7. Jason Fried on building products, calm companies and the Jeff Bezos investment - podcast episode cover

7. Jason Fried on building products, calm companies and the Jeff Bezos investment

Builders Gonna Build
Apr 24, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast
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Episode description

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 

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