37signals

Timeline by topic

Topics follow the event kinds supplied in this index. Each entry links to its full record in the chronological timeline. Dates retain the precision supplied by the publisher.

Timeline

1. 199937signals founded as a Chicago web design firmfoundedChicago, Illinois

   Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim; named by Segura after SETI's 37 unexplained signals.

   [59][38][2]
2. 2001-10-27DHH's first email to Friedother

   The Copenhagen programmer answers Fried's regex question on Signal vs. Noise; the pair begin building Singlefile, their first SaaS product together.

   [32]
3. 2004Web design ends; products onlymilestone

   Basecamp revenue passed the client business roughly a year after launch; 37signals became a software company.

   [3]
4. 2004-02-04Basecamp launchedproject

   Project management as a service: free for one project, $9–$59/month tiers, announced with a blog post and no PR. Within a year it out-earned the client work.

   [10][15][3]
5. 2004-07-24Ruby on Rails released publiclyproject

   DHH extracted the framework he wrote for Basecamp and open-sourced it — 'the end of vaporware.'

   [11][41]
6. 2005Ta-da List and Backpack launchproject

   The suite grows: Ta-da List (the second product) and Backpack (the third, first with an API) join Basecamp.

   [14][25]
7. 2005DHH formally joins 37signalsrole

   'David Heinemeier Hansson is now a signal' — the Basecamp/Rails author becomes a partner and CTO; he moves to Chicago that November.

   [12][60]
8. 2006Campfire launchedproject

   The original web-based group chat SaaS — later folded into Basecamp, and resurrected in 2024 as ONCE #1.

   [25][33]
9. 2006Getting Real publishedpublication

   The self-published book on building web apps with less; later distributed free online.

   [4]
10. 2006-07-19Bezos Expeditions takes a minority stakefunding

    Jeff Bezos's personal investment company buys a minority, no-control stake in the LLC — the only outside money the company has ever taken, size undisclosed.

    [13][44][45][46]
11. 2007Highrise launchedproject

    The CRM 'no busy work' contact manager — the suite's fourth major product.

    [25][59]
12. 2009-02-04Basecamp turns fivemilestone

    Five years, one price change, and a still-growing subscriber base.

    [15]
13. 2010-03Rework publishedpublication

    The Fried/Hansson business bestseller — the company's philosophy canonized.

    [43][59]
14. 2010-10Fried's TEDx talk: 'Why work doesn't happen at work'media[37]
15. 2012-02-21New Basecamp takes the name; original becomes Basecamp Classicproject

    The rebuilt product inherits the name after the founders consulted Jeff Bezos on the call.

    [16]
16. 2013-06Know Your Company launchedproject

    An internal tool for CEOs to learn what's on employees' minds — built by a team of three.

    [18]
17. 2013-10Remote: Office Not Required publishedpublication[43]
18. 2014-01Know Your Company spun off to Claire Lewother

    The product becomes its own company — 50/50 with Lew until $1M in new sales, then 75/25 hers in perpetuity.

    [17][18]
19. 2014-02-05Company renamed to Basecamp; single-product strategymilestone

    On Basecamp's tenth birthday the whole company takes the product's name; other products are to be sold, spun off, or wound down.

    [19][25]
20. 2014-08Highrise spun off under CEO Nathan Kontnyother

    A Basecamp subsidiary run on its own customer revenue; new signups ended in 2018.

    [20][59]
21. 2018-10-02It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work publishedpublication[42]
22. 2019Shape Up published free onlinepublication

    Ryan Singer's methodology book — the company's 'how we build' codified.

    [5]
23. 2020-06-15HEY launchedproject

    The $99/year email service — two years of work by ~56 people — opens to a 50,000+ waitlist.

    [48][8]
24. 2020-06-16Apple rejects HEY update, demands 30%milestone

    A week-long public standoff with App Review lands on the eve of WWDC and the EU's App Store investigation.

    [49][9]
25. 2020-06-22Apple approves HEY update without IAPmilestone

    The compromise: a free temporary-address tier gives non-paying users functionality.

    [50]
26. 2021-04-26'Changes at Basecamp' bans societal/political talkmilestone

    Fried's post ends internal committees, 'paternalistic benefits,' and political discussion on the company account — following a similar move at Coinbase the year before.

    [29][51]
27. 2021-04-30Roughly a third of the company resignsmilestone

    ~18–20 of 57 employees take the offered severance; Ryan Singer is suspended and later departs.

    [52][53][55]
28. 2021-05-04Fried's 'An Update' apologymedia

    'Last week was terrible… we completely own the consequences.' The policies stand.

    [30][54]
29. 2022-05-03Renamed back to 37signalsmilestone

    Two products — Basecamp and HEY — end the single-product era; the manifesto-style 37signals.com relaunches.

    [31][58]
30. 2023ONCE product line announcedproject

    The 'post–SaaS era' bet: pay-once, self-hosted software with source access.

    [6][39]
31. 2024-01-19Campfire returns as ONCE #1 at $299project[33]
32. 2025-08Campfire goes free and MIT-licensedmilestone

    The once-campfire repo goes public under MIT; the product page now calls it 'entirely free and open source.'

    [28][7]

Themes

• The calm companystatedphilosophy

  Long hours are 'a mark of stupidity,' meetings and managers are the interruption engine, and 40 hours is plenty — from Fried's 2010 TEDx talk through the 2018 book, the company sells calm as both culture and competitive edge.

  [42][37][23]
• Independence over exitsstatedbelief

  No venture capital, no board, no intention to sell or go public; the one accepted check (Bezos, 2006) was deliberately structured as a no-control LLC stake. 'We have an exist strategy, not an exit strategy.'

  [22][21][13][35]
• Less is morestatedmethod

  The 1999 manifesto's posture became a product doctrine: fewer features, fewer people, flat pricing — 'dead-simple chat' at $299 once, not 'hundreds if not thousands of dollars a month.'

  [2][4][33]
• Lead with ideas, publish everythingstatedpractice

  Signal vs. Noise ran for two decades; four books, a podcast, and HEY World turned the founders' opinions into the company's marketing engine — 'we've always tried to lead with ideas, take principled stands.'

  [31][23][27][4]
• Remote as the defaultstatedpractice

  The company wrote the remote-work book (Remote, 2013) after building a distributed team spanning Copenhagen to Chicago — itself the product of an emailed answer to a blog post.

  [43][32][36]
• Extract and give away the infrastructurereportedpractice

  Rails — extracted from Basecamp and released in 2004 — remains the company's largest single influence on the industry; the pattern repeated in 2025 with Campfire's MIT-licensed release.

  [11][63][40][28]
• Sell it, spin it off, or shut it downreportedmethod

  A consistent divestment playbook — Know Your Company, Highrise, We Work Remotely, Sortfolio — kept the org small and each product someone else's problem, until the 2022 reversal made it a multi-product company again.

  [19][18][20][26]
• The post-SaaS erastatedbelief

  The newest canon: subscriptions for finished software are rent extraction; customers should be able to buy once, self-host, and read the source — ONCE is the product line built to prove it.

  [6][39][33]

Works and projects

• Basecampproductongoing2004

  The flagship: project management and team communication SaaS, launched February 4, 2004. Rebuilt wholesale in 2012 ('Basecamp Classic' was spun off the name) and iterated since; still the business's core.

  [10][16][3]
• Ruby on Railsproductongoing2004

  The open-source web framework DHH extracted from Basecamp in July 2004 — the company's deepest mark on the industry; maintained today by a wider core team and community.

  [11][41][40]
• HEYproductongoing2020

  The $99/year email service launched June 15, 2020 — opinionated inbox screening, no IMAP/POP, six native clients. HEY Calendar and HEY World (the blogging feature the founders now publish on) followed.

  [48][8][57]
• ONCEproductin_progress2023

  The product line of pay-once, self-hosted software — 'a brand, not a product' per Fried — announced late 2023. Campfire is its first and so far only release.

  [6][39]
• Campfire (ONCE #1)productreleased2024

  The 2006 chat product reborn as installable software — announced January 19, 2024 at $299 once, later made free and MIT-licensed.

  [33][7][28]
• Ta-da Listproductongoing2005

  The company's second product — a dead-simple shared to-do list that still runs at tadalist.com.

  [14]
• Backpackproductabandoned2005

  The third product — personal organizer with pages, notes, and reminders; the first 37signals product with an API. Closed to new signups in the 2014 single-product shift and wound down.

  [14][25][19]
• Campfire (SaaS era)productcompleted2006

  The original group-chat service — absorbed into Basecamp's chat features during the single-product years; the name and idea returned with ONCE.

  [25][33]
• Highriseproductreleased2007

  The 'no busy work' contact manager; spun off in 2014 as a subsidiary under CEO Nathan Kontny, stopped new signups in 2018.

  [25][20][59]
• Know Your Companyprojectcompleted2013

  The internal employee-feedback product that became the model spin-off: launched June 2013, spun off January 2014 under CEO Claire Lew on a sliding-ownership deal.

  [17][18]
• We Work Remotelyprojectcompleted

  The remote-jobs board built inside the company — 'spun off and sold' per the founders' REWORK account; it operates today under other owners.

  [26]
• Getting Realbookpublished2006

  The self-published build-less manifesto; still free on the company's site.

  [4]
• Reworkbookpublished2010

  Fried & Hansson's business bestseller — meetings are toxic, ASAP is poison, stay small.

  [43][59]
• Remote: Office Not Requiredbookpublished2013[43]
• It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Workbookpublished2018-10-02

  The 'calm company' manifesto, published by HarperOne.

  [42]
• Shape Upbookpublished2019

  Ryan Singer's account of the company's product process — free online; authored while he was head of strategy.

  [5]
• Signal vs. Noiseotherongoing1999

  The company blog since the beginning — the marketing channel, the opinion organ, and much of this packet's primary record; older posts survive across several archive layouts.

  [10][22]
• REWORK podcastotherongoing

  The company's interview show about 'the better way to work,' hosted with the founders — including the retrospective episodes this packet leans on.

  [25][26][27]

Appearances

• DHH on the end of the subscription eraOpto Sessions (CMC Markets)2023-11

  with David Heinemeier Hansson

  The ONCE thesis in interview form — 'we're over-SaaSed,' the pay-once manifesto explained.

  • article: https://www.cmcmarkets.com/en/optox/were-over-saased-37signals-david-heinemeier-hansson-on-the-end-of-the-subscription-er
  [39]
• Why work doesn't happen at workTEDxMidwest2010-10

  with Jason Fried

  Fried's TEDx talk — the calm-company argument about M&Ms (meetings and managers) as the interruption engine.

  • video: https://www.ted.com/talks/jason_fried_why_work_doesn_t_happen_at_work
  [37]
• The Biography of 37signals — with Jason FriedMixergy

  with Jason Fried, Andrew Warner

  The fullest recorded account of the founding trio, the SETI name, and the early departures.

  • article: https://mixergy.com/interviews/37signals-jason-fried/
  [38]
• What's in a Name — REWORKREWORK (37signals)

  with Jason Fried, David Heinemeier Hansson, Kimberly Rhodes

  The founders narrate both renames and the product-suite launch order on their own podcast.

  • audio: https://37signals.com/podcast/whats-in-a-name/
  [25]

Relations

• Jason Friedfounded by

  Co-founder, CEO, and co-owner; the only founder still at the company.

  [59][38][3]
• Carlos Segurafounded by

  Co-founder; named the company after SETI's 37 unexplained signals; left about a year in (~2000).

  [38][47]
• Ernest Kimfounded by

  Co-founder; left around 2002–2003 per Fried's recollection and a 2005 AIGA writeup.

  [38][47][59]
• David Heinemeier Hanssonmember2001 –

  Joined via an October 27, 2001 email; formally 'a signal' in 2005; partner, CTO, and co-owner — the company now calls him co-founder though he was not a founder of the 1999 firm.

  [32][12][36][60]
• Jeff Bezos (via Bezos Expeditions)funded by2006-07 –

  Minority, no-control stake in the LLC through his personal investment company — the only outside money ever taken; still held as of DHH's 2017 account, repaid ~5x via profit distributions.

  [13][35][44]
• Ryan Singeremployed2003 – 2021

  Head of strategy for ~18 years and author of Shape Up; suspended after the April 2021 all-hands and departed in the exodus.

  [53][5]
• Jonas Downeyemployed… – 2021-04

  Head of design; among the senior staff who took the April 2021 buyouts.

  [52]
• Kristin Aardsmaemployed… – 2021-04

  Head of customer support; among those who announced departures during the 2021 crisis.

  [52]
• Andy Didorosiemployed… – 2021-04

  Head of marketing; among those who announced departures during the 2021 crisis.

  [52]
• Nathan Kontnyemployed2014 –

  CEO of Highrise after it was spun off as a Basecamp subsidiary — employed by the subsidiary, not the parent.

  [20]
• Claire Lewother

  CEO of spun-off Know Your Company from January 2014, on a 50/50 deal flipping to 75/25 in her favor after $1M in new sales.

  [17][18]
• Casey Newtoninterviewed by

  The Verge editor who interviewed Fried for the HEY launch and broke most of the 2021 implosion reporting.

  [48][53]
• Andrew Warnerinterviewed by

  Mixergy host of the definitive recorded founding interview with Fried.

  [38]
• Coinbaseinfluenced by

  The April 2021 ban on societal/political discussion 'follows a similar move from cryptocurrency company Coinbase last year,' per The Verge.

  [51]
• Ruby on Railsfounded

  The open-source framework created by DHH inside the company for Basecamp and released July 2004 — the project's community long outgrew its origin org.

  [11][41][63]
• Highrisespun off

  Product launched 2007, spun off as a subsidiary with its own CEO in 2014, closed to new signups 2018 — the spin-off playbook's second act.

  [20][59]
• Know Your Companyspun off

  Internal product (June 2013) spun off as an independent company in January 2014 under CEO Claire Lew.

  [17][18]
• We Work Remotelyspun off

  The remote-jobs board built inside the company — 'spun off and sold' per the founders' own account.

  [26]

Indexed in

• David Heinemeier Hanssonemployed by2003 –

  Hired by Jason Fried in 2003 to build what became Basecamp; partner from 2005 and now the company's co-owner and CTO. The firm was named Basecamp from 2014 to 2022.

  cited by the David Heinemeier Hansson index

• David Heinemeier Hanssonrole · event2003 –

  Hired by Jason Fried; begins building Basecamp in Ruby

  cited by the David Heinemeier Hansson index

Claims

• fact37signals was founded in Chicago in 1999 as a web design firm by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim. Fried has been running it ever since — 'I've been running 37signals… for 27 years,' he writes on the current Basecamp about page.[59][38][3][2]
• factTwo of the three founders left within the company's first few years. A 2005 AIGA/NY writeup records 'Ernest Kim (left in 2003) and Carlos Segura (left in 2000)'; Fried's own Mixergy recollection is fuzzier — 'Carlos left about a year later, and Ernest left in, I think it was 2002 or so, maybe 2003.'[47][38]
• factCarlos Segura named the company after a PBS Nova segment on SETI: in 1999 there were 37 unexplained signals from space, 'signs of potential intelligent life.' The domain was available, so they ran with it.[38]
• factDavid Heinemeier Hansson's working relationship with Fried began with an email on October 27, 2001, answering a regular-expression question Fried had posted on Signal vs. Noise — for scraping Amazon book metadata to power Singlefile, the first SaaS product the two built together.[32]
• factDHH built the tool that became Basecamp as a contractor from Copenhagen, was formally welcomed as 'part of 37signals' in 2005, moved to Chicago in November 2005, and is today the company's CTO and co-owner — 'I own that business together with Jason Fried.' The company now routinely describes him as a co-founder, though he was not a founder of the 1999 firm.[12][36][60][32]
• factBasecamp launched on February 4–5, 2004 with a Signal vs. Noise post and 'no traditional PR blitz, no advertising.' Original pricing was $9/$19/$39/$59 a month with one free project; within about a year it was generating more revenue than the web design business, and client work ended.[10][15][3][34]
• factThe product suite grew through the decade: Ta-da List (the second product), Backpack (third, launched ~May 2005, the first with an API), Campfire (2006), Highrise (2007), plus Writeboard, the Sortfolio designer directory, and the We Work Remotely job board — all built by a team Fried recalls as only about 20–30 people.[25][14][59]
• factRuby on Rails, the framework DHH wrote in Ruby to build Basecamp, was extracted and released publicly on July 24–25, 2004 — 'the end of vaporware' announced on ruby-talk. Fried's retrospective line: 'Basecamp was the divine chicken, Rails was the egg.' It remains one of the most influential web frameworks ever released by a product company.[11][41][63][40]
• factIn July 2006, Bezos Expeditions — Jeff Bezos's personal investment company, explicitly 'nothing to do with Amazon' — made a minority private-equity investment in 37signals, the first outside money the company ever took. Wired noted the irony: the self-funded-startup evangelists had finally accepted a check.[13][44][45][46]
• factPer DHH's 2017 account, the deal was a minority, no-control membership stake in the LLC (never converted to a corporation), with no exit lined up; profit distributions had repaid Bezos's investment 'five times over' by then, and 'he still owns the stake.' The deal's size was never disclosed.[35]
• factThe relationship was advisory, not just financial: Fried recounts a December 2011 call asking Bezos whether the rebuilt Basecamp should inherit the name — his questions helped them decide it should.[16]
• factGetting Real, the company's self-published 2006 book on building web apps with less, went on to be distributed free online — the first of what became a small publishing arm.[4][59]
• factFried and Hansson published Rework (2010, a New York Times bestseller per publisher copy), Remote: Office Not Required (2013), and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work (October 2, 2018, HarperOne); Ryan Singer's Shape Up followed in 2019 as a free web book on the company's own site.[43][42][5][59]
• factOn February 5, 2014 — Basecamp's tenth birthday — the company renamed itself Basecamp and committed to a single product; everything else in the suite would be sold, spun off, or wound down. The founders later admitted on their own podcast that the mobile era made a one-product bet seem obvious at the time.[19][20][25][59]
• factKnow Your Company — built internally in mid-2013 — was spun off in January 2014 as a separate company with Claire Lew as CEO, under an unusual deal: Basecamp and Lew 50/50 until she generated $1M in new sales, then 75/25 in her favor in perpetuity.[17][18]
• factIn August 2014 Highrise became its own company — legally a subsidiary of Basecamp — run by CEO Nathan Kontny and funded entirely by customer revenue. It stopped accepting new signups in 2018 per Wikipedia's record.[20][59]
• factThe We Work Remotely job board — also built inside the company — was spun off and sold, per the founders' own REWORK episode on the spin-off playbook.[26]
• factHEY, the company's paid email service ($99/year, no IMAP/POP, six native clients), launched June 15, 2020 to a 50,000+ waitlist — built by a team The Verge counted at 56 people. Within about two months it had 'tens of thousands of paying customers' and 200,000 triers, per Fried's own figures to press.[48][57][8]
• factThe day after HEY's launch, Apple rejected a bug-fix update and demanded in-app purchase with its 15–30% cut; DHH called Apple's negotiators 'gangsters' and the company fought publicly for a week. Apple approved the update June 22, 2020 after HEY added a free temporary-address tier — no IAP, no 30% cut.[49][50][9][24]
• factOn April 26, 2021 Fried posted 'Changes at Basecamp': no more 'societal and political discussions' on the company account, no more committees, no more 'paternalistic benefits' (wellness, fitness, continuing-education allowances converted to cash), and no 'lingering or dwelling on past decisions.'[29][51][56]
• factReporting revealed the ban's backdrop was an internal reckoning over a long-kept list of 'funny' customer names — some of Asian and African origin — and a volunteer DEI council the founders disbanded, assigning diversity work to 'one individual.'[53][51][56]
• factHansson offered severance — up to six months for three-plus-year staff — to anyone who disagreed. On April 30, 2021 roughly a third of the ~57-person company took it; at least 18–20 employees announced departures publicly. Head of strategy Ryan Singer, an ~18-year veteran, was suspended after questioning the existence of white supremacy at the company and later left.[52][53][55]
• factOn May 4, 2021 Fried published 'An Update': 'Last week was terrible… David and I completely own the consequences, and we're sorry.' The policies stood.[30][54]
• factOn May 3, 2022 the company renamed itself back to 37signals: 'We aren't a one product company anymore. We're two. Basecamp and HEY.' The new 37signals.com relaunched in the manifesto spirit of the 1999 original.[31][58][1]
• factIn late 2023 the company announced ONCE — a product line (not a single product) of pay-once, self-hosted, source-available software, framed as leading 'the post–SaaS era' twenty years after pioneering SaaS itself.[6][39][33]
• factONCE #1, announced January 19, 2024, resurrected Campfire — the 2006 chat product — as installable software at $299 once, source included. It has since become entirely free and open source under the MIT License on the company's own GitHub org.[33][7][28]
• factThe company is headquartered in Chicago and fully remote in practice. Headcount is thinly documented: ~57 employees in April 2021 (The Verge), '34 (2021)' in Wikipedia's infobox after the exodus, and a self-reported 51–200 band on LinkedIn today.[52][59][62]
• fact37signals has been profitable essentially from the start — a 2005 profile already describes it as 'profitable since the beginning' — and has never taken venture capital; the 2006 Bezos stake is the only outside investment on record.[47][13][22]
• stated beliefThe founders' core creed: 'we have no intention of selling 37signals or going public' — options replaced with a sale/IPO bonus pool because 'the two scenarios where options/equity really make sense' aren't planned. Fried's later phrasing: an 'exist strategy,' not an exit strategy.[21][22][27]
• stated beliefVenture capital is 'not free money': the company says it has been approached by nearly 100 investors and declined all but Bezos, whom they chose for wisdom, not cash — 'We don't need their money to run the business.'[22][13]
• stated belief'It doesn't have to be crazy at work': 40 hours is plenty, growth is not the point, and calm is a competitive advantage — the thesis of the 2018 book and a posture the company attributes to decades of profitability.[42][23][37]
• stated beliefSaaS has run its course for finished software: 'In the early 2000s, we were among the early pioneers leading the industry into the SaaS revolution. Now, 20 years later, we intend to help lead the way out.' ONCE is the bet that buyers would rather own software than rent it.[39][6][33]
• stated beliefSmall, opinionated, and profitable beats big and funded: the 1999 manifesto's 'less is more' posture ran straight through Getting Real ('the smarter, faster, easier way') to the $299 pitch that 'dead-simple chat' shouldn't cost thousands a month.[2][4][33]
• stated belief'We've always tried to lead with ideas, take principled stands, and remain allergic to conformity and corporate sterility' — Fried's explanation of the 2022 re-rename, and an accurate description of the company's publishing-as-marketing engine.[31][23]
• patternProducts come from scratching their own itches: Basecamp grew out of managing client work, Backpack 'because we needed Backpack,' Know Your Company out of wanting employee feedback — the same logic they later sold as philosophy in Getting Real.[14][3][17][4]
• patternThe company repeatedly divests rather than accumulates: sold or spun off Know Your Company (to Claire Lew), Highrise (to Nathan Kontny), We Work Remotely, and Sortfolio; folded Campfire into Basecamp; closed Backpack to signups — then reversed the whole strategy in 2022 when two products weren't enough anymore.[19][18][20][26][31]
• patternPublic fights double as distribution: the week-long Apple standoff made HEY a cause célèbre at launch, and the company curated the press coverage into its own 'Apple vs. HEY' page — a playbook of principle-as-marketing repeated across the antitrust, privacy, and SaaS debates.[49][9][24][48]
• patternMuch of the canonical record is self-narrated: the founding story, the Bezos deal terms, the departure dates of the early co-founders, and HEY's traction figures all originate in the founders' own posts and interviews rather than independent reporting.[38][34][35][57]
• speculationWhether Bezos still holds the minority stake is unverifiable post-2017 (DHH's 'he still owns the stake' is the last public word); given the LLC structure and no exit provision being triggered, it plausibly persists — but no filing confirms it either way.[35][13]
• speculationONCE's economics remain unproven: its flagship went from $299 pay-once to free-and-MIT within about eighteen months, which reads either as conviction that distribution beats license revenue or as evidence the pay-once market is thin.[33][7][28]
• speculationThe long-run cost of the April 2021 exodus — a third of the company, including the head of strategy and heads of design, marketing, and support — is unmeasurable from outside; the company calls it a principled stand, ex-employees call it an implosion, and product velocity since is the only observable proxy.[53][52][30]

Sources

1. 37signals37signals · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   The company's current site, relaunched May 2022 in the spirit of the 1999 original — manifesto-forward, ideas-first.

2. The 37signals Manifesto37signals · 1999 · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   The original 37signals site: '37 things' the web design firm believed. Linked from the 2014 rename announcement as the company's founding document.

3. Basecamp — Where we came from37signals · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   Jason Fried's own company history: web design firm to product company once Basecamp's revenue passed client work.

4. Getting Real — the smarter, faster, easier way to build a successful web application37signals · 2006 · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   The company's self-published 2006 book, still free to read online; the foundation of the whole how-we-work canon.

5. Shape Up: Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters37signals · 2019 · subject controlled · book · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   Ryan Singer's product-methodology book, published free on the company site in 2019 — written while he was head of strategy.

6. ONCE — write once, own forever37signals · 2023 · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   The ONCE product line's manifesto site: pay-once, self-hosted software positioned against 'the SaaS era.'

7. ONCE — Campfire37signals · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   Campfire's product page under ONCE: now 'entirely free and open source under the MIT License,' installed via the ONCE CLI — it launched in 2024 as a $299 pay-once product.

8. HEY — Email at its best, new from scratch37signals · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   The HEY email service's own site; $99/year, no data mining.

9. HEY — Apple vs. HEY, antitrust, and monopoly37signals · 2020 · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

   The company's own archive of the June 2020 App Store fight: the rejection letter, DHH's tweets, and links to the press coverage it curated.

10. Basecamp LaunchesSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2004 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The original launch post: free for one project plus a 30-day trial on paid plans; no PR blitz, no advertising.

11. Rails: The infrastructure behind BasecampSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2004 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The public release of Rails on the company blog: 'we're releasing all the infrastructure libraries used to build Basecamp.'

12. David Heinemeier Hansson is now a signalSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2005 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The announcement that DHH — 'Mr. Ruby on Rails… the technical brains behind Basecamp' — was formally part of 37signals, signed in Seattle.

13. Bezos Expeditions invests in 37signalsSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2006 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The announcement of Jeff Bezos's minority private-equity investment — framed as buying wisdom, not cash: 'We're looking for something else… we found a perfect match in Jeff.'

14. Backpack's first birthdaySignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2006 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Confirms product order — Basecamp first, Ta-da List second, Backpack third — and 'we built Backpack because we needed Backpack.'

15. Happy Birthday — Basecamp Turns Five!Signal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2009 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Marks the February 4, 2004 launch and the original $9/$19/$39/$59 pricing — 'no traditional PR blitz, no advertising.'

16. Basecamp Next: Becoming BasecampSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2012 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Renaming the rebuilt product — and a notable detail: the founders called Jeff Bezos in December 2011 for advice on whether the rewrite deserved the Basecamp name.

17. Big: Know Your Company grows up and moves outSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2013 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Announces the spin-off of Know Your Company — a product built internally in mid-2013 — into a separate company run by Claire Lew.

18. How we put together a simple deal to spin off Know Your CompanySignal v. Noise (Basecamp) · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The deal mechanics: Basecamp and Claire Lew 50/50 until she generated $1M in new sales, then 75/25 in her favor, in perpetuity.

19. Big newsSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · 2014 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Basecamp's tenth-birthday post announcing the rename of the whole company to Basecamp and the single-product strategy.

20. Big news for HighriseSignal v. Noise (Basecamp) · 2014 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Highrise spun off as a subsidiary with its own CEO, Nathan Kontny — funded entirely by customer revenue.

21. An alternative to employee options/equity grantsSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    'Since we have no intention of selling 37signals or going public…' — the company replaced stock options with a sale/IPO bonus-pool formula.

22. How much are we worth? I don't know and I don't careSignal v. Noise (Basecamp) · 2015 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Nearly 100 approaches from investors declined; 'we don't have any options, because we don't have any intention to sell.'

23. You don't have to sell your company to have financial security and the freedom to do what you wantSignal vs. Noise (37signals) · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH's early statement of the anti-exit creed: four-day weeks, profit instead of exits, and rebutting Paul Graham's security-through-sale argument.

24. On Apple's monopoly power to destroy HEYSignal v. Noise (Basecamp) · 2020 · subject controlled · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH's post-rejection essay: 'Apple is unlike any other platform… 90% of everyone who pays for our service uses at least one Apple device.'

25. What's in a Name — REWORKREWORK (37signals) · subject controlled · audio · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Fried and Hansson narrate both renames on the company podcast; Fried lists the suite's launch order: Basecamp 2004, Backpack 2005, Campfire 2006, Highrise 2007.

26. A Spin-Off Story — REWORKREWORK (37signals) · subject controlled · audio · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The founders on the spin-off playbook: Know Your Company to Claire Lew, Highrise to Nathan Kontny, and 'the We Work Remotely job board, which we spun off and sold.'

27. Building to Flip is Building to Flop — REWORKREWORK (37signals) · subject controlled · audio · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Fried on 'commitment strategy' vs. exit strategy — the company's anti-flip catechism in its own words.

28. basecamp/once-campfire — Super simple group chat, without a subscriptionGitHub · subject controlled · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The Campfire ONCE source, published under the MIT License (copyright 37signals, LLC); public repo created August 2025.

29. Changes at BasecampHEY World (Jason Fried) · 2021 · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The post that started the 2021 crisis: 'No more societal and political discussions on our company Basecamp account,' no more committees, no more 'paternalistic benefits.'

30. An UpdateHEY World (Jason Fried) · 2021 · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Fried's post-exodus apology: 'Last week was terrible… David and I completely own the consequences.' The new policies stood.

31. 37signals: Hello againHEY World (Jason Fried) · 2022 · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The rename-back announcement: 'We aren't a one product company anymore… Today, May 3, 2022, we're changing our minds and renaming our company again.'

32. It all began with an emailHEY World (David Heinemeier Hansson) · 2021 · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH pins the start of the partnership: his email to Fried on October 27, 2001, answering a regular-expression question — for Singlefile, their first SaaS product together.

33. Campfire is ONCE #1HEY World (David Heinemeier Hansson) · 2024 · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The ONCE #1 reveal: Campfire reborn as installable software, 'a one-time price of $299,' with source access — later made free and MIT-licensed.

34. Basecamp: The Origin StoryMedium (Jason Fried) · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Fried's narrative: 1999 web design firm, the internal tool built out of frustration, released February 4, 2004.

35. The deal Jeff Bezos got on BasecampSignal v. Noise (Medium) · 2017 · first person · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH's account of the deal's structure: a minority, no-control stake in the LLC; profit distributions repaid the investment 'five times over' and Bezos 'still owns the stake' as of writing.

36. David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)David Heinemeier Hansson · first person · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH's own bio: creator of Ruby on Rails, 'co-owner of 37signals… I own that business together with Jason Fried.'

37. Why work doesn't happen at work — Jason Fried, TEDxMidwestTED · 2010 · first person · video · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Fried's TEDx talk on interruption-driven offices — the clearest public statement of the 'calm company' doctrine.

38. The Biography of 37signals, Whose Web Apps Are Used By 3 Million People — with Jason FriedMixergy · interview · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The fullest on-record founding interview: all three founders, Segura's SETI-derived name, the early departures — 'Carlos left about a year later, and Ernest left in, I think it was 2002 or so, maybe 2003.'

39. 'We're over-SaaSed': 37signals' David Heinemeier Hansson on the end of the subscription eraOpto Sessions (CMC Markets) · 2023 · interview · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH announcing ONCE's thesis weeks after the manifesto went up: 'In the early 2000s, we were among the early pioneers leading the industry into the SaaS revolution… we intend to help lead the way out.'

40. rails/rails — Ruby on RailsGitHub · primary record · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The framework's canonical repository, one of the most influential open-source projects to come out of a product company.

41. [ANN] Action Pack 0.7.5: On rails from request to response / Rails 0.5.0: The end of vaporware!ruby-talk (mirror) · 2004 · archive · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Mailing-list mirror of the July 2004 Rails release announcements: 'the package currently on offer… will grow in public.'

42. It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work — HarperCollinsHarperCollins · 2018 · primary record · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Publisher's catalog record for the third Fried/Hansson book — the 'calm company' manifesto.

43. Remote: Office Not Required — Apple BooksApple Books · 2013 · reference · book · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Retail catalog record for the 2013 remote-work book by Fried and Hansson.

44. Jeff Bezos Invests in 37signalsWired · 2006 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Contemporaneous coverage: 'the first financial boost that the company has accepted from an outside source.'

45. 37 Signals Takes Jeff Bezos InvestmentTechCrunch · 2006 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z
46. 37Signals, 1 Big New Investor: Jeff BezosBloomberg · 2006 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Bloomberg's BusinessWeek-era take, quoting Fried on Bezos's 'two-pizza teams' affinity for small companies. Paywalled/bot-walled to plain fetches.

47. AIGA/NY Smart Models: 37SignalsSpeak Up (UnderConsideration) · 2005 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    A contemporaneous 2005 design-community writeup: 'Founded in Chicago in 1999 with Ernest Kim (left in 2003) and Carlos Segura (left in 2000)… profitable since the beginning.'

48. Hey is a wildly opinionated new email service from the makers of BasecampThe Verge · 2020 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Launch-day review: $99/year, 50,000+ on the waitlist, six native clients built by a 56-person company.

49. Apple rejects Hey.com App Store updates, mandating in-app subscriptionThe Verge · 2020 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The App Store rejection broke the day after launch — DHH called Apple's negotiators 'gangsters'; coincided with the EU's App Store investigation.

50. Apple approves Hey bug fix update after Basecamp agrees to tweak appTechCrunch · 2020 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Resolution: HEY approved without in-app purchase once it offered a free temporary address — hours before WWDC.

51. Behind the controversy at BasecampThe Verge · 2021 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The backdrop: a long-standing internal list of 'funny' customer names, and employee DEI work the founders shut down. 'The hardest conversations at work were about the company itself.'

52. Basecamp implodes as employees flee company, including senior staffThe Verge · 2021 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Roughly a third of the company's 57 employees accepted buyouts; Hansson offered 3–6 months' severance, 'no hard feelings.'

53. Inside the all-hands meeting that led to a third of Basecamp employees quittingThe Verge · 2021 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The Friday all-hands; Fried apologized for the rollout but not the policies; head of strategy Ryan Singer — 18-year veteran and Shape Up author — was suspended after questioning the existence of white supremacy at the company.

54. Basecamp CEO apologizes to staff in new post: 'We have a lot to learn'The Verge · 2021 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z
55. A third of Basecamp's workers resign after a ban on talking politicsThe New York Times · 2021 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Counts at least 20 public resignations. Paywalled to plain fetches.

56. Basecamp loses a third of its staff over internal freedom of speech rowITPro · 2021 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Adds the DEI-council detail: employee diversity work 'would now be the responsibility of one individual.'

57. How Jason Fried wants to change your perception of email with HeyTNW · 2020 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Two months post-launch: 'tens of thousands of paying customers; 200,000 people have tried it' — self-reported traction.

58. 37signals Is BackDaring Fireball · 2022 · reporting · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Gruber's link-post on the May 3, 2022 re-rename to 37signals.

59. 37signalsWikipedia · reference · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The company's article: founders Fried/Segura/Kim, 1999 founding, 2014→Basecamp, 2022→back, products list, '34 employees (2021)' infobox.

60. David Heinemeier HanssonWikipedia · reference · article · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    DHH's article: hired by Fried to build what became Basecamp, created Rails, partner and CTO, moved to Chicago November 2005.

61. Basecamp (Q2364173) — WikidataWikidata · reference · dataset · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    The company's Wikidata item, still labeled 'Basecamp' from the 2014–2022 name era — the stable identifier anchor for the subject.

62. 37signals — LinkedIn company pageLinkedIn · reference · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Self-reported company profile; the 51–200 employee band is the only current public headcount signal.

63. Ruby on Rails — the story behind Rails at O'ReillyRuby on Rails project · 2005 · reference · webpage · accessed 2026-09-18T05:30:00Z

    Fried on the Rails.org site: 'Basecamp was the divine chicken, Rails was the egg' — the extraction story in the company's own words, hosted by the project it spawned.

Coverage and method

Scope as of

2026-09-18T05:45:00Z

Coverage supplied by the publisher

• history
• products
• books
• funding
• philosophy
• controversy
• media

Method

public-person-index-v1

Tool

soulscrape

Contributors

• Soulscrape research workflow

Assembled

2026-09-18T05:45:00Z

Human review

No review status or review date is supplied. An assembly timestamp does not establish human review.

Open questions

See the supplied open questions

Open questions

• The exact departure dates of co-founders Carlos Segura (~2000) and Ernest Kim (~2002–2003) rest on Fried's fuzzy recollection and one 2005 AIGA writeup; no primary record pins them.
• Whether Jeff Bezos still holds the minority stake is unknown post-2017; DHH's 'he still owns the stake' is the last public word, and the LLC structure means no filings surface it.
• Current headcount is murky: ~57 in April 2021 per The Verge, 34 (2021) per Wikipedia's post-exodus infobox, and LinkedIn's self-reported 51–200 band — no authoritative figure exists.
• Revenue and profit figures have never been audited; 'profitable since the beginning' is the company's own claim, repeated across two decades of posts.
• DHH's formal status timeline is fuzzy: contractor (2001), 'a signal' (2005), partner/CTO/co-owner (present) — the company calls him co-founder today but he was not a founder of the 1999 firm; the exact moment he took equity is not public.
• The long-run product cost of the April 2021 exodus — a third of staff including the heads of design, marketing, support, and strategy — is unmeasurable from public sources.
• Ryan Singer's post-suspension outcome was never officially detailed; his departure is inferred from reporting and his absence since.
• ONCE's trajectory is unresolved: announced as a multi-product line in late 2023, it has shipped exactly one product, and that product went from $299 to free-and-MIT within about eighteen months.
• Whether any ONCE product beyond Campfire will ship, and whether the 'post-SaaS era' thesis is a business or a position paper, remains open.
• The fate of Backpack, Writeboard, and other sunset products' user data and uptime is not documented beyond the 2014 wind-down announcements.