HEY

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson launched HEY in June 2020 as a complete reimagining of email. 37signals had been openly frustrated with email for years. HEY's model: $99/year, no advertising, no data selling, full ownership of your inbox experience. The product introduced concepts like The Screener (approve senders before they reach your inbox), The Feed (newsletters and updates in a separate stream), and The Paper Trail (receipts and notifications). HEY launched to enormous controversy — Apple tried to block updates from the App Store over in-app purchase rules, and Jason and DHH turned that dispute into a weeks-long public battle that generated millions in free press. The controversy drove massive sign-ups. HEY reached 100,000+ paying subscribers within its first year. It represented something ideological — that you could charge a fair price for a personal service, respect user privacy, and build a beautiful product without surveillance. A product launch as cultural moment.