We’ve always been about the Fortune 5,000,000 – the small businesses of the world. The mom and pops, the freelancers, the small shops, and the small businesses with fewer than 10 people are our bread and butter.
However, recently we’ve been seeing more emails and signups from people who work at bigger companies and organizations. Lots of governmental agencies are showing up on our customer radar, too.
So about a week ago we dug into the data and discovered some interesting stats:
Basecamp is being used at…
- 35 of the Fortune 50
- 68 of the Fortune 100
- 321 of the Fortune 500
Highrise is being used at…
- 23 of the Fortune 50
- 41 of the Fortune 100
- 127 of the Fortune 500
Remember, we don’t have any salespeople here, so just about all of these signups are self-service/self-discovery or through word of mouth referrals.
We often hear from folks inside these companies. They’re beyond frustrated with the software/solutions they’re supposed to use. So they turn to our products because they just plain work. Sometimes they expense them, but often it seems a team or department head just pays out of their own pocket. The cost is insignificant compared to the productivity they receive in return.
We salute these insurgents!
Now just to be clear, we’re not suggesting that 35 of the Fortune 50 use Basecamp company-wide. We’re just saying that there are people or teams at these companies that are using Basecamp. Also, we’re using email addresses for the matching so it may not be perfectly precise.
Christoph
on 02 Sep 11First of all: It’s great to hear that.
But I have a question. How do you get this data? Is it because they’re using company url’s in their email addresses?
Thanks anyway for always sharing great insights that most companies choose to hide.
Christoph
Robert Evans
on 02 Sep 11@Christoph They have full access to everyones account, that’s how they see. :p I kid.
On the signup page, there is a place for Company Name. :)
Neil Kelly
on 02 Sep 11Pies
on 02 Sep 11In other words, at least one person each from 35 of Fortune 50 companies signed up for a trial of your product using his work e-mail.
sebastian
on 02 Sep 11I’m so glad to hear that. I always thought you would make it there too.
Great work guys, very inspiring
Ben Fyvie
on 02 Sep 11The employee count at fortune 500 companies is typically very very high to the extent that some have millions of employees.
To say that you have users from these companies comes as no shock to me. It simply means that at least 1 person or department has found your products to be useful. It does not mean that Basecamp/Highrise is the primary PM/Sales tool used at these companies or even that the tool is “popular” at these companies.
The useful information would be to know how many users exist for a given company compared with how many employees that company has. That will give you an accurate idea of whether or not it is safe to say that the company as a whole uses your products.
Michael
on 02 Sep 11That’s interesting, Jason. If you have time, I would be so interested to see the growth of Fortune 50/500 usage of your products over time.
David Andersen
on 02 Sep 11@Ben F -
Your deductive skills need some honing. This is conclusive evidence that everyone at each of these companies uses 37s software exclusively and in fact, use 37s products in place of the OS itself. In fact, I’m betting large swaths of the employees have stopped their normal duties and do nothing but manipulate data in Basecamp and Highrise all day long.
MLA
on 02 Sep 11Shhh. Number one rule of the insurgency is you don’t talk about the insurgency.
Max
on 02 Sep 11It doesn’t matter. What counts is that basecamp and highrise are great products that inspired many lame competitors and even after years still stand out of the crowd.
Well done & thanks!
finance
on 02 Sep 11It will be interesting to see what these companies are using basecamp for. Simply project management? Many projects at the same time?
marcos
on 02 Sep 11is it remotely possible to get some more metrics? Having persons sign up using a fortune 500 email address is good, but some people do use their work email as their primary email address.
Andrew Warner
on 02 Sep 11Inspring, Jason.
Alex
on 02 Sep 11I work for State Street Bank (253 on the F 500). We’ve been using basecamp to manage fund launch projects (approx 40 at a time) for about 3 years. We’re the only team i know of which uses it at State Street. Great product, thanks.
Anonymous coward
on 03 Sep 11You cannot possibly know the subtlety and zen-like perfection that is BaseCamp is until you have been dragged through the hellish open sewer of Microsoft SharePoint/Colab.
We were threatened that the BaseCamp IP would be blocked within the building. Way to be helpful, IT department!
Rishi
on 03 Sep 11Jason – This is incredible! Thanks for sharing this amazing news with us. You are an inspiration. Keep it up.
Doug
on 03 Sep 11Jason, any chance you’d be willing to publish your script, or just the company names and email domains that you used? (I’d think it must be available somewhere but no luck finding it)
David Andersen
on 03 Sep 11@AC – I have to agree – Sharepoint may be one of the worst pieces of software ever brought to market.
Dear 37s, you should start a series on the worst software/software features ever. I think that would be a rousing time.
Justin
on 03 Sep 11I’m part of the fortune 5,000,000 and I use you your products. Thank you =)
Tom Limoncelli
on 03 Sep 11How dare you make products that “just plain work”! Don’t you realize how damaging this is to Fortune 500 “engineering strategy” groups that spend a lot of time evaluating commercial products and signing mega-deals that are then forced upon the engineers of the company?
Megadeals look good on my yearly evaluation. Self-signup web tools only help the people that use them! I need at least 2 megadeals per year on my resume or I look like a loser.
Without these mega-deals engineers would spend their time coding, instead of converting their source code to the tool-of-the-month!
If everyone uses their own tools, there will be no way to have code re-use, not that we’d actually do that because why would we help that other division… they’re a bunch of jerks and I once met one of them and he didn’t know what “grok” meant so obviously everyone in that division is stupid and plus if they succeed it just makes our division look bad.
You are putting “at risk” important business functions like “expensive dinners paid for by salespeople” and “standardization kick-off meetings near ski-resorts” and “start a multi-division, year-long product evaluation to delay projects that executives don’t have the chutzpah to cancel”.
Purchasing decisions about developer tools should be made by people that are unbiased by the experience of writing code. People that have touched code are “tainted”. Leave the important decisions to fresh-out-of-school non-coders that know what’s best for the business.
(All of these are attitudes I experienced at a past employer. I’m so glad I got out of there after… 7 years. Sheesh, what I was I thinking!?)
Brent Weaver
on 03 Sep 11Great job guys. Maybe one day we can tie your software to an uptick in GDP growth ;)
Kyle
on 04 Sep 11I used basecamp once to implement a software product that we bought. It was an effective tool. I’m sure that there are a lot of cases like this out there.
Berserk
on 04 Sep 11Another statistic that would be interesting is how many services/whatever around the web that has been used by someone using an @37signals.com email address.
Probably a bunch of F500’s in there too :)
RC
on 05 Sep 11Ah, the irony. I’m in local govt in the UK. After paying via credit card under the radar for the last couple of years, today I get this mail .... Software should not be purchased on company credit cards and needs to be arranged and supported through XXX. If the purchase is going to be by the Group, we would do this on XXXXX. Now that we operate as the Group, purchasing of any software must be approved by Business Support and (our outsourced provider). I’ve copied in XXXXX, ICT lead who will liaise with you over this. ....
This happened today. Been nice knowing you …
Robert
on 05 Sep 11As a web designer I find Basecamp to be second to none as a project management tool. But it is interesting to encounter clients and colleagues in other service industries using these great tools as well. I am especially interested in any patterns in the specific culture of organizations using Basecamp. Any measurement on utilization within the scope of Fortune 100 best companies to work for?
Ian Smith
on 05 Sep 11I suspect to really farm the larger groups you would need some sales professionals who really understood the simplicity and effectiveness of your products. Decision making in large groups is poor and always needs help to manage the decision making process.
On the other hand with your success who needs the overhead and management headache of a sales force.
Jeff Milinichik
on 06 Sep 11Just started managing my employees/projects through Basecamp – it’s extremely effective and easy to use, no wonder Fortune 500 companies are catching on. Bigger companies are usually slow-moving with these things though especially when you’re talking about project management and implementing a change like this.
Hank
on 06 Sep 11Keep in mind, A LOT of businesses have Fortune 500 companies as customers.
I live in NYC and my girlfriend owns a small bread and sandwich shop. It’s not uncommon for “Fortune 500” companies to call and place a lunch orders for food.
The difference is, she doesn’t go bragging about it.
Daryl
on 06 Sep 11Basecamp is a vast improvement to our productivity and customer communication, both in quality and quantity. Comparing a tool that daily improves our work to a sandwich shop is lame at best.
Mana
on 06 Sep 11Love it! It’s unavoidable really. People in large companies are desperate for tools that will make their jobs easier. These insurgents are much needed. The idea that info-security, IT purchasers or whatever fancy titles they may have these days, should dictate how people should do their jobs needs be eradicated. The people in the front-lines, the specialists, the people we hired because we trusted they’d do a good job should be able to say “hey your rule makes no sense, here’s what I know will work.” Well done, keep it up insurgents!
Edgar
on 06 Sep 11that’s pretty cool, honestly your blog and your books had been a really good source of inspiration, hopefully the Fortune 5,000,000 will like my web app too
This discussion is closed.