28. Jason Fried, Co-founder/CEO of 37signals

This week, we were lucky to talk to Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of 37signals (the company behind Basecamp and HEY) and a co-author of Rework, Remote and a few other books.

Chapters

• 02:07 - Introduction of Jason and 37signals
• 04:28 - Founder role vs. CEO role
• 07:27 - Working with the same co-founder for 20 years
• 10:00 - Disagreements between founders
• 12:21 - Disagree and commit principle
• 14:04 - The business side of things (numbers, accounting, etc.)
• 17:07 - On costs and profitability
• 19:51 - Intentionally keeping the company small
• 22:51 - Managing risk
• 25:01 - Jeff Bezos’ investment
• 31:24 - Working on several products at the same time
• 32:21 - Six-week cycles vs. long-term projects
• 37:40 - Evolution of 37signals
• 43:35 - Keeping products until the end of the Internet
• 46:18 - Calm companies
• 47:28 - Listening to customer feedback
• 53:15 - Jason's email is public. Is this a good idea?
• 56:57 - Employee performance reviews and fixed salaries
• 58:35 - Can the "calm company" mindset work in big companies?
• 1:04:41 - How does one find a calm company to work for?
• 1:06:36 - Publishing books
• 1:09:28 - On being contrarian and no politics at work

Show notes

Podcasts

• Rework
• Marc Randolph 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

👉 Full show notes with links: https://www.metacastpodcast.com/p/028-jason-fried

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