On a cold Chicago day in 2003, 37signals’ energetic developers and designers were roadblocked by a problem—the problem was project management. With staff in multiple locations, working together and managing design projects was a challenge. With a mission to solve this age-old issue, the team from 37signals created Basecamp, a Web-based project collaboration tool to improve communication and cooperation on both simple and complex projects.
Since then, Basecamp has acquired over 1 million users and the 37signals team has created other innovative software services to solve related business problems. While focusing their creative efforts and development skills on crafting these services, they also faced another issue—the challenge of managing a booming business.