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

37signals	Number of employees	Annual Sales (dollars)	Annual sales (KRW)	Annual sales 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 known for being a company whose founders have a very unique perspective.

No investment required. You have to learn how to make money from scratch.

By reducing costs, we are free from competition. We have reduced costs significantly through remote work.

Business is not war. Just focus on making a good product rather than competing.

Make money only through honest means. Even though it is SaaS, it does not charge per person, but charges the same amount per team regardless of size.

Employees are encouraged not to work more than 40 hours and believe that if they work efficiently, productivity can be greatly increased without having to work overtime.

To work efficiently, it is most important to secure chunks of time and aim for asynchronous communication.

No interest in selling the company or doing an IPO. The only stake sale was to Jeff Bezos, and Bezos takes the dividend. The stake sold is not used for the company, but to provide stability to the founder's personal life.

Because the sales per person are very high, they provide profit sharing to employees every year. They have the pleasure of working while receiving the highest salary, and they can also maintain happy relationships with their families, so they are competitive in terms of securing talent.

There is no number more stupid than the value of a company. I don't think about it for a single day.

10.

It is important for the product to be simple

11.

No formal marketing budget, no salespeople, no marketing people. You can grow just by writing books, giving lectures, blogging, and talking authentically to your users.

12.

We release a completely new version of the same product every 4-5 years, so it can keep getting better.

13.

Even if you work remotely, managers should not evaluate employees based on their ‘work style’ but on their ‘work’ itself. Even if you are in the same office, you can pretend to type and not do your work properly. Managers who can only evaluate employees based on their work style should reflect on themselves.

14.

A team in charge of one function consists of a maximum of three people, which allows for close and quick decision-making.

15.

A meeting is not an hour, it is an hour* of people participating. Instead, write a document and eliminate meetings. It is very rare for more than three people to participate in a meeting. People who decide only talk when something really needs to be decided.

16.

Remote work doesn’t mean you’re less creative. In fact, you have a lot of ideas, but you don’t have the time and resources to put them into action. What’s harder is choosing the ideas and deciding what’s important.

17.

It is important to arrive at work on time and stick to the timeline for the work you have agreed to do.

18.

We don't set goals or KPIs. Instead, we try to do the best we can. Rather than goals, we think about 'what we can do' to improve this situation. We should work hard not because we have set goals, but because we want to do 'that' work. It's strange, but it's always been that way.

Specific systems outlined in the Base Camp Staff Handbook

10% of the annual company profit is shared with employees. Employees can participate in profit sharing after working for more than 2 years. Distribution is differentiated like stocks depending on the length of employment.

Starting from the 2nd anniversary, one week is accumulated per month, and the limit is maximum after 10 years.

The ranks are divided into 5 levels by job, and the rank criteria are clearly organized in a table.

Regardless of your area of residence, we provide the top 10% salary in the industry based on San Francisco. There is a difference based on job title, but everyone in the same job title and same role receives the same salary. The salary standard for San Francisco is based on Redford data.

In the first year of employment, performance evaluations are conducted at 3-month, 6-month, and 1-year intervals, and from the following year, they are conducted once a year.

If your job performance falls short of expectations, a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) may be implemented.

Twice a year, the entire company meets in person. Meets in a different city each year. Lasts a week.

After the 6 week sprint, we have a 2 week cool down period to regroup (time to fix bugs).

We have a team meeting after each cycle (sprint).

All members of the company perform customer support shift work.

There are established criteria for allowing/disallowing side jobs.

There are four important mechanisms for asynchronous communication to work well. These mechanisms provide six opportunities to make important decisions in a year, and the rest of the time should be spent focusing on executing short-term plans rather than on the big picture.

In the afternoon, everyone should answer what they did today. At least twice a week is required. You should explain what you are currently working on and provide context as to why you are doing it and why it is important.

Every Monday morning, everyone must answer the weekly plan. This is mandatory.

During the cooldown period, all teams are required to submit a 'kickoff' plan for the upcoming new sprint cycle. This is due by the second Friday of the cooldown period. (Submitted by the team lead)

'Heartbeat' is due by the first Friday of the cooldown period. It should summarize and celebrate/retrospect the work completed during the previous cycle. The work described in the heartbeat should be somewhat consistent with what was planned at the start of the cycle. (Submitted by the team leader)