I write regularly on HEY World and speak on The REWORK Podcast. I welcome emails to dhh@hey.com. You can also find me on Twitter, on LinkedIn, and on Instagram.
Creator of Ruby on Rails
Hundreds of thousands of programmers around the world have built amazing applications using Ruby on Rails. The open-source web framework that I created in 2003, and continue to develop to this day. Some of the more famous include Github, Shopify, Airbnb, Square, Coinbase, and Zendesk.
Co-owner of 37signals
37signals is the company behind Basecamp, HEY, and ONCE. I own that business together with Jason Fried. We've been around since 1999.
Basecamp is the one-place-not-all-over-the-place way to organize your projects and your company. Launched in 2004 as one of the first software-as-a-service applications, and used by millions of people since. It's the original Rails application.
HEY is a fresh approach to turning email into something you want to use, not something you’re forced to deal with. A complete alternative to Gmail or Outlook for individuals and companies who want a better relationship with email. Tens of thousands of customers have embraced it since we launched in 2020.
ONCE is a return to software products, away from services, monthly subscriptions, and shared data. Software you can own with source code you can read and change. Our first offering is Campfire, super simple group chat for a one-time price. Our second offering is a free online book creator called Writebook.
Best-selling author
I've written four books together with Jason Fried. All on the lessons we've extracted from running 37signals in an unconventional way over the last twenty-plus years.
REWORK is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Sunday Times best seller with more than a million copies sold. It's a book about starting and running businesses a better way.
It Doesn't Have To Be Crazy At Work is about how to run a calm company by avoiding the lure of excessive growth and making your time count for more.
REMOTE: Office Not Required encapsulated all we'd learned working remotely for over a decade. Ahead of its time, but suddenly extremely relevant after 2020.
Getting Real shared everything we learned building Basecamp and a software business back in the early days. Still on point.
Le Mans & WEC class-winning racing driver
I've raced the 24 Hours of Le Mans eleven times since 2012. I won my class with Aston Martin in 2014, finished second in LMP2 in 2015, and third with Porsche in 2016. In 2017, I stood on the overall podium with Rebellion Racing. I raced in the FIA World Endurance Championship for seven years, mostly in LMP2 prototypes, but have also contested IMSA, ELMS, and iconic races like the Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring.
Investor in Danish startups
I started investing in Danish software entrepreneurs while living in Denmark from 2020-2023. To help build the next generation of strong companies with solid roots in Denmark, I invested in Workfeed, Ziik, Turis, JumpStory, and Servicelovers. All focused exclusively on software businesses (invest in what you know!) based in Denmark and with the intent to remain there. In 2023, I was awarded IT-Prisen in part for this engagement in the Danish startup scene. (I'm not making new startup investments at the moment.)
Shopify board member
Shopify is the leading hosted e-commerce platform in the world, responsible for a sizable portion of all online sales, and the most successful Ruby on Rails company of all time. And since November of 2024, I've been on the board of directors.
Podcast guest
Here are some of my favorite appearances: ThePrimeagen, This Week in Startups, What about tomorrow?, The Elevate Podcast, The Arthi & Sriram Show, Refactoring Podcast, The Tim Ferris Show, Out of Hours, HR Heretics, DevTools, Creating A Brand, CoRecursive, The Unmistakable Creative, Being Boss, Becoming A Superhuman, The Learning Leader, 20VC, 2-Cent Dad, Full Stack Radio, Jesse Duffield (LazyGit), Discussing SQLite w/ Aaron Francis.
Family man
I'm married to Jamie. Together we have three kids.
Pictures
