Over the past 8 years, millions of people across every imaginable industry have used Basecamp to manage over 8 million projects. In total, they’ve shared over 275 million to-dos, messages, and files.
What started as a side project in 2004 has become the world’s most popular web-based project management and collaboration app. 96% of our customers say they’d recommend Basecamp to a friend, colleague, or co-worker.
The Basecamp business is booming.
But too much good news is a formula for complacency. And honestly, we have grown a bit complacent.
That’s about to end.
We’ve gone back to the basics and made them better, faster, clearer, easier, and smarter.
In early 2012, 37signals will introduce Basecamp Next and change the way people collaborate all over again.
We’ll initially be launching by invite only. If you’d like a chance at an invite, visit the teaser page, scroll down, and enter your email address at the bottom.
Over the next few weeks we’ll be revealing more details about Basecamp Next. Stay tuned.
Michael
on 06 Dec 11Improving on an established, simple, well-liked product like Basecamp is an interesting design challenge, and I look forward to seeing 37signals’ ideas about it.
Michael Sanders
on 06 Dec 11This will be fun.
Tara
on 06 Dec 11@37signals
So this is the 2nd rewrite of Basecamp, now making this Basecamp 3.0?
For those not aware, 37signals rewrote basecamp from scratch a few years ago.
Silver Hage
on 06 Dec 11Wow, I haven’t gotten this excited by a product launch in a while.
Swami Atma
on 06 Dec 11May be it will be more Trello like. I was blown away by Trello and immediately thought it threw Basecamp behind the curve.
Jack
on 06 Dec 11I’d be immediately concerned about data portability. Some of us are several years into our Basecamp installs and have a lot of data.
ploogman
on 06 Dec 11Not a criticism – seems like your ship and then tweak later advice is not being followed? Instead a VIP invite-only ahead of time before releasing to the public. Maybe the ship and then tweak later advice is better for brand new start ups and not so go for revamping existing successful products? Would like to hear more about your approach for this.
Duran
on 06 Dec 11@ploogman : its called scaling and marketing. They’ll be tweaking the scale out of a new application by slowing growing the user base, and their building buzz because 900000+ people have retweeted this or posted on various websites “Omg, be the lucky one”.
Just business dude.
JF
on 06 Dec 11@ploogman: This is the exact same way we launched the original Basecamp in 2004. Trickled out invites before we opened up for anyone/everyone.
Sean Price
on 06 Dec 11Right, signed up – hopefully get an invite. Actually very excited about this….could go either way. If data portability is good and some newer integrations would also be nice – this could be fantastic. Highrise and Basecamp tighter integrations….the wish list goes on.
Will Basecamp next REPLACE basecamp? I.e. will basecamp go away or will they exist as two separate projects?
Ian
on 06 Dec 11I’m guessing that new Basecamp will be something between Trello and Sprint.ly
Chad Sakonchick
on 06 Dec 11Holy Moly! Checked out Trello via the comments on this post, friggin awesome app! Thank you to Swami and Ian.
Ape
on 06 Dec 11I’d be curious to know how much physicality the new basecamp will have. This seems to be the trend behind new-er products: they are leveraging things like tablets and motions to direct user actions instead of the normal keyboard + mouse paradigms we’ve been used to.
I think this dynamic is what makes trello and sprint.ly so attractive: it feels like it should work well.
Rich
on 06 Dec 11Will Basecamp Next address some of the issues your customers have been telling you about on your ‘Answers’ site over the last couple of years?
BradM
on 07 Dec 11@JF have you guys been using it internally already?
I’m looking forward to Design Decisions and any other tips / highlights regarding moving to Rails 3.1, if you moved to a NoSQL implementation etc.
Nirav Mehta
on 07 Dec 11The web based collaboration / project management space is heating up again! As an extension developer for Basecamp and activeCollab, I am really excited.
First it was Flow, then Asana. Then Trello. Then seeing activeCollab 3, then preview screenshots of Wunderkit and now Basecamp Next.
2012 will be quite eventful it seems :-)
BTW, just hope there will be easier way to integrate third party extensions in Basecamp Next!
Matt Carey
on 07 Dec 11Really interested to see what you are doing with Basecamp Next, especially as we are in the process of a web app with tight basecamp integration! Hopefully ours will still be a nice compliment to basecamp :)
Larry Levenson
on 07 Dec 11Basecamp Next could be really exciting. I am looking forward to it!
Any plans to create a Basecamp/Hubspot app? That would be totally AWESOME!
Quiller Caudill
on 07 Dec 11I’m excited for what you guys have planned, but will remain anxious until more details are revealed. I’ve been a long-time Basecamp user and almost all of my complaints revolve around a lack of seemingly basic features, such as the neutered todo list functionality.
Here’s to hoping that Basecamp Next gives us more functionality and tools while preserving the usability and simple interface we’ve all come to know and appreciate!
Jack
on 07 Dec 11@Tara You sound, reproachful? IMHO it’s just evolution..
Tim Burke
on 07 Dec 11Great to hear! There are several features that would really help out. I’d like to see a way to note if a timecard has been invoiced and perhaps the invoice # (batch process). Keep up the good work. Don’t get complacent!
Kevin @globalfibernet
on 07 Dec 11I concur with Michael on this. Basecamp is so established within its community, there are bound to be ruffled feathers almost no matter what you do. But then, that is design.
Based on previous experience, I’m equally excited to see your design changes!
Gary Woodland
on 07 Dec 11Super excited to see the product next year!!! I have a feeling it is going to be super amazing.
ploogman
on 07 Dec 11@ JF Seems like trickling out the invites makes more sense for an established entity like 37 and an established product like Basecamp. For an unknown, maybe not trickling would be better to get the product in more hands faster – but maybe not. Guess it just depends. And there is something to building buzz which is important. Its just that buzz can fade away for a company or product that has with no proven track record of sucess like 37. I’ve seen that with teaser pages in the past. By the time the real product was released, too much time had passed and people forgot about it. Timing is likely important to capitalizing on buzz.
Yes, I forgot that about your initial release in 2004. Do you think that was more effective to release via invite in 2004 looking back or do you think opening it up right away would have been better or worse?
JF
on 07 Dec 11@ploogman. I think trickling it out was the right thing to do in 2004 and it’s the right thing to do in 2012. It’s all about timing. How far ahead you tip your hat, how long the trickle period is, how many people you trickle it to, etc.
AJ
on 08 Dec 11Sounds cool, love your stuff! AJ
maitwyfs
on 08 Dec 11You recommend a great product! If you need electronics, you can buy here! Really cheap! http://www.cbs.so/8b4cdd
Martin
on 08 Dec 11Really hope Writeboards are searchable in this release. It’s the one thing that keeps our company from using Basecamp.
Richard Moyles
on 08 Dec 11I looked at trello and it’s great, but if your interacting with clients who are using the system the first time, I don’t want to have to explain the system. We have various customers in varying skills sets and in fairness all got in on basecamp very quickly, Change is good but always remember the customer and user base! Most people really prefer to just use email.
Rich
on 08 Dec 11I have the same problem with people wanting to stick to E-mail, and this is why:
http://answers.37signals.com/basecamp/1084-add-new-people-to-message-threads
See my comment, 4th down (bear wearing a hat).
Deltaplan
on 08 Dec 11Please tell me that your major next improvement will be a drastically improved bandwidth for users all around the world… Accessing Basecamp from China is really painful, and my customers are looking forward to open subsidiaries in many other countries (Vietnam, Brazil, UAE…), which makes this particular problem even more crucial.
Calcatraz
on 09 Dec 11Cool! Can’t wait to see what you guys come up with. Great to see you’re keeping everyone (yourselves included) on their toes.
netmeg
on 09 Dec 11The lack of integration with Google apps is what’s killing us. If this isn’t forthcoming in the future, we’re going to have to look elsewhere.
Javier
on 09 Dec 11Hi,
I hope you make it really simple to use. I’ve been using basecamp for several projects now, but I’ve recently migrated to Asana because it is so much simpler and yet powerful.
Also it’s free.
Can’t wait to see what you are doing.
spa
on 11 Dec 11Some of us are several years into our Basecamp installs and have a lot of data.
ProxyGaminh
on 12 Dec 11Can’t wait to see the improved Basecamp! Hopefully I will be among the invitees.
Kris Black
on 12 Dec 11I agree with JF that it should be trickled out.
Looking forward to what’s to come…
Riaz Salim
on 13 Dec 11Looking forward for basecampNext – I am sure this will be something above the current and will help us further in managing our business and communicating with clients – Good Luck 37 / JF Team!
This discussion is closed.