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> It's not clear to me how DHH gets the money for his auto racing hobby. That unclarity can be solved pretty easily. David is one of the two partners of Baseca

> It's not clear to me how DHH gets the money for his auto racing hobby. That unclarity can be solved pretty easily. David is one of the two partners of Basecamp (formerly 37signals). That company delivers a service in the project management space, basecamp.com, and some other web applications. They charge customers a fair amount, and they have thousands and thousands of customers, mainly in the SME segment. With around 50 well-paid employees, a nice office and significant (leased/owned) infrastructure, their costs are still way less than their revenue, so they make a healthy profit. I guess that profit is paid out as dividends to the stakeholders of the company: at last David, Jason and Jeff Bezos (for a minority share). Those dividends are sufficient to buy a nice house, own some sports cars, and enjoy a racing hobby. Additionally, Jason and David have written some popular books. The author's share of those sales could pay for some other interests (photography, watches) as well.

combatentropy 8y ago
According to the bottom of the web page, they have over 2.8 million accounts. That is especially remarkable since an account is usually a company. Basecamp does not charge per user. The price is $99 per month --- although for nonprofits it's 10% off, and for teachers and students it's free. They don't say how many of the 2,838,046 accounts are discounted or free, but I doubt it's a sizable percentage. For the sake of argument, let us suppose that it brings it all the way down to the equivalent of only 2.5 million full-priced accounts. That's about $3 billion a year.
- davidivadavid 8y ago
  It probably is a fairly sizeable percentage. Basecamp changed pricing quite a few times, and as far as I recall this iteration is one of the highest it has ever been.
- jschulenklopper 8y ago
  https://basecamp.com/customers https://basecamp.com/customers mentions "100,000+ companies rely on Basecamp to run their business." Since it does not mention "1,000,000+ companies", I think that "2.8 million accounts" refers to users, not companies. Although current pricing for Basecamp 3 is $99/month (for unlimited amount of projects), previous Basecamp versions (Classic and 2) had other pricing models. Significantly cheaper when you were managing less projects, a bit more expensive for more than 100 projects, IIRC. Basecamp / 37signals also has paying users for some other applications, e.g., Highrise (CRM, 10,000+ organizations, but closed for new signups), Campfire (instant messaging, closed for new signups), Backpack (intranet for businesses, closed for new signups). They continue to provide those services though, "until the end of the internet" :-) So, in short... it's not as simple as 2.5 million times 99 USD. Ignoring paid accounts for the other products, and severely underestimating the number of accounts at the 99 dollar level as 75,000, the monthly revenue could be 7.5 million dollar per month minimally, or 90 million per year. I would guess the actual number is twice that. Either way, it's impressive by any comparison.

combatentropy 8y ago

According to the bottom of the web page, they have over 2.8 million accounts. That is especially remarkable since an account is usually a company. Basecamp does not charge per user. The price is $99 per month --- although for nonprofits it's 10% off, and for teachers and students it's free. They don't say how many of the 2,838,046 accounts are discounted or free, but I doubt it's a sizable percentage. For the sake of argument, let us suppose that it brings it all the way down to the equivalent of only 2.5 million full-priced accounts. That's about $3 billion a year.

davidivadavid 8y ago
It probably is a fairly sizeable percentage. Basecamp changed pricing quite a few times, and as far as I recall this iteration is one of the highest it has ever been.
jschulenklopper 8y ago
https://basecamp.com/customers https://basecamp.com/customers mentions "100,000+ companies rely on Basecamp to run their business." Since it does not mention "1,000,000+ companies", I think that "2.8 million accounts" refers to users, not companies. Although current pricing for Basecamp 3 is $99/month (for unlimited amount of projects), previous Basecamp versions (Classic and 2) had other pricing models. Significantly cheaper when you were managing less projects, a bit more expensive for more than 100 projects, IIRC. Basecamp / 37signals also has paying users for some other applications, e.g., Highrise (CRM, 10,000+ organizations, but closed for new signups), Campfire (instant messaging, closed for new signups), Backpack (intranet for businesses, closed for new signups). They continue to provide those services though, "until the end of the internet" :-) So, in short... it's not as simple as 2.5 million times 99 USD. Ignoring paid accounts for the other products, and severely underestimating the number of accounts at the 99 dollar level as 75,000, the monthly revenue could be 7.5 million dollar per month minimally, or 90 million per year. I would guess the actual number is twice that. Either way, it's impressive by any comparison.