Welcome to Remarkable By Design, where we share the stories of people building world class brands, products & experiences, and explore the choices they made along the way to create truly remarkable things.

On this episode I’m joined by Jason Fried, the Co-founder and CEO of ⁠37Signals⁠, which makes ⁠Basecamp⁠, ⁠Hey⁠ & ⁠Once⁠.

Jason sees himself as a bit of an outcast of the industry, but his point of view is considered and refreshing, having built a company that is unique to the ones you typically see in tech.

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.

I love how so many of the things Jason and his team do are shared openly for the world to learn from and use, whether that be the 37Signals they stand for as a business, the 5 books he has co-authored, Shape Up the way of working methodology they created, or in the creation of Ruby on Rails, a coding framework used by tech companies all around the world.

Where you can find Jason:

X: ⁠https://twitter.com/jasonfried⁠
Linkedin: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-fried/⁠
Email: ⁠jason@hey.com⁠

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In this episode, we cover:

(00:00) Episode highlights

(00:54) Introduction

(03:00) The backstory to the 37 signals

(08:02) Richard Feynman, Antoni Gaudi & David Ogilvy

(11:29) Applying inspiration & 'fully considered'

(18:02) Wandering, wondering & intent

(20:18) How Jason wanders through sketching

(21:50) Feeling & communicating 'being onto something'

(26:12) The importance of independence

(30:19) Profitability is incredibly mainstream

(33:15) How the tech narrative is changing

(36:22) How sharing publically is core to 37signals

(41:20) How to not spend on sales & marketing

(44:12) The power of constraint

(48:20) Revisiting "solved" problems

(56:02) Paying for software Once

(01:00:53) The right combination & overall experience