Rework

Basecamp is known for hiring infrequently, but it's in the midst of adding five new employees to its roster—including the company's first-ever director of marketing. Over 4,000 applications have come in for the open …

In this episode, Basecamp marketing designer Adam Stoddard joins Jason Fried to talk about a marathon session of interviewing Search Engine …

The open office has gone from the dominant workplace layout to cultural pariah, with these environments seeming to produce more interruptions than …

A curious snack food aficionado calls the home of Mr. Peanut.

Show Notes

Nikki Sylianteng on Twitter - 00:34

"Thanks to Popular Demand, Planters Cheez …

In 2004, fast food company Quiznos launched a national advertising campaign featuring animated rodent-like creatures screech-singing an ode to the chain's toasted sub sandwiches. The TV commercials were instantly …

This is a lightly edited version of a keynote address Basecamp co-founder and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson delivered at RailsConf 2019 about "open source, markets, debts, purpose, and no less than the meaning of life." …

Even remote companies need actual face time every once in a while. That's why Basecamp holds companywide, weeklong meet-ups in Chicago twice a year. …

In April, Basecamp Support team member James Glazebrook gave a talk at Support Driven Expo Europe about Everyone On Support. It's an all-hands program where Basecamp employees rotate through a day of working in customer …

Basecamp co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson are back in the studio to answer your questions. This edition of Mailbag includes topics like why big companies don't use Basecamp; how they managed the …

In our last episode, we talked to Claire Lew, the CEO of Know Your Team. She has her own show called The Heartbeat Podcast, where she talks to founders and leaders about management. This is her interview with Basecamp …

Claire Lew is the CEO of Know Your Team, a company dedicated to solving the problem of bad bosses. The company has its origins as a product developed …

We're introducing a new segment called Last Week with Jason Fried, where Basecamp's CEO talks about a task or concern that recently fell on his plate. In this inaugural episode, Jason talks about how the end of the …

In 2007, Kenneth Coats started a business helping Chicagoans expunge their arrest records so they could improve their job prospects. After a …

We're introducing a new segment called Check-Ins, where we talk to folks at Basecamp about their answers to recurring questions that get asked of …

Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: You sign up for a service or a product online. When you go to cancel, you discover the only way to stop the subscription is to write an email or—even worse, make an actual phone …

"Passwords just aren't cutting it online. It's getting worse. We all feel it." This is what Jeremy from Basecamp's Security, Infrastructure, and Performance team wrote in a February blog post after dealing with a …

In 2004, Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson released a framework called Ruby on Rails that has since been used by over 1.2 million web …

Why are manhole covers round? How many golf balls can fit in a 747? Why are job interviews so terrible? In this episode, Aja Hammerly, a developer …

We place a long-distance phone call to Antarctica to chat with Kathrin Mallot, an astrophysicist who works at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in the …

Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy are the co-authors of No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions At Work. They come on Rework to …

The folks at Basecamp have been blogging since 1999, when Jason Fried would write by the light of a fire fueled by David Heinemeier Hansson's savage …

Basecamp co-founders David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried are fans of Marie Kondo's 2014 bestseller "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up," …

On Thursday, November 8, Basecamp 3 went down for almost five hours. It was the worst outage to hit the company in a decade and a stress test of Basecamp's practices around internal communication, customer support, and …

We tried to record an episode, but there were more important things to talk about. See you in 2019 with more episodes of REWORK.

After yet another round of revelations about Facebook's use of customer data, Basecamp has decided to become 100% Facebook-free. We've actually been off Facebook proper for a while, but on Wednesday we decided to remove …

On the last episode of Rework, we talked about the dangers of using violent language in a business context. We've had to grapple with other kinds of …

Business rhetoric is rife with the language of war—there's constant talk of conquering markets and dominating the competition. These tropes indicate a dangerous way of thinking that can have real consequences, intended …

In October, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson released their new book, It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work. The book featured their writing, as well as cover art and interior illustrations from a couple designers …

Annual, semi-annual, quarterly, 360...no matter what form they take, performance reviews can be anxiety-inducing workplace rituals. In today's episode, we talk to the head of HR at an HR software company (meta!) and a …

It’s time for another episode where Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson answer your questions! In this one, they discuss how to apply calm company principles to client work and classrooms, and talk about healthy …

Before the viral unicorn poop video, before the appearances on Shark Tank and Dr. Oz and Howard Stern—Bobby Edwards was showing his invention at conventions and sending it to alternative health bloggers in hopes of …

This is the second of a two-part interview with David Heinemeier Hansson about his and Jason Fried's new book, It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work. In this episode, David talks about taking a calm approach to writing …

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson have a new book out called It Doesn't Have to be Crazy at Work, which pushes back against the toxic culture …

A lot of businesses start as side ventures or hobbies that grow into full-time pursuits. The trick is often in knowing when to quit a comfortable day …

*taps mic* Is this thing on? We're back from sabbatical! In our first post-hiatus episode, Shaun heads to Denver to visit his sister, who left a catering job at a big restaurant chain to run a coffee shop out of a …

Shaun and Wailin are still on vacation, but we have another of our favorite episodes from our previous podcast, The Distance, which was about long-running businesses. Wailin's pick is this story of America's last …

Shaun and Wailin are on vacation! During our hiatus, we're bringing you our favorite stories from our previous podcast, The Distance, which was about …

Smell ya later! Shaun and Wailin are taking off the month of August. Before they left, they interviewed three business owners about sabbaticals. In this episode: Adeline Koh of Sabbatical Beauty shares the story of how …

In a bonus conversation with Sarah Park of MeetEdgar, she talks about making the company handbook public and why they have a policy of opening up …

One of our colleagues on the Basecamp customer support team, Jayne Ogilvie, wanted to find out how other tech companies with remote staffs handle …

A famous guy once said, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!" But he was a grifter. In fact, going behind the scenes—whether it's a factory tour or cooking show—can be a valuable experience for both …

Who needs a fancy office when you can work out of a dingy food court? Who needs fancy equipment when you can buy what you need at Walmart? Who needs to hire an SEO specialist? What does an SEO specialist do, anyway? (A …

Do you struggle with finding the right podcast? Are you tired of true crime shows and hosts trying to sell you a mattress? Introducing Rework, a …

Basecamp co-founders Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson answer listener questions about workplace communication and remote working. Alison Green of Ask A Manager, whom we featured in our previous episode, gives …

Wailin interviews Alison Green, the advice columnist whose Ask A Manager column offers friendly and practical guidance for all kinds of workplace …

In January, Wailin Wong interviewed Dean Carter, vice president of human resources and shared services at Patagonia, and David Simas, CEO of the …

Chris Ruder, the CEO of Spikeball, shares a story about meeting Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban at a bar and committing a photo faux pas (a faux-to pas?), a year before he taped his Shark Tank appearance.

The ABC show Shark Tank is irresistible reality programming: Entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to a panel of famous investors and have the potential to make a life-changing deal. But as with any reality show, there's …

"You know I try, but I don't do too well with apologies," Justin Bieber once sang. You're not the only one with this problem, Justin! Why is saying …

Jason Fried talks about designing an alternative to Basecamp's Applause feature that is subtle yet expressive, and distinct from the kinds of reactions and feedback mechanisms used on social media platforms. (If you …

At Basecamp, we're in the midst of a debate over an Applause feature that was designed to improve communication but might be stoking unwanted anxiety. In this episode, CTO David Heinemeier Hansson and iOS designer Tara …

Dan Miller of Mulberrys Garment Care talks outsourcing, bootstrapping, and growing slowly in some leftover bits we couldn't quite fit into episode 14.

You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll gnash your teeth in recognition as you hear the stories of horrible meetings we collected for this episode. Meetings …

Hey, are you busy? Can you listen to this real quick? It's an episode about interruptions in the workplace. You'll hear from academic researchers, Basecamp's head data wrangler, and the CEO of a remote company about how …

Special bonus episode where Jason Fried discusses some of the thinking that goes into making a very small change to the to-do feature in Basecamp.

Hey, are you crushing it? It seems like everyone is constantly crushing it in the business world. But maybe it would be better if we were honest …

A conversation with Fred Perrotta, co-founder and CEO of Tortuga Backpacks, about something he calls his "million dollar mistake." For more details, …

New year, new you! If you started 2018 with an idea for a product, business, or creative pursuit, now is the time to start making something. In this episode: A tabletop game designer finds that sometimes, all you need …

This is the second in a two-part series in which Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson answer listener questions. If you'd like your questions answered on a future mailbag episode leave a message at 708.628.7850.

This is the first of two episodes where Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson answer questions from our listeners. In this episode, they talk …

Basecamp's founders never wrote a business plan when they started the company. Even today, they don't like to look too far ahead. Too much long-term planning can hamper your ability to react to the present. Did you have …

Some of the tech industry's most vaunted companies revel in their origins as mavericks or rule-breakers, having flouted regulations in the name of …

Some leftover bits that didn't make it into the last episode.

Selling is a core skill. You have to know how to sell, whether it's a product, an idea, or yourself. In 2012, Basecamp CEO Jason Fried saw the …

Basecamp CEO Jason Fried talks about ideas with Paul McAvinchey, co-founder of Product Collective, at INDUSTRY: The Product Conference in September …

Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, which bills itself as the top-selling natural soapmaker in North America, wasn't founded to sell soap. The company was started to promote a religious philosophy developed by Emanuel Bronner, a …

Business and politics tend to make uneasy bedfellows, but in these divisive times, even businesses that have historically stayed out of hot-button …

It's easy to say yes, whether it's to a customer request or a deadline from your boss. But saying yes too many times can result in an unmanageable …

Basecamp CTO David Heinemeier Hansson is known for many things, including creating Ruby on Rails and writing business books. He also has a knack for …

Being tired isn't a badge of honor. There, we said it. We've been saying this for a while now, because our culture loves to glorify toiling long …

Welcome to the first episode of Rework! This podcast is based on Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson's 2010 best-selling business book, which was itself based on years of blogging. So what better way to kick off …

Rework is a podcast by the makers of Basecamp about a better way to work and run your business. While the prevailing narrative around successful …