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.

Do you love audio podcasts?

• Try Metacast podcast app at metacast.app.
• Join our Reddit community at r/metacastapp.

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

Get in touch!

• Send us an email at hello@buildersgonnabuild.com
• Subscribe to newsletter at buildersgonnabuild.com
• Metacast: Behind the scenes - "build in public" style podcast and newsletter at metacastpodcast.com