#8 Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann

Jason Fried is co-founder of Basecamp (formerly 37signals), a Chicago-based software firm which among others includes his current venture HEY.com. Jason is the co-author of the international bestseller Rework, which was published in 2010. He also writes Inc.'s Getting Real column. Jason lives and builds his businesses under the motto 'It's simple until you make it complicated’. 

Jason Fried, CEO of Basecamp | Making It Real Podcast with Jan Brinckmann | Episode #8

00:00 Jason's founding story and his personal way into entrepreneurship

02:52 How Jason met his co-founders

05:16 Creating a company, dealing with taxes & accounting

06:50 Vesting for founders

09:03 Who should you found with?

11:10 "Don't create companies, build projects first"?

13:26 Advice on founding team size

16:05 What do you think about having someone on the team doing marketing/sales?

18:06 Should you bring in external sales people?

21:18 Jason scratched his own itch - how important is that for building a business?

23:46 Advice on finding a technical co-founder

29:00 How to put your first product out

30:16 How did you determine the first version for HEY.com?

32:52 How long did it take you to put it out?

35:40 How do you decide what to work on?

37:30 Main concepts Jason sees a lot of founders struggle with

40:13 Jason's take on focus and 40h work weeks

43:41 Do you apply the 80/20 rule a lot?

46:00 What keeps you excited?

46:44 Any advice for tricky situations?

You can find the free book 'Shape Up' that Jason mentioned when talking about productivity and roadmaps on https://basecamp.com/shapeup.