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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.
👉 Listen on: Metacast, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Segments
[01:41] Introduction of Jason and 37signals
[04:17] Founder role vs. CEO role
[07:35] Working with the same co-founder for 20 years
[10:30] Disagreements between founders
[13:27] Disagree and commit principle
[15:23] The business side of things (numbers, accounting, etc.)
[19:07] On costs and profitability
[22:13] Intentionally keeping the company small
[25:50] Managing risk
[28:21] Jeff Bezos’ investment
[35:46] Working on several products at the same time
[36:57] Six-week cycles vs. long-term projects
[43:12] Evolution of 37signals
[50:25] Keeping products until the end of the Internet
[53:16] Calm companies
[53:41] Listening to customer feedback
[01:01:16] Jason's email is public. Is this a good idea?
[01:05:32] Employee performance reviews and fixed salaries
[01:07:38] Can the "calm company" mindset work in big companies?
[01:14:44] How does one find a calm company to work for?
[01:17:03] Publishing books
[01:20:38] On being contrarian and no politics at work
Show notes
Podcasts
#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
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
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Ep.7: Jason Fried on building products, calm companies and the Jeff Bezos investment