Chai's Blog

Last night I bought my @hey.com email address sub­scrip­tion after try­ing it for a few days. I have been fol­low­ing HEY ever since Jason gave a heads up ear­li­er this year. Since this is from Base­camp, I knew it is going to be amaz­ing and it is! I signed up as soon as I got an invite a few days ago and I loved every­thing about it: the onboard­ing, speed, fea­tures, sim­plic­i­ty and pri­va­cy. But most impor­tant­ly, I sub­scribed to the HEY Man­i­festo and the prin­ci­ples of its prin­ci­pals Jason and DHH and their Small Tech com­pa­ny, Base­camp.

I nev­er thought I would pay for an email ser­vice, but it is prob­a­bly the best nine­ty-nine US dol­lars I spent late­ly. Like many peo­ple, last time I was this excit­ed about an email ser­vice when Gmail was intro­duced in 2004 (or 2005?). Big Tech is so per­va­sive, and it is not going to go away any­where or any soon. But where pos­si­ble and afford­able, I think we should sup­port sub­scrip­tion-based ser­vices offered by Small Tech com­pa­nies; they cost mon­ey upfront, but they don’t sell your pri­va­cy and data to the high­est bid­ders to dis­play ads.

If you want to check more about HEY, I sug­gest these links: 

• This REWORK Pod­cast episode. DHH’s pas­sion towards the end of the episode is con­ta­gious. Don’t miss it. I bet you will laugh and learn a few things!
• The HEY Man­i­festo.
• The HEY Fea­tures.