The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Basecamp Founder David Heinemeier Hansson on Why It Is The Biggest BS To Chase Being A Unicorn, His Relationship to Wealth and Status and Why Now More Than Ever It Is A Myth Entrepreneurs Have To Raise VC

Apr 14, 2020

David Heinemeier Hansson, the creator of Ruby on Rails and co-founder of Basecamp, shares his insights into the tech world. He argues that chasing unicorn status is a trap and emphasizes the importance of genuine mission statements. David discusses the shift to remote work, highlighting the loneliness many face and how crucial connections are for mental health. He also critiques traditional meetings, advocating for small teams and effective communication. Ultimately, he champions personal fulfillment over mere financial success in entrepreneurship.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Basecamp's Origin

David Heinemeier Hansson got into tech through gaming journalism and learned PHP.
A cold email to Jason Fried in 2001, offering PHP help, led to a job and the founding of Basecamp.

ADVICE

Effective Remote Meetings

Replace most remote meetings with asynchronous written communication.
Use meetings only when a few well-informed people need to debate and reach a shared conclusion.

ADVICE

Meeting Necessity

Determine meeting necessity by considering if a few, well-informed individuals need to resolve a disagreement.
Use asynchronous communication for announcements, status updates, and information sharing.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

David “DHH” Heinemeier Hansson (@dhh) is the creator of Ruby on Rails, founder and CTO at Basecamp (formerly 37Signals), and the best-selling co-author of Rework and Remote: Office Not Required. If that was not enough, fun fact, he went from not having a driver’s license at 25 to winning, at 34, the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world. It is often called the “Grand Prix of endurance and efficiency.”

In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:

1.) How David made his way into the world of tech and startups from his childhood living in Copenhagen and how a cold email led to the founding of Basecamp with Jason Fried?

2.) What have been some of David’s core observations as people move to remote work over the last few weeks? What is the #1 mistake that 90% of teams make? How does David advise founders to approach loneliness and depression in their team? What strategies have Basecamp used to unite the team and inspire collaboration and teamwork?

3.) Why have David and Jason always tried to keep the Basecamp team as small as possible? Why does David believe one of the biggest problems is that execs have too much time? How does that manifest itself? What does David’s week look like? How does he approach meetings?

4.) Why does David hate the majority of “mission statements” today? What are the best composed of? What are the worst? What feelings does David believe your mission statement should inspire in the reader? What does David believe one needs to do to build a challenger brand today?

5.) Why has David and Basecamp always resisted the conventional path of raising VC funds? Why does David believe needs VC money is total BS? Why does David believe it is BS to chase being a unicorn? Why have founders got this so wrong today and what can they do to change?

6.) How would David describe his relationship to money? How has that relationship changed over time? What are the core challenges as one moves from a monetary to a deeper appreciation of what makes one happy? How did the transition occur for David? How does David advise others in terms of finding their moment for the transition?

Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:

David’s Fave Book: Erich Fromm: To Have Or To Be

As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and David and on Twitter here!

Likewise, you can follow Harry on Instagram here for mojito madness and all things 20VC.

Carta simplifies how startups and investors manage equity, track cap tables, and get valuations. Go to carta.com/20vc to get 10% off. More than 800,000 employees and shareholders use Carta to manage hundreds of billions of dollars in equity and Carta now offers Fund Administration so you can see real-time data in the Carta platform and work with Carta’s team of experienced fund accountants. Go to carta.com/20vc to get 10% off.