Started & runs 37signals (makers of Basecamp, HEY, and ONCE). Non-serial entrepreneur, serial author. DM or email me at jason@hey.com.
Joined April 2008
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What do they got?
A big team, lots of money, a strong brand, seemingly unlimited resources, panache, reputation, all that. They’re established.
They’re your competitors.
You want to look away, but you see them everywhere. Their ads on your social, their name in the media, your dream clients on their website.
But you know what else they got?
Bigger company bloat. Overflowing obligations. Narratives to uphold. Appearances to maintain. Entitlement. Too much overhead.
They’re slow. They’re conservative. They talk too much. They’ve stopped taking risks. They’re resting on their laurels, gliding on their reputation. They’re on defense.
What they’ve really got is a lot to lose.
What do you got?
Hunger. Drive. Grit. Scrappiness. Independence. You’re on offense.
You don’t have enough, which is why you’re dangerous. You have no choice but to be clever and creative. To make up for what you don’t have with something they can’t have: The underdog spirit.
You can move. You can adjust. You can adapt. You can get it done while they’re still stuck deciding what to do.
Small is not a stepping stone. Small is not less than. It’s greater than. It’s faster than. It’s better than.
Savor your position. You don’t get to be the underdog forever. The baton will be passed. But for now, it’s your magic wand. Use it.
We stand with the underdogs.
One of my greatest pleasures at work is trying to find that point where the work feels just right. Nothing more, nothing less, but right there in the pocket.
It's there in every component, in every feature, in every flow, in every sequence, in every product, in every decision, inside everything across the company.
How do you know when it's just right? It's the same feeling you get when you try to balance something physical.
You put something on something else and try to find that center of gravity... A bit to the right, oops too much. Lean back to the left... Steady... Steady... Ugh, too much push. Stack it up again, find that center... Wobble, bobble, almost... And then it locks in. Boom! There it is.
All the sudden the pushing and pulling forces disappear and it's just there, on its own. Still, in harmony and equanimity. That's what just right feels like.
It's easy to experience physically because our bodies speak the language. We feel the weight, we intuit the momentum. Our internal gyroscopes sense balance, and transfers it into objects we touch.
But when it comes to intellectual, conceptual things like business or software, we have to shift into the imagined sense of balance. We don't get the free borders, edges, weights, shapes, and gravity, to help us find that middle. Muscles don't pull on tendons don't pull on bones. Our nerves don't get the signals for free.
So I imagine. If this was physical, would it balance? I literally think about the center of gravity of an idea, a feature, a button, an idea, a product. Is there too much weight over here? Too much over there? If this whole thing was in stone, would it crash to one side? Or would it stand a chance of staying upright? Would it be at rest, or would it want to fall?
Once you find that spot — the right set of features, the right flows, the right yesses and the right no's, you stop. That's v1. Once you find the balance, you aim to stay in balance. Adding more, but in a balanced way to maintain the form, to keep the center. To hold steady.
It's a beautiful thing.
That's how I think about making products.
There are plenty of opportunities to invite people to your product ahead of the formal launch. Alpha, beta, etc.
My preference is only right at the end. Typically a week or two before we go live. When the product is in the very last throws of beta, barely beta. Essentially v0.99.
At this stage we’re not really looking for deep fundamental feedback, although we’ll get some. We’re going with the version we’re launching, so it doesn’t really help to soak in second guessing.
The main advantage to letting people in a bit ahead of launch is mostly for basic hygiene. It forces you to clean up, tie up loose ends, get some lingering stuff right you’ve been sitting on until now.
It’s like inviting guests to your house for dinner. Hopefully you keep a fairly tidy house, but if you know guests are coming by, there’s just another level of cleaning and tidying and prep you tend to do. All those little messes you could live with become things you just don’t want other people to see, experience, or notice. So you take care of them.
Guests are forcing functions. They help you do those last few things you know you need to do, but didn’t until now.
It’s now.
In our tradition of looong, detailed product walkthrough videos, here's David's 45-minute walkthrough of the latest Omarchy. And here's my 37-minute walkthrough of HEY: piped.video/watch?v=UCeYTysL…
Jason Fried retweeted
Lexxy keeps getting better, one release at a time.
github.com/basecamp/lexxy/re…
This week we started inviting early users to Fizzy, so it is officially in production now.
Much more coming down the road.
Our mobile team is now running their On Call queue through Fizzy. Actual current screenshot below.
And that little globe top left being filled in means webhooks have been setup. New cards are also pushed into a Campfire room in Basecamp for increased visibility. You can push these into Campfire, Slack, anywhere like that.
The screenshot of switches shows some of the events that can push that information into another app or service.
Dig these new Lowrider stamps from the USPS. Designed by Antonio Alcalá, an art director for USPS, designed based on photographs by Philip Gordon and Humberto “Beto” Mendoza.
via about.usps.com/newsroom/nati…
A great look at what true, *true* handcraft looks like. A completely handmade watch, finished to the highest standard.
No automated CNC machines here, only hand-powered tools were used. The watch takes about 11,000 hours to produce, with 80 people involved.
Lost arts revived, incredible skills required, this is a very, very special thing.
hodinkee.com/articles/hands-…
Really enjoyed this conversation with @danshipper. Had been a long time since we connected, and I'm glad this one was recorded. Hopefully there's something useful in it for you as well. Thanks for having me on Dan!
37signals makes tens of millions in profit every year but Jason Fried (@jasonfried) isn’t all that interested in running a business.
Instead, he cares most about making great products—products that are centered around a single, coherent idea. These products are complete wholes, where each piece matters—like a Frank Lloyd Wright house or a vintage car.
But how do you create products like that?
In this conversation I got the chance to talk to Jason about what two decades of building @37signals has been like—and how to build products that have soul.
As the CEO and cofounder of the company behind @basecamp, @heyhey, and @rails, Jason was one of my earliest entrepreneurial heroes, so having him on @every’s AI & I was a true delight.
Here’s what we talked about:
- Build something so whole you can’t pull it apart. After more than two decades of running 37signals, Jason’s biggest lesson is about wholeness. He believes a great product is like a Frank Lloyd Wright house—every part, from the sink to the color of the floor, flows from one idea; change one piece, and it stops being the same thing.
- Design software that feels as good as it works. Jason spends the first 10 minutes of the episode talking about watches, cars, and architecture—but he’s really talking about software. He wants his products to feel as good as driving a car where the controls are exactly where they should be, or walking through a beautiful space, natural light streaming through the windows.
- Build what feels true, especially when you don’t know where it’s going. Jason thinks we’re living through “the age of undifferent,” where so much software looks the same: thin gray lines, muted colors, the same tired templates. But that sameness, he says, is an opportunity. The only way to stand out is to build from who you are, even when you’re not sure where it’s going.
- The case for AI that maximizes meaning. The engineers at 37signals don’t use AI to write code; instead, they keep it to the edges, to look up API calls or handle the tedious parts of their workflow. As Jason puts it, “If you’re a poet, you want to write poetry,” an approach that says a lot about how they use AI to deepen meaning.
This is a must-watch for product builders who care as much about how things feel as what they do, and of course, 37signals fans everywhere.
Watch below!
Timestamps:
Introduction: 00:00:32
What architecture, watches, and cars teach us about software: 00:02:06
How Jason thinks AI plays into product-building: 00:10:54
How developers at 37signals use AI: 00:20:58
Jason’s biggest realization after 26 years of running 37signals: 00:25:47
Where Jason thinks luck shaped his career: 00:29:58
What Jason would do if he were graduated into the AI boom: 00:32:41
Dan asks for advice on running a non-traditional company like Every: 00:37:22
Why staying true to yourself is the only way to build something lasting: 00:46:39
Wholeness as the north star for building products—and companies: 00:49:38
Alright! The first handful of Fizzy beta invites have gone out!
Over the next week or two, assuming all goes well, we'll send invites to the thousands who've signed up for the list prior to opening it up to the public.
If you're not on the beta invite list yet, add yourself here:
37signals.typeform.com/to/XC…
I love the way Santiago Giralda uses gold leaf as light peeking through a dark forest.
santiagogiralda.com/
This materiality, texture, and use of space is right up my alley. Just lovely:
zillow.com/homedetails/5820-…
(the house sold last year)
Lazygit is exceptionally good software.
It's like software's greatest hits. Clear, quick, easy to command, drive-by-keyboard if you want, contrasty, glanceable, peacefully powerful, the list goes on.
So impressed.
github.com/jesseduffield/laz…
This is great advice.
We aim for this in a specific way: Being as straightforward as possible. I think that's one of the highest forms of beauty.
Products should just make sense.
Policies should just make sense.
Pricing should just make sense.
Reasons should just make sense.
Questions should have direct answers.
You shouldn't need a magnifying glass, or a telescope, to see what needs to be see. Everything with the naked eye. No fine print, very few exceptions, as few branches as possible.
Everything as much the same from any angle.
