REWORK

Basecamp co-founder and Chief Technology Officer David Heinemeier Hansson has been ranting on Twitter about monopolistic practices in Big Tech for a while, and he recently got an unexpected opportunity to air his grievances about Google, Apple, and Facebook in front of a congressional subcommittee. In this episode, David debriefs on his experience and Basecamp’s data analyst, Jane Yang, talks about her work helping David prepare for his appearance.

Basecamp probably wouldn't exist today if not for an email that David Heinemeier Hansson sent Jason Fried in 2001. That correspondence was the beginning of a partnership that produced Basecamp, several books, and most recently HEY, the company's new email service. This episode is our love letter to email. Hear from David and Jason, as well as other artists, writers, and founders about the emails that changed their lives.Show NotesHEY - 00:11Our episodes on how HEY was...conceived - 00:15...designed - 00:16...branded - 00:17...launched - 00:18Jason Fried on Twitter | DHH on Twitter - 1:06The 37signals manifesto - 1:35Signal v. Noise - 1:58Saya Hillman on Twitter | Instagram - 4:53Saya's company, Mac & Cheese Productions - 4:57Rick Cosgrove - 8:50Agency EA - 8:54Samsung Developer Conference - 9:12Julie Wernau on Twitter - 11:41Mike McGee on Twitter - 16:26AnitaB.org - 16:32Neal Sáles-Griffin on Twitter - 16:37Mike recounted the story of founding Code Academy (later renamed The Starter League) in a series on Medium. Here's Part 1 - 17:58Nate Otto's website | Instagram - 20:13Goose Island Born + Raised - 21:28The mural Nate painted for one of Warby Parker's Chicago stores - 22:32Liz Fosslien's website | the book she co-authored and illustrated, No Hard Feelings - 23:09Our episode featuring Liz and her co-author, Mollie West Duffy - 23:13

Basecamp released its new email service, HEY, on June 15. It was supposed to be a calm, controlled product launch, but what followed was a period that CEO Jason Fried described as "chaotic, enthralling, (and) horrible." Basecamp got into a public fight with Apple over the HEY iOS app and the customer support team made emergency hires to help with an unprecedented caseload—all during a turbulent time for the world at large. This is the story of those two weeks, in the voices of the people who fixed bugs, answered customer emails, fended off security threats, and pulled off one of the most audacious undertakings in company history.Show NotesHEY - 00:30David Heinemeier Hansson on Twitter - 00:50Jason Fried on Twitter - 1:22Kristin on Twitter - 3:21Javan on Twitter - 3:53Jason's HEY demo on YouTube - 4:21HEY's desktop apps - 5:26Dylan on Twitter - 7:09Zach on Twitter - 8:37David's "burn this house down" tweet - 12:03Protocol's coverage of Apple's rejection - 14:21Macintosh SE - 16:20Conor on Twitter - 18:26Signal v. Noise post written for Juneteenth - 19:34Lexi on Twitter - 20:54Jason Fried's open letter to Apple about IAP - 22:09TechCrunch interview with Phil Schiller - 23:32David's olive branch tweet - 24:51HEY for Work - 28:51Rosa on Twitter - 31:32Jorge on Twitter - 31:58Michael on Twitter - 32:33Jonas on Twitter - 33:00"Hire When It Hurts" and "Welcome Aboard" are our episodes about Basecamp's hiring and onboarding processes - 36:08Jason Fried's letter, "Apple, HEY, and the Path Forward" - 40:11WWDC 2020 - 40:26A League of their Own clip (you zip it, Doris!) - 41:24Jeff on Twitter - 41:43Troy on Twitter - 42:27Chase on Twitter - 45:48"The HEY Way" explains the case against Inbox Zero - 46:25"Office Space," our episode on leaving the Chicago office - 50:12This Week in Startups episode featuring DHH - 51:20Basecamp's jobs page - 52:43

Basecamp co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson held a recent livestream session where they answered questions about HEY, the company's new email service. You can listen to Part 1 or watch the entire livestream on YouTube.Show NotesQ1: What's the timeframe on new features? - 00:38HEY for Work - 00:50Shape Up - 1:13Apple vs. HEY - 4:33It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy At Work - 6:07Q2: How did you get HEY.com? - 7:12"How we acquired HEY.com" (Signal v. Noise) - 7:30Q3: When would you say you've taken on Gmail? - 9:53Q4: What's the environmental impact of HEY? - 14:14Data analyst Jane Yang's SvN post on carbon negativity - 15:45Q5: It's been crazy at work for the last couple weeks. How do you get back to normal? - 15:52Q6: Now that you have two products, are you concerned with context switching in the future? - 17:38Q7: What's the problem with "inbox zero?" - 20:04Q8: How could I possibly move to HEY with 16 years of emails in Gmail? - 24:10HEY's guide for moving from Gmail  - 24:10

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson held a livestream session where they answered audience questions about Hey, Basecamp's new email service. In Part One, they discuss feature requests, customer support, and plans for hiring. The full Q&A can be viewed on YouTube.Show NotesHEY.com - 00:10Jason Fried on Twitter | DHH on Twitter - 00:24Jason and David's remote work Q&A, Part 1 and Part 2 - 1:03Q1: What's your suggestion for managing the Feed? - 1:29Q2: What are you going to do about signatures? - 5:03Q3: What's a feature you've gotten the most requests for that you won't bring to HEY? - 6:13Q4: Who led UI/UX for HEY, and do you do any user research? - 8:48Q5: What's the intended purpose of the Previously Seen section? - 9:57Q6: Having support with actual humans for an email service seems unique. Are you planning to lean into that with your marketing? - 11:33Q7: What's your vision for enterprise HEY adoption? - 13:49Q8: What about accessibility? - 16:11Q9: What about recruiting? - 16:45Q10: Do you recycle email addresses after someone stops paying? - 20:05Q11: Do you offer monthly subscriptions? - 22:35Q12: Now that you've launched, is there anything you wish you would have done differently? - 26:07@heyhey on Twitter - 31:50

Basecamp's marketing designer, Adam Stoddard, talks about how Hey's visual brand came to be. He discusses influences from Pixar to Charles and Ray Eames to The Raveonettes, and reflects on what it's like to work as a department of one on such an all-encompassing project.Show NotesManos: The Hands of Fate - 00:04Mystery Science Theater 3000 - 00:07Our previous episode "Hey, What's Going On?" with Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson giving an overview of Hey - 00:35Our previous episode "Designing Hey" with Jonas Downey - 00:38Our previous episode "An Email Account Is Born" with Merissa Dawson, on creating a demo account - 00:40Adam Stoddard on Twitter - 00:58Hey.com - 1:08"Screen emails like you screen calls" - 2:59"How it works" - 4:25Toy Story of Terror! - 8:42Procreate app - 9:27Charles and Ray Eames - 16:22A 2003 article about The Raveonettes albums that are written with just three chords and in one key - 21:12

To show off the features of HEY, Basecamp's new email service, we needed a fully featured and realistic demo account. That meant writing dozens of fictional emails—a task that fell to Merissa of Basecamp's customer support team. She comes on Rework to talk about her epistolary opus.Show NotesHEY website | @heyhey on Twitter - 00:22Team OMG - 1:39Notes to self feature - 5:32Clips feature - 5:35Reply Later feature - 5:42Screener feature - 5:51Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant - 9:13"'A Star Is Born' and the Enduring Appeal of 'I Just Wanted to Take Another Look At You'" (Film School Rejects) - 9:29

Basecamp design lead Jonas Downey was one of the first people to experiment with what would eventually become Hey, Basecamp’s newly launched email service. Jonas comes on Rework to talk about building software for humans, preserving a sense of fun weirdness as a new product evolves, and managing a big launch during a tumultuous time.Show NotesHey - 00:21Our previous episode about Hey, featuring Basecamp co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson - 00:27Apple vs. Hey - 00:40Jonas Downey on Twitter - 00:56Prairienet - 1:36Basecamp’s book on a calm workplace - 19:20

Basecamp has launched Hey, a new email platform with a strong point of view. It's also one of the stupidest things Basecamp has ever attempted. Co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson talk about the philosophy around time, attention, and privacy that forms the backbone of Hey, why Inbox Zero is a tyrannical scam, and what Hey does differently. Show NotesHey.com | the Hey manifesto - 00:14Jason Fried on Twitter - 00:34DHH on Twitter - 00:48Jason and Ryan Singer discussed Hey's origins in Highrise in this product strategy Q&A - 3:20"Highrise is back with Basecamp" (Signal v. Noise) - 3:44Our previous episode about pixel tracking - 20:04Our previous episode talking about Superhuman - 24:01Ian Malcolm's "Your scientists..." clip from Jurassic Park - 30:45

On June 15, Basecamp launches a new email service called Hey. One of its features is that it blocks tracking pixels that report back to the sender when and how you read an email. In this episode, Basecamp's marketing team talks about their difficult search for an email newsletter provider that doesn't track subscribers. And Nabiha Syed, president of the new investigative journalism outlet The Markup, talks about their commitment to data minimization—including zero tracking, not even open rates, on their newsletters—and how that affects their relationship with readers.Show NotesBasecamp’s newsletter - 2:34Hey - 3:05Andy Didorosi on Twitter - 3:29Farnam Street newsletter - 5:47Adam Stoddard on Twitter - 7:23Mailchimp's postcard program | Opt out of receiving postcards - 9:21Sendy.co - 12:34Nabiha Syed's bio | Twitter - 14:04The Markup - 14:06The Markup's privacy policy - 14:28Nabiha’s letter - 16:27Martijn de Kuijper on Twitter | Revue - 18:40