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 podcastThe 37signals Dev Blog@reworkpodcast on Twitter@37signals on Twitter