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 

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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