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Basecamp (37signals)
Basecamp is a company that has grown significantly through bootstrapping, making profits from the beginning without receiving any investment.
As of 2020, sales per employee exceeded 5.1 billion won.
37signals | Number of employees | Annual Revenue (USD) | Annual revenue (KRW) | Annual revenue per person |
2012 | 30 | $43.69M | 58.5 billion | 1.95 billion won |
2014 | 41 | $78.85M | 105.7 billion | 2.58 billion won |
2016 | 49 | $141.57M | 189.8 billion | 3.87 billion won |
2017 | 55 | $168.58M | 226 billion | 4.1 billion won |
2018 | 54 | $185.57M | 248.8 billion | 4.6 billion won |
2019 | 61 | $196.02M | 262.8 billion | 4.3 billion won |
2020 | 56 | $215.62M | 289.1 billion | 5.1 billion won |
2021 | 57 | |||
2023 | $374.8M |
Basecamp is also famous as a company whose founders have many unique perspectives.
1.
No investment. You need to learn how to make money from the beginning.
2.
By reducing costs, you are free from competition. Significantly reduced costs through remote work
3.
Business is not war. Just focus on making better products rather than competing.
4.
Make money only in honest ways. Even though it is SAAS, instead of charging per person, each team is paid the same amount regardless of size.
5.
They encourage employees not to work more than 40 hours, and believe that if they work efficiently, productivity can be greatly increased even without working overtime.
6.
In order to work efficiently, it is most important to secure chunks of time and aim for asynchronous communication.
7.
Not interested in selling the company or doing an IPO. The only sale of shares was to Jeff Bezos, and Bezos took the dividends. The sold shares are not used for the company, but are used to provide the founder with a sense of stability in his personal life.
8.
Because sales per person are very high, profit sharing is provided to employees every year. It is competitive in terms of securing talent because you can enjoy the pleasure of working while receiving the highest salary and maintain a happy relationship with your family.
9.
There is no number as stupid as corporate value. I don't think about it for a day
10.
It is important for products to be simple
11.
No formal marketing budget, no salespeople, no marketing personnel. You can grow just by writing books, giving lectures, blogging, and talking authentically to users.
12.
A completely new version of the same product is released every 4-5 years. So it can keep getting better
13.
Even if they work remotely, manager-level employees should not evaluate employees based on their ‘work’ but rather judge them based on their ‘work’ itself. Even if you're in the same office, you can pretend to type and not work properly. If you are a manager who can only evaluate your work, you should reflect on it.
14.
A team in charge of one function can have a maximum of three people. Therefore, close and quick decisions can be made.
15.
The meeting is not for 1 hour, but it is the person who participated for 1 hour*. Instead, eliminate meetings by writing documents. It is very rare for more than three people to participate in a meeting. Only when something really needs to be decided are the people who make the decision to talk.
16.
Creativity does not decline due to remote work. In fact, there are a lot of ideas, but there is not enough time and resources to put them into practice. What's more difficult is choosing ideas and deciding what's important.
17.
It is important to show up to work on time and stick to the timeline of what you set out to do.
18.
Do not set goals or KPIs. Instead, we try to do the best job we can. Rather than thinking about goals, we think about ‘what we can do’ to improve this situation. You shouldn't work hard because you set a goal, but because you want to do 'that work'. It's strange, but it's always been that way.
Specific systems listed in the Basecamp Employee Handbook
10% of annual company profits are shared with employees, and employees can participate in profit sharing after working for more than 2 years. It is distributed differentially like stocks depending on the period of employment.
Starting from the 2nd anniversary, one week per month will be accumulated, and the limit will be maximum at 10 years.
Ranks are divided into 5 levels for each job, and rank standards are clearly organized in a table.
Regardless of location of residence, the salary is in the top 10% of the industry based on San Francisco. At this time, there is a difference according to rank, and all employees of the same rank and role receive the same salary. San Fran salary standard uses Redford data
In the first year of employment, performance evaluations are conducted at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year, and from the following year onwards, once a year.
If work performance does not meet expectations, a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) may be applied.
The entire company meets in person twice a year. We meet in a different city every year. Lasted for a week
After the 6-week sprint, there is a 2-week cooldown period for reorganization (time to catch bugs).
A company-wide meeting is held after each cycle (sprint).
All members of the company work customer support shifts.
Standards for allowing/disallowing side jobs are outlined.
There are four important mechanisms for good asynchronous communication. Through this mechanism, opportunities to make important decisions arise six times a year, and the remaining time should be focused on carrying out short-term plans rather than the larger direction.
Afternoon, everyone has to answer what they did today. At least twice a week is required. You should explain what you are working on and provide context as to why you are doing it and why it is important.
Every Monday morning, everyone must answer their plans for the week. This is required
During the cooldown, all teams must submit a 'kickoff' plan for the upcoming new sprint cycle. Submit by the second Friday of the cooldown period. (Submitted by team leader)
'Heartbeat' must be submitted by the first Friday of the cooldown period. The work completed during the previous cycle should be summarized and celebrated/retrospected, and the work described in the heartbeat should be somewhat consistent with what was planned at the start of the cycle. (Submitted by team leader)
Insights from Basecamp periodicals
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