It started over a drink – as many great ideas do.

My ever-increasing fascination with bridging the online world with the offline world led me to ask Mathias Hansen – one of our freakishly-talented programmers – if he could build an application that would ring a physical door bell anytime someone checked in to our office on foursquare. Mathias said that not only could he do it, but that he could do it before morning and asked me to give him the awesome foursquare t-shirt I had just brought back with me from SXSW if he could pull it off. The next morning, Mathias walked into the office with a finished application, and I lost my new favorite shirt.

Today, we are proud to launch Fourbell to the world! Unlike the original much more expensive solution that allows you to ring a physical offline doorbell with your foursquare check ins, Fourbell is an affordable and fun Mac app that is perfect for knowing who just showed up to your office. Here’s a short video that explains how it works:

A more expensive physical doorbell kit may be in the future if we see a string enough demand for it in the market, but for now, we think the desktop application is just right.

Fourbell is available in the Mac App Store today! Download it now and let us know what you think!

And the next time people visit your office, be sure to tell them to check in on foursquare to ring your Fourbell because doorbells are so 2011.