# David Heinemeier Hansson

> David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH) is a Danish programmer, entrepreneur, and racing driver best known for creating Ruby on Rails - the open-source web framework that powered GitHub, Shopify, Airbnb, and thousands of other companies. As CTO and co-owner of 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY email), he is one of tech's most outspoken critics of venture capital culture, cloud computing excess, and hustle-culture mythology. A 12-time Le Mans competitor with a class championship in 2014, DHH is also a bestselling author (REWORK, Remote) and a prolific open-source contributor whose side projects routinely reshape developer culture.

- **Role:** CTO & Partner at 37signals
- **Organizations:** 37signals, The Rails Foundation, Shopify (Board of Directors)
- **From:** Copenhagen, Denmark
- **Nationality:** Danish
- **Education:** Bachelor's in Computer Science and Business Administration, Copenhagen Business School
- **Known for:** Created Ruby on Rails (2004) - framework powering GitHub, Shopify, Airbnb, Coinbase, Zendesk, and hundreds of thousands of apps, Won Google/O'Reilly Hacker of the Year award (2005), Won Jolt Award for Rails 1.0 (2006)

## Career timeline

- **1999** — Founded Daily Rush, a Danish gaming news website, teaching himself PHP as a teenager
- **2001** — Hired as contractor by Jason Fried at 37signals to build what became Basecamp
- **2003** — Began developing Ruby on Rails framework while building Basecamp
- **2004** — Released Ruby on Rails as open source in July; became full partner and CTO at 37signals
- **2005** — Won Google/O'Reilly 'Hacker of the Year' award for creating Ruby on Rails
- **2006** — Won Jolt Award for Rails 1.0
- **2010** — Co-authored REWORK with Jason Fried - became New York Times bestseller with 1M+ copies sold
- **2012** — Began professional motorsport career; won ALMS Rookie of the Year
- **2013** — Co-authored Remote: Office Not Required with Jason Fried
- **2014** — Won LMGTE Am class championship at Le Mans
- **2018** — Co-authored It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work with Jason Fried
- **2019** — Apple Card controversy - Twitter thread about wife's discriminatory credit limit triggers NY DFS investigation
- **2021** — Basecamp bans internal political discussions; ~1/3 of staff resign; DHH remains unapologetic
- **2022** — Founded The Rails Foundation (501c6 non-profit) with $1M initial funding; led 37signals' exit from AWS
- **2023** — Released Kamal (formerly MRSK), open-source Docker deployment tool
- **2024** — Released Omakub (Ubuntu developer setup); switched personal machine from macOS to Linux; joined Shopify Board of Directors
- **2025** — Released Omarchy (Arch Linux distribution) reaching 150,000 installs; Tommy Robinson blog post causes community controversy
- **2026** — Continues blogging at world.hey.com/dhh; Basecamp becomes AI agent accessible; Rails 8.1.3 released

## Achievements

- Created Ruby on Rails (2004) - framework powering GitHub, Shopify, Airbnb, Coinbase, Zendesk, and hundreds of thousands of apps
- Won Google/O'Reilly Hacker of the Year award (2005)
- Won Jolt Award for Rails 1.0 (2006)
- Co-authored REWORK (2010) - NYT bestseller, 1M+ copies sold
- Won ALMS Rookie of the Year in professional motorsport debut (2012)
- Won LMGTE Am class championship at 24 Hours of Le Mans (2014)
- Competed in 24 Hours of Le Mans 12+ times
- Founded The Rails Foundation (2022) - 501(c)(6) non-profit with founding members including GitHub, Shopify, 1Password
- Led 37signals' complete cloud exit saving ~$7M over 5 years (2022-2023)
- Triggered Apple Card discrimination investigation by NY Department of Financial Services (2019)
- Created Hotwire (HTML Over The Wire) front-end framework
- Released Omarchy reaching 150,000 installs within months (2025)
- Joined Shopify Board of Directors (November 2024)
- Rails has 6,000+ contributors and remains actively maintained 22 years after creation

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Blogging at world.hey.com/dhh on AI agents, Linux (Omarchy), and geopolitics
- **2026-03** — Announced Basecamp becomes accessible to AI agents; Rails 8.1.3 released
- **2025-01** — Released Omarchy (Arch Linux distribution) - reached 150,000 installs
- **2024-11** — Joined Shopify's Board of Directors
- **2024-06** — Released Omakub (Ubuntu developer environment setup); switched personal machine from macOS to Linux

## Links

- Website: https://dhh.dk
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/david-heinemeier-hansson-374b18221
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/dhh
- GitHub: https://github.com/dhh
- YouTube: https://youtube.com/@dhh37
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/dhhdrives

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/david-heinemeier-hansson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-04-26