The archive · Product Ideas · Technical decision · 2008–2012
4ormat's portfolio builder refused Internet Explorer and saved over $100K
Bootstrapped portfolio platform 4ormat supported no version of Internet Explorer, betting creative professionals would switch — it never got one IE request.
4ormat
What it had to solve
Two founders bootstrapped 4ormat in their spare time while consulting full-time, so every hour spent on IE6, IE7 or IE8 hacks delayed getting the product in front of customers. Internet Explorer still held nearly 70% of the market when they started in 2008, which made saying no to it feel drastic.
How it works
4ormat is an online service that lets creative professionals build and manage portfolio websites. The finished portfolios render in every browser, but the portfolio-building interface has never supported Internet Explorer — not IE6 or IE7, and not any later version either. The founders said this was deliberate: they wanted to build and update portfolios as simply as possible, which meant using every bit of modern browser technology available.
When 4ormat started in 2008, IE held almost 70% of the market and IE6 still ran on one in four desktops, while Chrome was barely two months old. Within a week of development the founders found that every good idea required 'equally terrible hacks' for IE7 and IE8; browser-variant support can raise design work by 30% to 100%, and complex features can double or triple development time. For a bootstrapping pair working in their spare time, they estimated the accumulated 'IE tax' at well over $100K in developer salaries alone.
So 4ormat simply stopped supporting IE. The signup form told IE users where to download Chrome, Safari or Firefox, and the team spent its hours on the product instead of debugging in virtual machines. Almost three years after launch, not one person had contacted them asking for Internet Explorer support. Rooney called it possibly the best decision 4ormat ever made.
Why it lands
- The target customers were creative professionals, the people most likely to be on modern browsers and least likely to be locked into IE.
- IE support is mostly hacks: fixing 'only in IE' bugs could take five minutes or five days, which wrecked sprint planning for a two-person team.
- Removing IE work shortened release cycles, which mattered more than reach when the company was still validating its idea.
- A visible 'no IE' stance became a recruiting secret weapon and a source of developer happiness, not just a cost saving.
What it did
Almost three years after launch, no customer had ever asked for Internet Explorer support. The founders credited the decision with avoiding well over $100K of 'IE tax' in developer time, shorter release cycles and far fewer 'only in IE' bugs.
What you can take
When serving a legacy segment taxes your developers, make support a product decision: a small team that says no to the wrong browser buys speed, morale and focus for the customers it actually serves.
Since then
The founders framed the decision as learning to make choices on behalf of customers: they assumed nobody serious about building a portfolio website would want to do it in IE, and the assumption held. The article, published on TechCrunch as a guest post in April 2012, drew 310 points and 113 comments on Hacker News, where it became a reference point in the running debate about when dropping legacy browser support is the right call.
Sources
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