Help Scout

Help Scout PBC

Formerly| Brightwurks
Type| Private
Industry| Software, SaaS
Founded| April 17, 2011; 15 years ago (2011-04-17)
Founders| Nick Francis, Jared McDaniel, Denny Swindle
Headquarters|

Boston, Massachusetts

Products| Help Scout Help Desk, Docs, Beacon
Services| Help desk software, email management, support automation

Number of employees

| 100
Website| www.helpscout.com

Help Scout, legally Help Scout PBC, is a global remote company which is a provider of help desk software and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.[1] The company provides an email-based customer support platform, knowledge base tool, and an embeddable search/contact widget for customer service professionals. Help Scout's main product (also called Help Scout) is a web-based SaaS (software as a service) HIPAA-compliant[2] help desk.[1][3]

Founded in 2011, the company serves more than 10,000 customers in over 140 countries including Buffer,[4][5] Basecamp, Trello,[6] Reddit, and AngelList. Many employees are remote workers with over 100 employees living in more than 80 cities worldwide.[7][8][9][10] In 2020, the company has sublet their office in Boston[11] and turned the company into a distributed company (entirely remote).

## Contents

* 1 History
* 2 Features and technology
* 2.1 Help Desk
* 2.2 Docs
* 2.3 Beacon
* 2.4 Mobile
* 3 Open source contribution
* 4 Work culture
* 5 Branding
* 6 Awards, recognition, and philanthropy
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## History

Nick Francis,[12] Jared McDaniel, and Denny Swindle ran Brightwurks, a web design consultancy in Nashville, Tennessee for six years before building Help Scout, a help desk software.[13]

The co-founders launched Help Scout publicly while participating in Techstars Boston, a startup accelerator program.[13][14] Help Scout raised $800k in angel funding soon after Techstars and was profitable for nearly two years before raising $6 million in Series A funding in 2015, from Foundry Group and Converge Venture Partners.[15][16][17][18][19] Brightwurks was renamed Help Scout in 2015.[citation needed]

## Features and technology

### Help Desk

Help Scout's support software operates like a shared email inbox. Help Scout enables large teams to provide customer support via email with their tool.[20] The platform features integrations with live chat, phone systems, CRMs, and email marketing tools.[21]

### Docs

In addition to its help desk platform, Help Scout offers a feature called Docs, a self-service knowledge base for customers to find answers to support questions. Docs was launched as a feature in 2013.[22]

### Beacon

This embeddable widget provides users on a website with quick access to Docs and/or serves as a contact form.[23]

### Mobile

Help Scout launched its iOS app[24] in January 2016 and its Android app[25] in February 2017.

## Open source contribution

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One of the developers at Help Scout created an open source CSS framework that is available to the general public. It is currently being used to style the marketing website.

* Seed's code base written using Sass, following the naming architecture of BEM and ITCSS.
* Its collection of modules (called "Seed Packs") and components draw inspiration from a handful of libraries and frameworks such as Bootstrap and Tachyons.
* Unlike traditional Sass/CSS methodologies, Seed's architecture is more similar to modern Javascript code bases and workflows.
* Techniques like scoping, modularization, and dependency management are heavily utilized and baked into the core of Seed.
* Additional information about the framework as well as Getting Started documentation can be found at seedcss.com.

## Work culture

Help Scout is an entirely remote company.[26] To communicate company-wide, they often use video to share important updates.[27]

Help Scout does not operate a traditional commission-based sales team. They instead hold a non-commission structure with the sales team members receiving a fixed salary.[28]

## Branding

Formerly known as Brightwurks, Help Scout officially changed its name to match their central Help Desk product in 2015.[citation needed]

Help Scout's original logo was a literal Help Scout (rather like a Boy Scout) before changing to a medal, then a laurel wreath, and is now currently three diagonal lines which denote the initials HS (Help Scout).[29]

## Awards, recognition, and philanthropy

In December 2011, Help Scout (known then as Brightwurks) participated in a fundraising initiative to benefit Acumen, a charity that helps tackle poverty.[30] They designed and sold a poster of Steve Jobs' famous quote “Here’s to the crazy ones” and were able to donate over $100,000 to Acumen.[16]

In November 2015, Help Scout was named by AppStorm as one of six customer service software offerings to delight customers for Mac.[31] In 2015, Help Scout was also named a “marketing tool to know” by Business2Community[32] and a “game-changing software solution” for startups by Business.com.[33] Since raising their Series A, Help Scout has been featured on multiple ‘best of’ lists in both marketing and customer service publications. In 2016, they were featured in BostInno’s “16 Boston Startups To Watch in 2016”.[34] Help Scout also publishes a blog on customer support and a newsletter that has over 70,000 subscribers.[35][36]

In 2015, Help Scout won “Best Job Description” from The Workies Awards by Workable.[37]

## See also

* Comparison of help desk issue tracking software
* Comparison of issue-tracking systems
* Zendesk

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Help Scout Draws Funding To Bring Affordable Email Collaboration And Support To Startups. TechCrunch. 2011-10-08.
2. ↑ Scout, Help. "Help Scout and HIPAA - Help Scout Support". http://docs.helpscout.com/article/330-hipaa.
3. ↑ "Farm to keyboard: why software is the next "craft" industry" (in en-US). Quartz. https://qz.com/715291/farm-to-keyboard-why-software-is-the-next-craft-industry/.
4. ↑ "Respond by Buffer | The 7 tools we use for support and customer development" (in en). Respond By Buffer. https://buffer.com/respond/blog/7-tools-buffer-use-for-respond-customer-support-and-customer-development-twitter.
5. ↑ "8 Essential Online Tools For Getting More Work Done" (in en-US). Fast Company. 2013-12-13. https://www.fastcompany.com/3023367/8-essential-online-tools-for-getting-more-work-done.
6. ↑ Cervino, Brian. "How The Help Scout Integration For Trello Is Transforming Support Teams" (in en). http://blog.trello.com/trello-helpscout-integration.
7. ↑ Higginbottom, Karen. "How Agile Working Has Impacted Our Workspace". Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/karenhigginbottom/2016/05/13/how-agile-working-has-impacted-our-workspace/#179fee807a2c.
8. ↑ "The Right Way to Build a Remote Culture" (in en). Inc.com. 2017-03-18. http://www.inc.com/aaron-ohearn/the-right-way-to-build-a-remote-culture.html.
9. ↑ "Becca Van Nederynen - Help Scout - Remote Work Interview" (in en). Pajamas. 2015-08-24. http://pajamas.io/becca-van-nederynen-help-scout/.
10. ↑ Zapier. "How Successful Remote Teams Evaluate Employees: A look inside Automattic, GitHub and Help Scout - The Ultimate Guide to Remote Work - Zapier". https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/remote-employee-evaluation/.
11. ↑ "Leah Knobler of Help Scout about hiring remote talent, onboarding and intentional communication - NoHQ Remote Work Guides" (in en). https://nohq.co/blog/leah-knobler-help-scout/.
12. ↑ "145 — Nick Francis" (in en-US). 13 September 2016. https://fromfoundertoceo.com/145-nick-francis/.
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 McCarty, Brad (22 July 2011). "Frugality and determination make Help Scout a startup to watch" (in en-us). https://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/07/22/frugality-and-determination-make-help-scout-a-startup-to-watch/#.tnw_a78i0xho.
14. ↑ "TechStars' new galaxy of start-ups" (in en). Boston.com. http://archive.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/03/28/techstars_new_galaxy_of_start_ups/.
15. ↑ "A 'Bootstrapper at Heart,' Help Scout Raises $6M Led by Foundry Group". http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/03/18/boston-startup-help-scout-raises-6m-led-by-foundry-group/.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "The Road to Growth - Help Scout" (in en). http://www.mbbp.com/cases/helpscout.
17. ↑ "Email support software startup Help Scout raises $6M". http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/blog/startups/2015/03/email-support-software-startup-help-scout-raises-6.html.
18. ↑ "BRIEF-Help Scout Inc files to say it raised about $6.2 million in equity financing". Reuters. 2017-02-07. https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSFWN1FS0UR.
19. ↑ Francis, Nick (2013-01-22). "12 Benefits of Being Under-funded". http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nick-francis/fundraising-for-startups_b_2528617.html.
20. ↑ "Stuff We Like: Help Scout – Lewis Croft" (in en-US). https://lewiscroft.com/blog/stuff-we-like-help-scout/.
21. ↑ "'Drunk user testing' mixes cocktails and coding" (in en-US). http://www.betaboston.com/news/2015/08/28/user-testing-that-mixes-cocktails-and-coding/.
22. ↑ Scout, Help. "Knowledge Base Software | Help Scout" (in en). https://www.helpscout.com/knowledge-base/.
23. ↑ Scout, Help. "Beacon | Help Scout" (in en). https://www.helpscout.com/embed-tools/.
24. ↑ "Help Scout on the App Store" (in en). https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/help-scout/id966327660?mt=8.
25. ↑ "Help Scout - Android Apps on Google Play" (in en). https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.helpscout.android&hl=en.
26. ↑ "6 Companies Who Rocked Remote Workflow in 2016" (in en-US). Move Your Business Forward | Worldwide101 Blog. 2017-01-31. https://worldwide101.com/blog/6-companies-who-rocked-remote-workflow-in-2016/.
27. ↑ "Tired of Endless Meetings? Video Might be The Answer". business.com. https://www.business.com/articles/tired-of-endless-meetings-video-might-be-the-answer/.
28. ↑ "Commission Vs. No Commission: Sales Pros Take Sides". http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2017/01/20/commission-vs-non-commissioned-sales-ideologie/.
29. ↑ Scout, Help. "The Evolution of the Help Scout Brand" (in en). Help Scout Blog. https://www.helpscout.com/blog/brand-evolution/.
30. ↑ McCarty, Brad (6 December 2011). ""Here's to the crazy ones" gets its own beautiful, letterpress poster to benefit charity" (in en-us). https://thenextweb.com/shareables/2011/12/06/heres-to-the-crazy-ones-gets-its-own-beautiful-letterpress-poster-to-benefit-charity/#.tnw_cswfytEe.
31. ↑ "Slick Customer Service Software For Mac To Delight Your Clients « Mac.AppStorm". http://mac.appstorm.net/roundups/slick-customer-service-software-for-mac-to-delight-your-clients/.
32. ↑ "100 Awesome Marketing Tools You Should Know". Business 2 Community. http://www.business2community.com/brandviews/campaign-monitor/100-awesome-marketing-tools-know-01386522#DiEA7pScYpkgKsLK.97.
33. ↑ "11 Game-Changing Software for Startups - business.com". business.com. http://www.business.com/technology/game-changing-software-solutions-to-power-your-startup/.
34. ↑ "16 Boston Startups to Watch in 2016". http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2015/12/08/top-boston-tech-startups-16-to-watch-in-2016/.
35. ↑ "Managing the Double-Edged Sword of Teaser Emails" (in en-US). 19 January 2016. http://smallbiztrends.com/2016/01/teaser-emails.html.
36. ↑ "How Help Scout Went from 0 to 250K Visitors a Month | SEJ" (in en-US). Search Engine Journal. 2015-05-13. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/origin-stories-powerful-blogs-help-scout-went-zero-250k-visitors-per-month/130576/.
37. ↑ "2015 Workies Award Winners: The Best Recruitment Strategies" (in en-US). Inside Workable - news, company announcements, new features from Workable. 2015-12-11. https://blog.workable.com/workies-winners-recruitment-strategies-2015/.

## External links

* Official website

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