37signals is a privately held web application company based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The firm was co-founded in 1999 by Jason Fried, Carlos Segura, and Ernest Kim as a web design company. 37signals also produces a blog, Signal vs. Noise. Segura left in 2000 and Kim left in 2003, leaving Fried as the only remaining founder.
Since mid-2004, the company's focus has shifted from web design to web application development. Its first commercial application was Basecamp; this was followed by Backpack, Campfire, and Highrise. 37signals also maintains two free-use web applications, Ta-Da List and Writeboard. The company was responsible for launching the open source web application framework Ruby on Rails, which it uses in its own applications. The products have follow the freemium business model.
The company is named for the 37 radio telescope signals identified by astronomer Paul Horowitz as potential messages from extraterrestrial intelligence.
37signals started as a web design company in 1999. The focus was on redesigning existing sites to make them simpler, clearer, and easier to use. The company designed Meetup.com and redesigned sites for customers such as Panera Bread and Shopping.com. In 2000, they created the eNormicom website, a satire of the dot-com era. In 2003, 37signals 37express, a web design service, whereby a single web page would be redesigned for a set fee in one week.
Also in 2003, 37signals began work on a project management application which, while intended for internal use, was later released as 37signals' first commercial product: Basecamp.
By 2005, the company had moved away from consulting work to focus exclusively on its web applications. Each application had a free limited-feature version, and most had monthly subscription levels with more features. The Ruby on Rails web application framework was extracted from the work on Basecamp and released as open source (see Ruby on Rails section below).
On July 20, 2006, the company announced that Jeff Bezos had acquired a minority stake through his personal investment company, Bezos Expeditions.
The company's blog, Signal vs. Noise, was launched in 1999 and is self-described as featuring "entrepreneurship, design, experience, simplicity, constraints, pop culture, our products, products we like, and more." It is regularly updated by the company's employees and allows commenting by readers. The company often uses the blog to communicate with users regarding new products, features, and their design philosophy "Getting Real". Content since February 2005 is archived, and the blog is powered by a custom-built blogging tool, although it formerly used Movable Type. The blog is written in a casual style, and sometimes contains profanity. Revenue from the blog is gained through three methods of advertising: small image ads via The Deck, a small advertising network, and a 37signals "Job Board." (See below: Advertising)
Ruby on Rails is a free web application framework created by David Heinemeier Hansson, one of the 37signals programmers. It was originally used to make 37signals' first product, Basecamp, and was since extracted and released as open source in 2004, as well as being the framework that 37signals use to make their web applications.Often shortened to "Rails" or "RoR", it is programmed in the Ruby programming language.
The official Ruby on Rails website states that it is "sponsored by 37signals".The development of Ruby on Rails is now managed by the Rails Core Team, with Hansson still contributing.
, 37signals has created four commercial web-based applications and two free web-based applications. All of the 37signals applications have feature-limited free versions and 30-day free trials of the full versions, after which the user must either pay to continue, downgrade to a free plan, or stop using the application.
Backpack
Backpack is a web-based personal information manager and intranet for small business. The application has two main functions: user-created pages (which can include text, images, and files), and an iCalendar format calendar.
Features of the user-created pages include to-do lists, inline photo galleries, notes and file attachments, and page sharing.Features of the calendar include support for iCalendar, email/SMS reminders, color-coding of calendars, and iCalendar sharing.
Basecamp
Basecamp is 37signals' first product, a web-based project management tool that launched in 2004. The Ruby on Rails framework was extracted from the Basecamp project.
The primary features of Basecamp include to-do lists, milestone management, forum-like messaging, file sharing, and time tracking.
37signals have since created an API for Basecamp, allowing interaction with other web applications as well as desktop applications. One example of the API in use is a Mac OS X Dashboard widget.
Campfire
Campfire is a web-based, business-oriented online chat service. It was released on February 16, 2006. LAUNCH: Campfire, easy group chat for business - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)The application uses Ajax technology for real time communication, and supports optional 128-bit SSL encryption.To use the application, users must either create a new chat room or be invited to one. Unless a chat room is specifically chosen to be "off the record", browsable transcripts of chats and uploaded files are stored for future reference. One of the main features of the application, referred to by 37signals as "live image previews", is that image uploads in GIF, PNG, or JPEG formats are represented as thumbnails and automatically shown in the chat.
Highrise
Highrise (originally publicized as "Sunrise") is a web-based application focusing mainly on "shared contact management" and basic CRM tasks. The application was released on March 20, 2007.
Features of Highrise include "person pages" and "company pages", which can contain images, notes, company info, contact details, etc., to-do lists much like those seen in Basecamp or Backpack, and "Cases", which are pages/categories within which related notes, images, and people can be kept.The other main features of Highrise are its support for interaction via e-mail (e.g. related email messages can be sent to unique Highrise "dropboxes" via (Blind) carbon copy or email forwarding), and support for importing data from vCards, Microsoft Outlook, ACT!, or data from Basecamp accounts.
Ta-Da List
Ta-Da List, 37signals' first free web application, is a free to-do list application launched in January 2005.To use the application, users must create an account which will manage all of their "to-do lists". It is possible to track changes via an RSS feed.Ta-Da List allows lists to be shared either publicly (anyone can view the list by visiting a unique URI), or with specific people by sending an automated email containing a private URI. Ta-Da List is based on the lists in both Basecamp and Backpack.
Writeboard
Writeboard is a free, collaborative (but not real time) text editor, which allows creation of an unlimited number of web-based text documents. Each Writeboard has a separate user name and password, and changes can be monitored via an RSS feed.
Writeboard supports Diff, allowing users to compare changes made to the document, and Textile, for easy to use and simple formatting. Writeboard has since been integrated with both Basecamp and Backpack.
Although primarily not an online advertising company, 37signals is the creator and maintainer of the Job Board advertising system. In October 2006 the company introduced Gig Board for one-off jobs. Despite having a posting fee of one third of Job Board's, Gig Board often had fewer postings and it quietly disappeared in February 2009. The company is a founding member of The Deck, a small online advertising network with 19 members (). 37signals advertises its products on The Deck and its job positions on the Job Board.
Sortfolio
On October 21, 2009, 37signals launched Haystack, a visual directory of web designers all over the world. Browsing on Haystack is like browsing dozens of web designers sites, but browsing them all on the same page--a significant departure from the traditional method of finding and browsing designer’s sites one-by-one. Clients can favorite firms they like and review them all on one page (that is also printable and sharable). Listings are free for web designers, although there's a Pro listing option which costs $99/month. Haystack has since been renamed to Sortfolio.
