facebook, and otherwise pass it along to anyone that can click a mouse and will vote exactly as you tell them :) (Use the fancy icons just below to share it with your friends.)

YNAB 3.5 is the biggest update we’ve released since YNAB 3.0. It’s packed with new features that will help you be more efficient, and effective in managing your money. You are strongly encouraged to attend tonight’s webinar: