Out-Teach Your Competition

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
37signals on YouTube
The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions
Rework book
The REWORK podcast

The 37signals Dev Blog

@reworkpodcast on Twitter

@37signals on Twitter