3 ms·

Basecamp was a side project for us.

nolok 16y ago
I didn't know basecamp and started looking at your site; I really love the presentation except for one thing: the bit about the basecamp competitor founder saying blabla basecamp is the best is the "who uses it" page. When I read the part between parenthesis the whole thing really sounded to me like a phony message, and made me have a more negative look on the page. Just wanted to let you know.
- nolok 16y ago
  Could the person who downvoted me tell me why ? I merely expressed my opinion, to me this quote looks like a flaw on an otherwise great presentation of his project. Or am I not supposed to criticize projects here (I'm new to hacker news) ?
  - julsonl 16y ago
    He was probably outraged to discover that you don't know the legend that is Jason Fried (37 Signals).
    - cookiecaper 16y ago
      You should get used to this attitude, too -- even though 37 Signals's founders and advice are highly overrated, there are a lot of people who idolize it and take criticism of the group pretty personally. There is a really weird dynamic going on with that, it's hard for me to understand.
- btucker 16y ago
  I can see where you're coming from. For people that don't know the history of intranets.com it seems a little odd. FWIW, intranets.com pre-dates basecamp and was acquired by WebEx many years ago.
SomeoneAtHN 16y ago
How long did it take for Basecamp to take off and become profitable?
- jasonfried 16y ago
  Basecamp was profitable fast. We were doing about $5000/month after the first 6 weeks. We only had a few people at the company so our overhead was really low.
  - SomeoneAtHN 16y ago
    That was very impressive. Did you guys just spread the word through friends and do a lot of marketing at first?
ritonlajoie 16y ago
I really like your product (being a customer). So, when are you going to host it in France :) ? Because the only problem with basecamp is the load time around here :) But congratulations for this product and wish you the best.
paolomaffei 16y ago
Isn't everything you ever made a byproduct of ruby on rails anyway?
- middus 16y ago
  Nope, RoR is a byproduct of building basecamp.

nolok 16y ago

I didn't know basecamp and started looking at your site; I really love the presentation except for one thing: the bit about the basecamp competitor founder saying blabla basecamp is the best is the "who uses it" page. When I read the part between parenthesis the whole thing really sounded to me like a phony message, and made me have a more negative look on the page. Just wanted to let you know.

nolok 16y ago
Could the person who downvoted me tell me why ? I merely expressed my opinion, to me this quote looks like a flaw on an otherwise great presentation of his project. Or am I not supposed to criticize projects here (I'm new to hacker news) ?
- julsonl 16y ago
  He was probably outraged to discover that you don't know the legend that is Jason Fried (37 Signals).
  - cookiecaper 16y ago
    You should get used to this attitude, too -- even though 37 Signals's founders and advice are highly overrated, there are a lot of people who idolize it and take criticism of the group pretty personally. There is a really weird dynamic going on with that, it's hard for me to understand.
btucker 16y ago
I can see where you're coming from. For people that don't know the history of intranets.com it seems a little odd. FWIW, intranets.com pre-dates basecamp and was acquired by WebEx many years ago.

SomeoneAtHN 16y ago

How long did it take for Basecamp to take off and become profitable?

jasonfried 16y ago
Basecamp was profitable fast. We were doing about $5000/month after the first 6 weeks. We only had a few people at the company so our overhead was really low.
- SomeoneAtHN 16y ago
  That was very impressive. Did you guys just spread the word through friends and do a lot of marketing at first?

ritonlajoie 16y ago

I really like your product (being a customer). So, when are you going to host it in France :) ? Because the only problem with basecamp is the load time around here :) But congratulations for this product and wish you the best.

paolomaffei 16y ago

Isn't everything you ever made a byproduct of ruby on rails anyway?

middus 16y ago
Nope, RoR is a byproduct of building basecamp.