Jason Fried is a co-founder and CEO of 37signals, the company behind Basecamp and HEY. Together with his business partner David Hannemeier Hanson, Jason co-authored seminal entrepreneurship books Rework, Remote, and It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work.
This episode was originally published on the Metacast podcast, episode 28 in July 2023.
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Segments
- [03:17] Introduction of Jason and 37signals
- [05:38] Founder role vs. CEO role
- [08:37] Working with the same co-founder for 20 years
- [11:10] Disagreements between founders
- [13:31] Disagree and commit principle
- [15:14] The business side of things (numbers, accounting, etc.)
- [18:17] On costs and profitability
- [21:01] Intentionally keeping the company small
- [24:01] Managing risk
- [26:11] Jeff Bezos’ investment
- [32:34] Working on several products at the same time
- [33:31] Six-week cycles vs. long-term projects
- [38:50] Evolution of 37signals
- [44:45] Keeping products until the end of the Internet
- [47:28] Calm companies
- [48:38] Listening to customer feedback
- [54:25] Jason's email is public. Is this a good idea?
- [58:07] Employee performance reviews and fixed salaries
- [59:45] Can the "calm company" mindset work in big companies?
- [01:05:51] How does one find a calm company to work for?
- [01:08:46] Publishing books
- [01:11:38] On being contrarian and no politics at work
Podcasts
- Rework
- #496: Marc Randolph on Building Netflix, Battling Blockbuster, Negotiating with Amazon/Bezos, and Scraping the Barnacles Off the Hull on The Tim Ferriss Show
Books
- Rework
- Getting Real
- It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work
- Shape Up
- Maverick by Ricardo Semler
Blog posts
- Founder & CEO is kinda a BS title by Jason Fried
- Basecamp's new etiquette regarding societal politics at work by DHH
- But what if you're wrong? by DHH
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