Highrise is a simple CRM, built by Basecamp and launched on March 20, 2007. Over the past 11 years, it’s grown to become a multi-million dollar business with a loyal customer base.

Relationships with customers aren’t what they used to be. We used to run stores, and exchange real cash for goods and services. We knew our customers faces, their significant others, if they had kids, even what kind of pizza they liked. They became our friends.

But today, most of us work with our customers simply and always over email. If we’re lucky we get an occasional phone call or short in-person meeting, but most of the time it’s quick, easily forgettable bursts of text. Our understanding of our customers’ emotions is replaced with the rare emoticon. What do they really care about? We have no idea.

We work on Highrise to try and capture just a little bit of what we lost from those relationships.

We work on Highrise to create more meaningful interactions with those around us: with our customers, with our employees, even with our friends. We work on Highrise to get back that feeling that someone just walked through our door.