Jason Fried

37signals

Co-founder & CEO

Edmund Hillary Fellowship (EHF)

Fellow

Inc. Magazine

I write a monthly column for Inc. Magazine called "Getting Real". You can read my columns here: http://www.inc.com/author/jason-fried

Columnist

Founder & CEO at 37signals (makers of Basecamp and HEY). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author (Getting Real, REWORK, REMOTE, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work). Email me at jason@hey.com.

Over the past few years I've been practicing the subtle art of Staying Out of It.

On any given day, there are dozens of discussions I could be part of. A deluge of decisions I could weigh in on. An overmuch of opinion on which I could opine.

But I'm choosing to Stay Out of It.

Not because I don't care, but because I don't need to be there. And the owner's word weighs a ton.

I'd much rather see most things take care of themselves. Or have people settle their own balances, rather than me having to deposit my own two cents.

This means getting used to being OK with decisions I wouldn't have made. Or designs I wouldn't have drawn up. Or provisions I wouldn't necessarily have put in place.

But that's an ego stroke. As if my decision, or design, or provision would have been an automatic improvement. I'm sure plenty of things are better around here because I chose to Stay Out of It.

Further, when Staying Out of It now, I'll often come back later to discover something went exactly as I'd hoped it would. They handled it. There truly was no need for me to be involved. In fact, my involvement would have preventedsomeone else from being the one to gain the experience making the call.

Being everywhere with a word for everything doesn't help anyone. I may think I'm helping steer everything that's going on, but is it helping the organization get along?

Now I pick and choose. Too many words, too much to lose. If I can be useful, if I can break a tie, if I can point to the sky, then I'm here for that. Otherwise, I'll just Stay Out of It.

I can fake enough. I can fake a lot.

But I’ve noticed there’s one thing in particular I can’t fake: Motivation.

And in the end, at least for me, it all comes down to motivation. I may have the talent, I may know the tricks, I may be able to go through the motions.

But if I deeply don’t want to do it, it won’t be good. Simple as that. It might get done, or more likely it may not, but it’ll be hollow. Something will be missing.

And that’s the spiral — doing empty work dissolves my motivation even more.

I’m more likely to do something I’m terrible at if I really want it, than something I’m great at that I don’t.

Motivation is my essential element. And you can’t mine it. It mines you.

Back when I sold shoes and tennis rackets, I picked up on a pattern that ultimately repeated itself over my career in web design and software: Companies and customers often don't speak the same language.

And worse, they don't even see eye to eye on what matters. Companies lead with lingo, technical differentiation, and features that tick boxes tied to efforts they made, while customers ask about colors and comfort and price.

In 2010 I spoke about this at the Big Omaha conference. I just ran across the video again and I'm glad it did. What was true in 2010 remains true in 2024. Nail the basics, speak in common language, and understand what people are looking for rather than what you want them to see.

Video below (via https://lnkd.in/gTQ43dbE)

Plenty of things are easier done than said.

✨ I'm fascinated by how different companies operate. Their unique core values, company culture and ways of working...

While on my flight to Tokyo, I had the chance to listen to Jason Fried's interview on Lenny’s Podcast.

For those who don't already know, Jason founded and leads 37signals, the company behind project management tool Basecamp and email app HEY.

Famously, Jason and his team takes a decidedly different approach to business compared to most tech companies.

Here's how they are different…

▪ No VC funding, no investors and no board. This allows them to operate in a very unique way.

▪ Growth is not a priority. They have no OKRs or growth goals including any kind of revenue targets.

▪ Work life balance and promoting their team's well-being is a big priority.

▪ Working remotely since 1999. They have no central office and their employees work from wherever they want.

▪ During the summer, their employees work a 4-day work week.

▪ Employ fewer than 80 people, but have just as many customers and their biggest competitors.

▪ Immensely successful - earning tens of millions of dollars in annual PROFIT.

▪ Shares 10% of that profit with their employees.

▪ When building product, each development team only consists of 2 people - a designer and an engineer. 

▪ There are no detailed product requirements - a “shaping process” happens by creating a rough outline or "appetite" - a high-level description of the area to explore and guiding principles from the shape. (usually a PM or lead developer)

▪ Their sprints, or “cycles”, last 6 weeks and it’s the longest they will dedicated to building a major feature or prototype.

▪ After an intense 6-week cycle, teams enter a 2-week cool period before the next cycle. This allows context switching, new priorities, and a mental reset.

I highly recommend all entrepreneurs make time to hear Jason's perspectives. 

You can find out more about their operating principles and culture from their employee handbook. 

Or by reading "Shape Up" - a book explaining the methodology behind how they build product. 

I'll leave links in the comments for all the resources.

💯 My main takeaway, from the podcast and the books, is that there are alternative paths to success beyond the typical Silicon Valley growth template. 

And that, you can and should build your business based on your own preferences, principles and ideals.

What do you think about Jason and 37Signals' approach to business? 👇💡

#founders #product #entrepreneurship

Photo credit: Marc Garrett for The Great Discontent

Paying a salary is not writing a blank check for someone’s time.

I think we want as many people to make their own decisions as possible about their own work... We can override decisions, that's just the hierarchy, that's how it goes, but that's not the aim. --Jason Fried

Here's an in-depth walk through ONCE/Campfire's CSS.

dev.37signals.com • 9 min read

Modern CSS patterns in Campfire

The art of wandering & wondering, growing to 100,000+ customers without sales, marketing or investment, this mythical beast called profitability & revisiting "solved" problems.

Recently I spoke with Jason Fried, CEO & Co-Founder of 37signals on Remarkable By Design, and I’m so excited to finally share it with you in the comments below 👇

It’s rare to find a company that you resonate with as strongly as I do with 37signals, and I feel incredibly lucky to not only have stumbled across Jason, his perspectives & the work he and his team does, but pick his brain over the course of the wonderful hour conversation we had.

If you don’t know Jason or 37signals, let me show you to the tip of the iceberg.

They’re best known for making Basecamp, HEY and ONCE, writing business and software books (Getting Real, REWORK, REMOTE, It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work, and Shape Up), and inventing the Ruby on Rails framework.

They have no investors, no board, no plans to go public or sell their business. They’ve made a profit every year they have been in business, and now generate 10s of millions in profit each year. They don’t spend money on marketing or sales to acquire customers. They trust their gut and intuition over being data driven. They consistently spot trends, share their point of view and go early. And, they serve over 100,000 customers and counting with an intentionally small team of 75, who share in the spoils of 37signals success.

My favourite thing about Jason and his team are their willingness to openly share ideas, products and frameworks for the world to learn from and use, and being vocal about the things they stand for as a business, which often challenge industry norms - but frankly should replace them.

Give the episode a spin on your way into work today, and if you like what you hear, follow Remarkable By Design to see shortform video highlights from the episode and other exclusive content on your feed.

I hope you enjoy!

HEY Calendar has a feature called Time Tracking. It's one of those things that once you have it, you wonder why every calendar app doesn't. What better place to track time?

Today we shipped a handful of improvements that make it that much nicer. One change is when you look at a category, we total up the number of hours for you. That revealed that I've used my standing desk for 83 hours this year!

A feature that's perfect for client work and billable hours is also perfect for helping me remember to use my standing desk once a day. 

Another fun use is when you're putting in time to get better at writing, guitar, or anything else. It feels great to see you reached 10 hours last week. There's even a notes field to capture what song you practiced or which chapter you edited (or yes, what the client call was about.)

So many possibilities from something as simple as Start → Stop → Save.  Imagine if every session had a field called "Company/Client". Would that be handy sometimes? Sure. And every time you tracked meditating or drawing, you'd feel like you were using it wrong.

The smaller something is, the more room it leaves for you to make it yours. 

Announcements tell the ongoing story of a product. They frame new features, suggest different ways of using the product, and pull in curious people who haven't signed up yet. 

They're also easy to tune out. Here are a few ways to make them worth reading.

1. Tell a friend
2. Paint a picture 
3. Connect the dots
4. Show and tell
5. Stay out of the deep end
6. Look for chances to be novel
7. Be honest
8. Know your audience
9. Match the house style
10. Timing isn't everything

Announcing is part of shipping great work, and that work deserves a great announcement.

world.hey.com • 6 min read

Anatomy of an Announcement

During Covid when we ran virtual conferences, one of the best sessions of the time was David Heinemeier Hansson (37 Signals) debating with Christoph Janz about their opposing view points on many things (but mainly VC vs bootstrapping).

Now in person and at the upcoming SaaStock USA in Austin on May 13-15th I'll have the opportunity to interview Jason Fried Co-Founder and CEO of 37 Signals (Basecamp, Highrise and Hey.com).

I've read his books (Rework, Remote, It doesn't have to be crazy at work) and listened to a good few podcasts and love the contrarian view Jason has on building a business. 

You'll have to be there in person to see this one.

What one question would you want me to ask him?

#saastockusa

I've always felt that building great software is a mysterious blend of art and science.👨‍🎨 🔬 
#ShapeUp, a book by Ryan Singer, offers invaluable insights into how they've exactly done that at 37signals.

Dive into my latest in-depth exploration of the topic on a Substack post, linked below!

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