37signals
An independent American software company behind Basecamp, HEY, and other focused collaboration products.
Last updated October 14, 2026
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Overview
37signals is a privately held software company based in Chicago, Illinois, best known for creating Basecamp, a web-based project-management and team-collaboration service. The company was founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim as a web-design firm. Its name refers to the 37 radio signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as possible messages from extraterrestrial intelligence. The business initially earned revenue through client work, but its attention gradually shifted toward building its own web applications. The company’s first major product was Basecamp, which originated as an internal tool developed to coordinate web-design projects. Work on the application began in 2003, and it was commercially launched in 2004. Basecamp helped move 37signals from consulting into software subscriptions by bringing discussions, task lists, milestones, files, schedules, and project information into a shared online workspace. By 2005, the company had largely abandoned consulting in favor of its own products. Other applications followed, including Campfire, a business chat product; Backpack, an information-organizing tool; and Highrise, a customer relationship management service. David Heinemeier Hansson joined the company in 2003 and developed Ruby on Rails while working on Basecamp. The framework was extracted from the product’s codebase and released as open-source software in 2004. Ruby on Rails became an influential framework for database-backed web applications and substantially increased 37signals’ visibility among software developers, although it remained distinct from the company’s commercial product portfolio. Hansson later became a partner and a prominent public voice for the company’s product and operating philosophy. 37signals has promoted a deliberately restrained approach to software business management. Its public ideas emphasize small teams, direct communication, asynchronous work, remote employment, limited meetings, modest product scope, and avoiding growth for its own sake. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson developed these themes through books including Getting Real, Rework, Remote, and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work. Their writing and the company’s distributed-work practices made 37signals an influential example for independent software businesses and remote-first organizations. In February 2014, the company changed its name to Basecamp and announced a stronger focus on its flagship product. Highrise was spun off into a separate business that year, while 37signals retained ownership; it was later brought back in-house and stopped accepting new sign-ups in 2018. The company launched HEY, a premium email service, in 2020. HEY’s iOS distribution led to a public dispute with Apple over in-app subscriptions and App Store payment rules, contributing to 37signals’ involvement in the Coalition for App Fairness. In 2021, internal policy changes concerning workplace discussions followed employee criticism of an internal collection of customer names and related workplace issues. The company announced restrictions on political and societal discussions in internal forums and offered severance to employees who disagreed; approximately one-third of its workforce ultimately departed, according to published accounts. In May 2022, the company restored the 37signals name, explaining that its present business extended beyond Basecamp to include HEY and additional products. More recently, 37signals has pursued cloud repatriation, moving some services away from public cloud infrastructure. In 2024, it introduced ONCE, a product line based on customers purchasing software for self-hosting rather than paying a continuing subscription. The relaunched Campfire was the first ONCE product. In 2025, the company introduced Fizzy, a kanban-style project-management application. 37signals remains privately held and does not publish full public-company financial statements, revenue figures, or ownership details.
History
37signals began in Chicago in 1999 as a web-design and development company founded by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim. Its unusual name was inspired by a set of 37 radio signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as possible evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial communication. During its early consulting years, the company developed websites for clients and encountered the practical difficulties of coordinating tasks, discussions, files, schedules, and deadlines across small project teams. The founders began developing Basecamp in 2003 as an internal project-management system. Rather than treating the tool as a one-off client solution, the company released it commercially in 2004. Basecamp became the foundation of the company’s transition from consulting to web-application development. By 2005, 37signals had moved its attention almost entirely to its own software. Basecamp’s model combined project discussions, to-do lists, milestones, file sharing, and related communication in a single browser-based workspace. David Heinemeier Hansson joined 37signals in 2003 and worked on Basecamp. In the course of that work, he created Ruby on Rails, a web-application framework that was subsequently separated from Basecamp and released under an open-source license in 2004. Rails became a widely recognized framework for building database-backed web applications. Although it was not a conventional 37signals product, its association with Basecamp helped establish the company’s influence in the developer community. The company expanded its product portfolio with Backpack, Campfire, and Highrise. Campfire provided business-oriented online chat and was later incorporated into Basecamp 3 before being discontinued as a separate service in 2013. Highrise, launched in 2007, served as a lightweight customer relationship management product. In 2014 it was spun off as an independent business led by Nathan Kontny, with 37signals retaining ownership. The product later returned to the company and stopped accepting new sign-ups in 2018, although existing customers continued using it. In February 2014, 37signals adopted the Basecamp name and declared that it would concentrate on its flagship product. The decision aligned the corporate identity with the company’s principal commercial service, but it did not eliminate the 37signals name from the founders’ writing and public discussion. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson used the name in books and essays that advocated small teams, simple products, remote work, asynchronous communication, fewer meetings, and financial independence from venture-backed growth expectations. The company launched HEY in June 2020. The email service was designed around more deliberate inbox management and gave users stronger control over screening, notifications, and message organization. Apple’s App Store policies quickly produced a dispute over whether HEY needed to offer in-app subscriptions and share revenue with Apple. 37signals publicly opposed the requirement and joined the Coalition for App Fairness, which sought changes to mobile-platform rules. In 2021, the company faced an internal controversy concerning an informal collection of customer names and broader debates about workplace discussion. Management announced that societal and political discussions would be prohibited in internal forums and offered severance packages to employees who did not accept the new direction. Public reporting stated that roughly one-third of the workforce resigned. The episode became a prominent example in debates about company culture, founder control, and the limits of political discussion in remote workplaces. In May 2022, the company returned to the 37signals name, explaining that its business now centered on both Basecamp and HEY. It subsequently pursued cloud repatriation, moving selected infrastructure away from public cloud providers. The company said this effort produced substantial savings, while public information does not establish complete financial results. In 2024, 37signals launched ONCE, a line based on customers buying software outright and running it themselves. A self-hosted Campfire was the initial ONCE product. In 2025, the company launched Fizzy, a kanban-style project-management tool. 37signals remains privately held and continues to operate as an independent software business.
- 2025
Fizzy launches
[1]37signals introduces Fizzy, a visual kanban-style project-management application.
- 2024
ONCE and self-hosted Campfire launch
[1]The company introduces an ownership-oriented software line, beginning with a self-hosted version of Campfire.
- 2022
37signals name is restored
[2]The company re-adopts 37signals as its corporate name while continuing to sell Basecamp as a product.
- 2020
HEY launches
[1]37signals launches its premium email service HEY.
- 2018
Highrise stops accepting new sign-ups
[1]Highrise, brought back under company control, closes registration to new customers.
- 2014
The company becomes Basecamp
[1]37signals changes its corporate name to Basecamp and adopts a strategy centered on the flagship project-management product.
- 2012
Basecamp Next is released
[1]The company releases a major new generation of Basecamp.
- 2007
Highrise launches
[1]37signals introduces Highrise as a customer relationship management product.
- 2006
Jeff Bezos acquires a minority stake
[1]Jeff Bezos’s personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions, acquires a minority interest in 37signals.
- 2005
The company shifts away from consulting
[1]37signals focuses on its own web applications rather than client web-design work.
Products and positioning
Independent, product-led software for small businesses, project teams, and remote organizations, differentiated by straightforward workflows, restrained feature scope, asynchronous collaboration, and alternatives to meeting-heavy or subscription-dependent software models.
Project management and team collaboration · 2004
Basecamp
Basecamp is 37signals’ foundational project-management product. It brings together to-do lists, milestones, project discussions, file sharing, schedules, and progress information in a shared workspace. The product is designed for businesses, agencies, distributed teams, and other organizations that want a relatively focused alternative to complex enterprise work-management suites. Basecamp Next was released in 2012 and Basecamp 3 in 2014.
Email service · 2020
HEY
HEY is a premium email service introduced in 2020. Its product design emphasizes deliberate inbox management, screening of incoming senders, separation of different types of messages, and control over notifications. HEY extends 37signals’ broader preference for software that reduces digital distraction and avoids reproducing conventional workplace habits. Its iOS distribution became the subject of a public disagreement with Apple over subscription payments and App Store rules.
Business chat and collaboration · 2006
Campfire
Campfire is 37signals’ team-chat application. The original standalone service launched in 2006 and was later incorporated into Basecamp before being discontinued as an independent product in 2013. In 2024, 37signals relaunched Campfire under the ONCE line as software customers could purchase and host on their own servers, giving organizations greater control over deployment and data. Public reference material also identifies a later open-source release under the MIT license.
Customer relationship management · 2007
Highrise
Highrise is a lightweight CRM product launched by 37signals in 2007. It was designed to help organizations manage contacts, notes, follow-up information, and customer relationships without the breadth of a large enterprise CRM suite. Highrise became a separate business in 2014 under Nathan Kontny, with 37signals retaining ownership, and later returned to the company. It stopped accepting new sign-ups in 2018, while existing organizations continued to use the service.
Kanban project management · 2025
Fizzy
Fizzy is a project-management application launched in 2025. It uses visual kanban-style boards to represent tasks and workflows, offering a more board-oriented approach to organizing work than Basecamp’s project-space model. Publicly available reference material identifies it as a new 37signals product but provides limited information about its market scope and commercial structure.
Open-source web framework · 2004
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is an open-source web-application framework created by David Heinemeier Hansson while developing Basecamp. It was extracted from the company’s internal work and released publicly in 2004. Rails became influential for database-backed web applications and helped popularize convention-over-configuration development practices. It is an open-source project rather than a proprietary 37signals commercial service.
Controversies
2021
Workplace policy and employee departures controversy
Employees raised concerns about an internal collection of customer names and related workplace culture issues. Management responded by prohibiting societal and political discussions in internal forums and offering severance to employees who disagreed with the changes. Public accounts reported that roughly one-third of the workforce resigned, making the episode a significant controversy concerning founder-led governance and workplace speech.
Marketing campaigns
- 2020Coalition for App Fairness
Global · Mobile applications
After Apple challenged HEY’s App Store payment model, 37signals joined the Coalition for App Fairness to advocate changes to app-store policies and more equitable treatment for software businesses.
Outcome. The coalition became a public vehicle for criticism of major mobile-platform rules; the broader policy debate continued.
- 2019Basecamp trademark search advertising response
United States · Online advertising
37signals purchased search advertising triggered by its own Basecamp name after competitors appeared above the official site for searches on the trademark. Jason Fried criticized Google’s policy, while Google stated that trademark owners could file complaints against improper keyword use.
Outcome. Google subsequently stopped competitors from using the Basecamp trademark in the reported search context.
Brand decisions
2024
Introduce the ONCE ownership modelStrategyBackground
37signals sought alternatives to recurring software subscriptions and continued exploring greater customer control over hosting and data.
Action taken
The company launched ONCE, a line of software sold for one-time purchase and intended for customer-managed hosting, beginning with Campfire.
Aftermath
ONCE established a distinct commercial and deployment model alongside the company’s hosted subscription products.
2023
Pursue cloud repatriationStrategyBackground
The company evaluated the cost and operational implications of relying on public cloud infrastructure.
Action taken
37signals began moving parts of its services away from public cloud providers and toward infrastructure it controlled more directly.
Aftermath
David Heinemeier Hansson said in September 2023 that the initiative had saved the company approximately one million dollars.
Reported savings. Approximately $1 million saved (By September 2023)
2022
Restore the 37signals corporate nameStrategyBackground
The business again encompassed multiple products, particularly Basecamp and HEY, making the single-product Basecamp corporate identity less representative.
Action taken
The company resumed using 37signals as its corporate name and kept Basecamp as a product brand.
Aftermath
The naming structure once again separated the company identity from its best-known application.
2020
Launch HEYProduct launchBackground
37signals sought to expand beyond project management with a product reflecting its preference for simpler, more controlled digital workflows.
Action taken
The company launched HEY as a premium email service.
Aftermath
Apple’s App Store requirements triggered a public dispute over in-app subscriptions and platform fees.
2014
Rename the company Basecamp and focus on one flagship productStrategyBackground
Basecamp had become the company’s principal commercial product, while the business was operating several other applications.
Action taken
37signals adopted the Basecamp name and announced a strategy centered on the Basecamp product.
Aftermath
The company later restored 37signals as its corporate name in 2022, with Basecamp retained as a product brand.
2014
Spin off HighriseStrategyBackground
The company was narrowing its strategic emphasis around Basecamp while Highrise had developed into a distinct CRM product.
Action taken
Highrise was separated into an independent business led by Nathan Kontny, with 37signals retaining ownership.
Aftermath
Highrise later returned to 37signals and stopped accepting new sign-ups in 2018.
Recent events
- 2025
37signals introduces Fizzy[1]
Product launch
Fizzy launched as a kanban-oriented project-management application using visual boards to organize tasks and workflows.
- 2024
37signals launches ONCE with self-hosted Campfire[1]
Product launch
The company introduced ONCE, a product line built around one-time purchases and customer-operated software. The first launch was a self-hosted version of Campfire.
- 2023
37signals reports savings from cloud repatriation[1]
Other
The company described moving parts of its services away from public cloud infrastructure; its chief technology officer said the work had saved approximately one million dollars by September 2023.
- 2022
37signals restores its original company name[2]
Leadership change
The business reverted from Basecamp to 37signals while retaining Basecamp as a product and presenting HEY as another core line.
- 2020
37signals launches HEY email service[1]
Product launch
The company introduced HEY as a premium email service focused on inbox organization, screening, and user control.
- 2020
Apple challenges HEY App Store distribution[1]
Regulation · Lawsuit
Apple threatened to remove HEY’s iOS application unless 37signals added an in-app subscription option and shared revenue under App Store rules.
- 2020
37signals joins Coalition for App Fairness[1]
Campaign · Regulation
Following the HEY dispute, the company joined an industry coalition campaigning for changes to mobile-app-store policies.
Sources4 sources
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