37signals becomes Basecamp

37signals has launched many successful products since it was founded in 1999, but its web-based project management software Basecamp, with over 15 million user accounts, has been a stand-out success. So much so that the company has announced that it's going to put the full force of its efforts behind it, with Campfire and Highrise being sold or spun off into separate businesses.

In a blog post this morning, Jason Fried explained that working across multiple products has made the team "a bit diluted", and that they didn't want to hire lots more people because they enjoyed the culture of being a relatively small company.

Basecamp is 10 years old, and its growth is accelerating. The name '37signals' is only familiar to people in the tech industry, but 'Basecamp' is much more widely known, so it makes sense to use that instead.

So what happens if you're a Campfire or Highrise user? Fried has pledged his commitment to ensuring that those customers will be well served in the future. They're not going to sell to a company that will shut the products, and the preferred solution is to retain partial ownership.

The full announcement is here.

Words: Tanya Combrinck

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