Out-Teach Your Competition

11 snips

Nov 16, 2022

Guest

David Heinemeier Hansson

Guest

Jason Fried

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INSIGHT

Build Growth By Out-Teaching Competitors

37signals built growth by transparently teaching what they learn instead of buying ads.
Jason Fried says sharing deliberations and rough work reveals the lessons other firms hide in polished results.

ANECDOTE

Early Sharing Fueled Basecamp's Growth

37signals started sharing early: Getting Real (2006) and seminars a year after Basecamp launched.
David says this DNA of sharing let them grow without heavy ad spend, under a million dollars in early years.

ADVICE

Offer A Practical Alternative To The Unicorn Playbook

Do present an alternative, practical playbook for founders who can't or don't want to chase venture-scale growth.
David Heinemeier Hansson urges showing side-project paths and small-step decision frameworks that make starting approachable.

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Throughout its tenure, 37signals has consistently grown without spending much on marketing.

How'd the company do this? By out-teaching their competition.

Recently, they've begun sharing their thoughts on company decisions and even doing product walkthroughs on their YouTube channel.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the Co-founders of 37signals, discuss the true value of sharing the behind-the-scenes of how they work and what they've learned in over 20 years in business.

Show Notes:

[00:40] - The transparency in sharing the winding road of building your business.
[01:17] - Why we share the behind-the-scenes of our work.
[02:40] - David shares that the philosophy of out-teaching the competition is in their DNA.
[03:04] - Building the company without overspending on advertising by sharing what we do through various mediums.
[03:33] - Jason shares why the go big or go home tropes for building businesses fails to show all the options.
[04:38] - How we built Basecamp.
[05:25] - It doesn't have to be all or nothing: how sharing makes things more approachable for more people.
[06:16] - The key to sharing what people need to hear when starting out.
[07:13] - The value of practical and pragmatic lessons for small to medium-sized businesses.
[09:01] - David shares why the lessons from mega companies might be detrimental to your company.
[12:33] - Sharing the behind-the-scenes, how we work, and what we've learned in our over 20 years of business through our Discussing Decisions! Videos on YouTube.
[13:49] - Why you won’t normally find the 'good stuff' in content marketing.
[16:54] - Why Jason and David are not afraid of sharing their 'chef's' secrets.
[18:21] - The "secret ingredient" lesson from Kung Fu Panda.
[19:08] - Why most businesses succeed (or fail).
[19:26] - The topics Jason and David don't feel are worth sharing.
[21:32] - Jason shares why they don’t discuss revenue.
[22:48] - Changing your lens of view to discover the value of the truth vs. a vanity metric.
company.
[23:41] - The immense value of sharing the 'true gold.'

Links and Resources:

Discussing Decisions! A Basecamp Pricing Experiment
Discussing Decisions! Card Tables and To-Dos
Sign Up for 30-day FREE trial at Basecamp.com
37signals on YouTube
The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions
Rework book
The REWORK podcast

The 37signals Dev Blog

@reworkpodcast on Twitter

@37signals on Twitter