37signals

About 37signals

37signals, the company behind Basecamp, operates with a distinct philosophy centered on simplicity, profitability, and sustainable growth. The firm was founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim, initially as a web design company. Fried, who developed an interest in software to organize his music collection, realized he was better suited to running his own business than working for others. The company's trajectory shifted out of necessity; as their web design client base grew, they struggled with project disorganization. This internal need led to the creation of their own project management tool in 2003.

This tool, Basecamp, was launched commercially in February 2004. Its success was immediate, generating more revenue within a year and a half than the entire web design business. This milestone prompted the company to cease web design consulting and focus exclusively on software development. A key figure in this transition was David Heinemeier Hansson, a Danish programmer. Fried hired Hansson after he offered to help with some coding; Hansson then built the initial version of Basecamp using the then-obscure Ruby programming language. In the process, he created and open-sourced the Ruby on Rails framework in 2004, a technology that would underpin thousands of web applications, including Shopify and GitHub. In 2006, Jeff Bezos's personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions, acquired a minority stake in the firm. The company rebranded from 37signals to Basecamp in 2014 to concentrate entirely on its flagship product, but reverted to 37signals in 2022 to reflect its expanded focus, which now includes a second major product, HEY.

Basecamp operates as a project management and team communication tool designed to replace a suite of separate products like Slack, Asana, and Dropbox. It consolidates to-do lists, message boards, scheduling, file storage, and group chat into a single, organized platform. The business model is subscription-based, offering a per-user plan at $15/user/month and a flat-rate "Pro Unlimited" plan for $299/month (billed annually), which includes unlimited users and projects. This model targets small to medium-sized businesses, freelancers, and startups, with a straightforward pricing structure that charges for internal employees but allows free access for clients and contractors.

In 2020, 37signals launched HEY, an email service that reimagines the inbox experience. HEY introduces features designed to give users more control, such as 'The Screener,' which allows users to approve or block new senders, the 'Imbox' for important mail, and dedicated feeds for newsletters and receipts. The service prioritizes privacy, does not serve ads, and generates revenue solely through subscriptions. Personal plans are priced at $99 per year for a @hey.com address, while 'HEY for Domains' allows businesses to use their own custom domain for $12 per user per month. HEY is intentionally a separate ecosystem and does not integrate with other email clients like Gmail or Outlook, positioning itself as a complete replacement.