David Heinemeier Hansson, also known by his initials DHH, is a Danish programmer, writer, entrepreneur, and racing driver. He is the creator of Ruby on Rails, a web framework written in Ruby. He also created Omarchy, an Arch Linux distribution catered towards developers. He is also a partner and chief technology officer at the web-based software development firm 37signals.

Hansson co-wrote Agile Web Development with Rails with Dave Thomas in 2005 as part of The Facets of Ruby Series. He also co-wrote Getting Real: The Smarter, Faster Easier Way to build a Web Application, Rework, Remote: Office Not Required, and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work with Jason Fried.

Hansson has come under controversy for publishing racist remarks on his blog.

Programming career Hansson learned PHP in high school while creating gaming review sites. Although he initially did not intend to become a programmer, his interest in expanding his sites' features led him to pursue programming professionally. In 1999, Hansson founded and built a Danish online gaming news website and community called Daily Rush, which he ran until 2001.Daily Rush After attracting the attention of Jason Fried by offering him help with PHP coding, Hansson was hired by Fried to build a web-based project management tool, which ultimately became 37signals' Basecamp software as a service product. To aid the development process, Hansson used the then-relatively obscure Ruby programming language to develop a custom web framework. He released the framework separately from the project management tool in 2004 as the open source project Ruby on Rails. In 2005, Hansson was recognized by Google and O'Reilly with the "Hacker of the Year" award for his creation of Ruby on Rails. After graduating from the Copenhagen Business School and receiving his bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Business Administration, Hansson moved from Denmark to Chicago, Illinois, U.S. in November 2005.

Racing career

Heinemeier Hansson lists photography and race car driving amongst his many hobbies. He took part in the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for OAK Racing. He also drove a Morgan-Nissan P2 car for Conquest Racing in the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), winning two races in the season. Heinemeier Hansson joined OAK Racing full-time in 2013, taking five second-place finishes to finish second in the Trophy for LMP2 Drivers. During the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans post-race technical checks, certain irregularities were detected on the Vaillante Rebellion team's No. 13 Oreca 07-Gibson, resulting in the car's disqualification.

In July 2010, it was revealed that Heinemeier Hansson was the person that had commissioned the one-off Pagani Zonda HH supercar. He also commissioned the Koenigsegg Agera HH, which was sold in 2022 to Houston Crosta, a YouTube video creator in Las Vegas. It has now been sold to car spotting YouTuber, TheStradman. Heinemeier Hansson also purchased an Aston Martin Valkyrie.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year Team Co-Drivers Car Class Laps OAK Racing Bas Leinders Maxime Martin Morgan LMP2-Nissan LMP2 341 14th 7th OAK Racing Olivier Pla Alex Brundle Morgan LMP2-Nissan LMP2 328 8th 2nd Aston Martin Racing Kristian Poulsen Nicki Thiim Aston Martin Vantage GTE GTEAm 334 17th 1st Extreme Speed Motorsports Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel Ligier JS P2-Honda LMP2 329 28th 10th Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing Khaled Al Qubaisi Patrick Long Porsche 911 RSR GTEAm 330 28th 3rd Vaillante Rebellion Nelson Piquet Jr. Mathias Beche Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 364 DSQ DSQ Jackie Chan DC Racing Ricky Taylor Côme Ledogar Ligier JS P217-Gibson LMP2 195 DNF DNF Jackie Chan DC Racing Ricky Taylor Jordan King Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 199 DNF DNF Inter Europol Competition Pietro Fittipaldi Fabio Scherer Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 364 18th 14th Jota Sport Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 316 24th 13th Nielsen Racing Fabio Scherer Kyffin Simpson Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 291 25th 11th United Autosports Pietro Fittipaldi Renger van der Zande Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 364 24th 7th Nielsen Racing Jack Doohan Edward Pearson Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2 341 32nd 18th

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results Year Entrant Class Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Rank Points 2013 OAK Racing LMP2 Morgan LMP2 Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 SIL SPA LMS SÃO COA FUJ SHA BHR 2nd 132.5 2014Aston Martin Racing LMGTEAm Aston Martin Vantage V8 GTE Aston Martin 4.5 L V8 SIL SPA LMS COA FUJ SHA BHR SÃO 1st 198 2015 Extreme Speed Motorsports LMP2 HPD ARX-03bLigier JS P2 Honda HR28TT 2.8 L Turbo V6 SIL SPA LMS NÜR COA FUJ SHA BHR 7th 62 2016 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing LMGTEAm Porsche 911 RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 SIL SPA LMS NÜR MEX COA FUJ SHA BHR 2nd 151 2017 Vaillante Rebellion LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK-428 4.2 litre V8 SIL SPA LMS NÜR MEX COA FUJ SHA BHR 8th 85 2018–19 Jackie Chan DC Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 SPA LMS SIL FUJ SHA SEB SPA LMS 11th 40 2019-20 Team Project 1 LMGTE AM Porsche 911 RSR Porsche 4.0L Flat 6 SIL FUJ SHA BHR COA SPA LMS BHR 23rd 20 2022 Inter Europol Competition LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 SEB SPA LMS MNZ FUJ BHR NC† 0 2023 Jota LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 SEB PRT SPA LMS MNZ FUJ BHR 6th 84 † As Heinemeier Hansson was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete European Le Mans Series results (Races in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant Class Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rank Points 2011 Lotus Jetalliance GTE Pro Lotus Evora GTE Toyota-Cosworth 4.0 L V6 CAS SPA IMO SIL EST NC 0 2013 Jota Sport LMP2 Zytek Z11SN Nissan VK45DE 4.5 L V8 SIL IMO RBR HUN LEC 17th 10 2019 Team Project 1 LMGTE Porsche 911 RSR Porsche 4.0 L Flat-6 LEC MNZ CAT SIL SPA ALG 17th 10 2022 Inter Europol Competition LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 LEC IMO MNZ CAT SPA ALG 10th 32 2024 Nielsen Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 CAT LEC IMO SPA MUG ALG 24th 0

* Season still in progress.

WeatherTech SportsCar Championship results (Races in bold indicate pole position, Results are overall/class) Year Team Class Car Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Rank Points Ref 2014 RSR Racing PC Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 DAY9 SEB2 LGA KAN WGL IMS ELK VIR AUS ATL9 24th 57 2015 Tequila Patrón ESM P HPD ARX-04b HPD ARX-03b Honda HR28TT 2.8 L V6 Turbo DAY SIR LBH LS DET S6H MSP ELK COA PET 21st 45 2016 Starworks Motorsport PC Oreca FLM09 Chevrolet LS3 6.2 L V8 DAYSEB LBH LGA DET WGL MOS LIM ELK COAPET 20th 57 2018 3GT Racing GTD Lexus RC F GT3 Lexus 5.0 L V8 DAY SEB MDO DET WGL MOS LIM ELK VIR LGA PET 11th 213 2020 Tower Motorsport by Starworks LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 DAY SEB ELK ATL PET LGA SEB 18th 32 2025 Era Motorsport LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 DAY SEB WGLMOSELK IMS ATL 24th 1362 2026 TDS Racing LMP2 Oreca 07 Gibson GK428 4.2 L V8 DAY SEB WGL MOS ELK IMS PET 22nd 1264 † Points only counted towards the Michelin Endurance Cup, and not the overall LMP2 Championship.

Recognition 2005: Won Best Hacker of the Year 2005 at OSCON from Google and O'Reilly for the work on Rails.About David Heinemeier Hansson . Loudthinking.com. Retrieved on 2014-05-30. 2006: Accepted the Jolt Award of product excellence for Rails 1.0. 2012: Named ALMS Rookie of the year.

Controversy Following a number of controversial decisions at Basecamp led by Hansson, including the 2021 banning of political discussion and an internal list of "funny" customer names with racial and ethnic overtones as well as later blog posts published by Hansson himself such as his criticisms of DEI programs, Duke University Libraries announced its decision in 2023 to discontinue usage of the Basecamp product.

In 2025, Hansson published a blog post expressing support for far-right British activist Tommy Robinson and the 2025 British anti-immigration protests, as well as mourning that London is "no longer full of native Brits".

Hansson published another blog post in July of 2026 comparing the Romani population of Copenhagen to Denmark's struggles with its wolf population growth, stating that "When wolves get out of control, you shoot them. When gypsies take over public spaces, you deport them."

In September 2026, 1Password announced that they would contribute $300,000 towards the nonprofit foundation of Hansson's new Linux distribution, Omarchy. The decision drew criticism from 1Password customers and employees. In an internal message to staff, CEO David Faugno stated that the contribution was directed to the Omacom Foundation rather than to an individual and did not constitute an endorsement of Hansson's personal views, while noting that Omarchy had become the second most-used Linux distribution among 1Password customers.

Personal life Through Yvonne Tuxen, his great-great-grandfather is the painter Laurits Tuxen.

Written works Agile Web Development with Rails 5 (Pragmatic Bookshelf, 2016) (with Sam Ruby and Dave Thomas) Rework It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work Remote: Office Not Required The Rails Doctrine

References

External links