On October 10th we’ll be welcoming Jonas Downey as the fifth full-time designer at 37signals. Jonas comes to us by way of the Argonne National Laboratory where he was one of the principal designers of their web sites/apps. Jonas will join Craig, Jamie, Scott, and Jason Z in crafting the visual design of our apps and marketing sites.

Jonas, who applied once before but didn’t make the cut, came back strong and determined the next time we posted a designer position. He stuck with it, took our feedback, got better, showed us what he’s been up to since we last talked, and made a strong case for reconsideration. Here’s his second-time-around job application site.

Besides solid design chops, Jonas impressed us with his intelligence, his curiosity, his writing ability, his experience wearing a lot of hats, and his interest in exploring ideas and building stuff.

We’re excited to have him on the team.

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.

I recently purchased a bike from Mission Bicycle Company. I wanted to share a great experience I had when something went wrong. Shit happens – how companies deal with the shit is what sets apart the great ones from the other ones.

Mission Bicycle Company is based in San Francisco. I placed the order online using their easy build your bike configurator. Since I’m in Chicago, they had to ship the bike UPS.

When I received the big box, there was a 4” hole/tear in the side. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but after I finished removing all of the well-packed packaging around the bike frame itself, I noticed a large and deep gash in the paint all the way down to the metal down tube. The tear in the box lined up with the gash on the bike. The bike was clearly damaged in shipping.

I sent an email to Mission with some pictures of the box and the damage and asked them what to do next. They wrote back quickly and asked me to give them a day to think about how best to handle the situation.

The next day I got an email from them. They said sending the whole bike back would be overkill since the only thing that was damaged was the frame. Further, the bike was ridable – it was just a paint problem – so sending the bike back would mean I didn’t have a bike for a week or so. They didn’t feel good about that.

So here’s what they did: They called up a local shop (On The Route) and arranged to ship a new frame to them. Then one of their bike techs would drive down to my office and swap the frames and reassemble the bike for me while I waited. All of this at Mission’s expense.

They went above and beyond and took care of the problem with virtually no disruption or inconvenience on my end. That’s incredible customer service. I’m a happy customer for life. If you’re in the market for a great custom bike, check out the good people and products at Mission Bicycle Company.

A few years ago at one of our annual company meetups, the topic of options/equity came up. We’ve never had an options/equity program, but some employees were wondering if we could explore the idea.

So David and I started thinking about it. We consulted some other business owners, Jeff Bezos (our sole investor), and our accountants and lawyers. We wanted to get a pretty full picture of the implications of an equity program.

The more people we talked to, the more complex it started to sound. The complexity was both psychological (company dynamics) and economic (options/equity doesn’t really mesh well with an LLC corporate structure). And since we have no intention of selling 37signals or going public – the two scenarios where options/equity really make sense – the complexity became too hard to justify.

However, we were determined to come up with another way so everyone could participate in the unlikely event of a sale or IPO. You never know, so we wanted to have a system in place just in case.

Some of the considerations included:

1. It needs to be simple to administer. The closer we could get to zero administration, the better.
2. It should be easy to understand and explain.
3. It should reward current employees. This was about who was at the company at the time of a sale/IPO, not people who worked here years ago.
4. It should reward seniority. The longer you’ve been here the more you would participate in the upside.
5. The plan would be consistent from day one until the last day. Some companies grant lots of options in the early days and then barely trickle them out later. We wanted the same opportunity for all new employees forever.
6. We didn’t want to discriminate by position. Every employee, no matter the position, participates in the same way.

There were other considerations as well, but those were the key things we kept in mind as we developed the program.

Here’s what we came up with in the event of a sale or IPO:

• At least 5% of the ultimate sale price (or, in the case of an IPO, the fair market value of the capital stock) would be set aside for an employee bonus pool.
• Each current employee will be credited with one unit for every full year they’ve worked at 37signals, starting after the first full year. The maximum amount of units one person could earn would be five units. So if you worked at 37signals for two years you’d get two units. Three-and-a-half years, three units. Four years, four units. Five years, five units. Seven years, five units. Etc.
• We would divide the total employee bonus pool dollar amount by the total number of units held by all employees. This would determine the unit value.
• Each person would receive the unit value multiplied by their units.

We’re pretty happy with how this turned out. We think it’s a simple, clear, and fair system. And it’s a great alternative to the organizational complexity of option grants, acceleration, strike prices, conversion into shares, private markets vs. public markets, dilution by outside parties, partial vesting, etc.

One other thing: We treat this entire idea purely as a bonus in the unlikely event of a future sale/IPO. We don’t even discuss it with new hires. It’s not part of the overall compensation package (we don’t pay a smaller salary and try to make it up for it with this program). I wouldn’t be surprised if many employees have forgotten about it or don’t even know about it at all.

We’re looking to hire a full time filmmaker at 37signals. An all-in-one video shooter, editor, and producer. We want someone who’s expert at telling creative stories with a video camera. This is what you should love to do.

Initially you’ll be focused on capturing our most interesting customers on video. We want to film, edit, and produce at least 20 creative and unique 3-5 minute customer interviews and features over the next 12 months. Testimonials are usually boring – we want to be sure to avoid anything boring. You’d be in charge of making this happen.

On top of that we have a variety of interesting internal video projects we’d like to explore. Everything from documenting how we work at 37signals to guided personal tours of our apps to filming guest speakers, workshops, and events in our theater.

We’d like to break new ground here – most videos about software are sleep-inducing or cringeworthy. We’re looking for creative leadership. What’s possible? What would be interesting and entertaining to get on camera? We want videos that people watch from beginning to end.

To get a feel for the level of quality we’re after, here’s an example of a customer video that our friends at Coudal Partners filmed, edited, and produced for us: Atelier Wedding Planners. And here’s another about how Threadless uses Basecamp. We’re not looking to mimic these – you should bring your own eye, style, and ideas to the table. For additional reference, we really admire the stuff that Adam Lisagor has been putting out.

This is job full of freedom, exploration, and creativity, but at the end you need to deliver practical, effective, and beautifully polished and produced videos. From behind the camera you should know how to get the best of someone who’s in front of the camera.

You should also have experience vetting interview candidates. We’ll have hundreds of customers who are interested in telling their stories, so we’ll need your help to figure out which ones will make the best subjects.

How to apply

Send an email to [email protected] with the subject [VIDEO]. Send us examples of your work, why you want to work at 37signals, and anything else you think will help you stand out. We typically get 100+ applications for a position at 37signals, so we look favorably upon those who make it easy for us to see how good they are.

Also, this is a Chicago-based position. We’re going to be doing a lot of spontaneous filming at the office so it’s important you’re in town. You’ll work out of our office.

We’re excited to hear from you.

Jim Coudal talks about the history of Coudal, where they’ve been, where they’re going now, how they got there, and how to parlay one business into another business. Jim is a great teacher and we’re so lucky to have him and his crew in Chicago.