106. David Heinemeier Hansson: Creator of Basecamp & Ruby on Rails and Le Mans Class-Winning Racing Driver

Mar 12, 2024

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If you do what you love, then you’ll never have to work a day in your life. We’ve all heard that one a time or two. While the truth of it is debatable as getting to the place where you don’t have to work requires actually doing a lot of hard work, the concept behind the thought is interesting to say the least. Imagine a world where everyone lived that way. What a peaceful, harmonious place it would be and who knows, maybe one day we’ll get there.

Today’s guest is a man who is doing what he loves and while he worked hard to make it happen, he’s having so much fun you can’t tell he’s working. David Heinemeier Hansson is one of the founding members and CTO of Basecamp, the project management and online collaboration solution. He’s also a man with a ton of outside interests including race car driving and photography to name a few. Today, David took a break to discuss how he got his start, a few tips for entrepreneurs just starting out, as well as the one piece of advice every person needs to hear. You’ll be inspired beyond your wildest dreams so be sure to tune in for this incredible conversation!

In This Episode:

(2:05) – Being good and competitive allows you to start late and thrive through effort.
(4:00) – As a child, he was given a tremendous amount of independence.
(5:07) – David shares his thoughts on the children of today and independence.
(7:10) – David shares his views on children and video games.
(9:10) – Views on social media as being more harmful than video games.
(15:59) – Fascination with the web and HTML as well as founding a magazine.
(19:29) – Basecamp pivots from just a software company.
(21:08) – The growing pains for Basecamp.
(23:38) – The Ruby Programming Language is an inspiration for David.
(35:46) – Financial advice for entrepreneurs from David.
(39:05) – David reveals that Basecamp was built on 10 hours per week.
(41:23) – David discusses purchasing his first race car.
(47:48) – Becoming addicted to growth is something David craves.
(48:36) – The euphoria of racing.
(51:07) – The joy of seeing your mind evolve.
(55:40) – One piece of advice David offers to others trying to get to their place.

Our Guest

David Heinemeier Hansson is the creator of Ruby on Rails, cofounder of Basecamp & HEY, best-selling author, Le Mans class-winning racing driver, antitrust advocate, investor in Danish startups, frequent podcast guest, and family man.

Resources and Links

David Heinemeier Hansson

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