Started & runs 37signals (makers of Basecamp, HEY, and ONCE). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author. DM or email me at [email protected].
Joined April 2008
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What do they got?
A big team, lots of money, a strong brand, seemingly unlimited resources, panache, reputation, all that. They’re established.
They’re your competitors.
You want to look away, but you see them everywhere. Their ads on your social, their name in the media, your dream clients on their website.
But you know what else they got?
Bigger company bloat. Overflowing obligations. Narratives to uphold. Appearances to maintain. Entitlement. Too much overhead.
They’re slow. They’re conservative. They talk too much. They’ve stopped taking risks. They’re resting on their laurels, gliding on their reputation. They’re on defense.
What they’ve really got is a lot to lose.
What do you got?
Hunger. Drive. Grit. Scrappiness. Independence. You’re on offense.
You don’t have enough, which is why you’re dangerous. You have no choice but to be clever and creative. To make up for what you don’t have with something they can’t have: The underdog spirit.
You can move. You can adjust. You can adapt. You can get it done while they’re still stuck deciding what to do.
Small is not a stepping stone. Small is not less than. It’s greater than. It’s faster than. It’s better than.
Savor your position. You don’t get to be the underdog forever. The baton will be passed. But for now, it’s your magic wand. Use it.
We stand with the underdogs.
Jason Fried retweeted
🖼️ Agents can now change your Basecamp wallpaper!
New functionality added to the CLI in v0.18 just released! Have your agents schedule a wallpaper change! Or pick a seasonal wallpaper! Get creative! Check out these examples:
Jesse gets it. 20 years on Basecamp and yet it feels brand new w/ MCP + Claude.
@Basecamp user since May, 2005 - mostly just a handful of clients and projects. Then I wired Claude Code into it via MCP. It's like having a personal assistant/senior dev that excels at record-keeping. Basecamp 5 is a game changer. They've made it so easy to connect - love it!
14 years away from Basecamp. And now back. It’s a new day.
if your SaaS doesn't make it this easy for your users to use their ai with it, you're fkn doing it wrong.
i haven't used @basecamp by @37signals probably since Google+ days when I was still doing a little bit of WP dev work and SEO stuff.
connected the cli/claude/grokbot to it and now grokbot watches the gh repo for issues/discussions/PRs/comments etc and ALSO basecamp now to keep dev rolling constantly.
so, essentially, i can just open claude/codex/grokbot and say "look at [gh-repo(s)] and basecamp, what's next in line for us?" and the agent just starts building, commenting, replying to comments/issues etc., keeps todo lists updated, cards, and decision logs.
working on integrating support tickets to basecamp next.
there is probably a ton of other stuff i can be doing with it, i am only on day 3 since about 14yrs ago using it.
after seeing how easy this has been, now i almost have to look at hey.com email by 37signals since I see they have cli/tui/ai too.
Peter gets it. Thanks for being a customer for TWO DECADES!
I have been an @basecamp user for over 20 years. The addition of the CLI & MCP functionality is a game changer. Now I just ask Claude to look at activity in a repo and make to dos and complete them. It will also analyze my agent conversations and make updates. Awesome.
Jason Fried retweeted
I mean, just an all-time TV segment. Making Chuck do Who He Play For multiple times in a row with the same players is a brilliant idea and I was legit crying laughing by the end, my god.
While going through some really old legal files, we came across this old 37signals marketing flier (FAX!) from 2000. I remember making this in InDesign!
Michael gets it.
Moved ops from Telegram notifications to @Basecamp Chats. Much better experience/control.
What a round trip! Customer on day one in 2004, then wandered a bit, and now back home with Basecamp 5. Welcome home Dave!
I was a @basecamp customer on day 1 back in 2004. But more recently I've used Notion.
Switched back to Basecamp today:
1. Simple structure: my agents simply cannot invent crazy Notion configurations that we humans can't actually follow.
2. Live filtering (thank you!)
3. Markdown support.
My chief of staff agent had my account all set back up again in no time.
Feels like coming home. Basecamp 5 is great!
Jason Fried retweeted
How to build a shared memory for your AI agents in Basecamp: one project, one About doc, one set of rules, and a daily cleanup run. I wrote up my setup, with a prompt you can paste in to have your agent build it for you.
The official Basecamp ChatGPT Plugin is now available. Dig into your projects straight from chat. Make new projects from chat. Convert notes into actionable to-dos from chat. Search across projects for common patterns. Do it all, and more.
Go get it:
chatgpt.com/plugins/plugin_a…
Prannay gets it. Check out more paths to Basecamp here: basecamp.com/path
Accessibility was important to AJ. He tested a variety of tools and in the end picked Basecamp.
"I chose Basecamp, which I was reluctant to even consider. Basecamp 4 was what my contract client used and I really didn’t feel it was a great project management tool. It was lightweight and limited in what it offered. Basecamp 5 has some nice updates that make it more competitive."
Love when reluctant customers give 5 a try. Basecamp 5 is a whole new game. If you haven't tried Basecamp in years (or even just last year), do yourself a favor, clear the mental deck, and dive in.
Full write-up:
sanscript.agency/when-lookin…
Austen really gets it. He connected Claude to Basecamp, asked Claude to do some work for him inside Basecamp, and well, it was "absolutely awesome".
Did something crazy today. Created a @basecamp user for my Claude Code to use. Tasked it with taking care of some software todo's I had in one of my projects and it not only did the work, but marked them as done so I got alerted in my Basecamp "for you". Absolutely awesome!
Patrik gets it. HEY HEY!
I made the move to @heyhey and never looked back. It is a _very_ different approach to gmail, though.
Plus: It is also has a great MCP/CLI integration.
Jon gets it. He runs a cafe in Boulder, and Basecamp is the backbone of their operations. Good choice Jon!
Here is a quick recap on our tech / AI stack at Alpine Modern.
I have paid plans for Claude, ChatGPT and now @bot
We use @basecamp internally for communication, project management, etc...That is the backbone of our ops.
I use @SuperhumanMail for email that sits on top of @GoogleWorkspace (Drive, sheets, docs, etc..)
In the last couple days I've connected @basecamp to @bot via the basecamp CLI. @bot also has connectors into all google services, superhuman, @granola for meetings etc..
The advantage of the basecamp CLI is that @bot can use its virtual computer to connect to @basecamp and nothing needs to run locally on my MacBook. So it's always on and can always work.
I spun up a web hooks using @Cloudflare and with a little finessing got an agent 'Alpy' active inside the basecamp projects. Now I can query the Alpy inside basecamp, assign it tasks and it runs independently.
Next I need to transition some of the skills that were running locally in Claude Code to Grokbot... it's a bit of work getting all this setup.
Here is an example of a project it's working on independently as I type this, assigned in basecamp.
1. make an equipment tracking spreadsheet for each Alpine Modern location to track all equipment service records... preventive maintenance, Work orders, total spend etc..
2. go into the service providers portal (via @1password shared logins) or into my email and download all invoices ever (133 of them) for each piece of equipment. Put those invoices in drive and then pull out all the service notes and put them in a spreadsheet by equipment ID.
The longterm goal is that a manager will be able to chat with our Alpy in basecamp and ask questions like, "when were the steam wand kits last replaced on the La Marzocco?"
With all of these tools I'm able to do stuff I've always wanted to do and operate at a higher level. Its insane...
Holler if you have suggestions or questions. Happy to share!
