Jason Fried
CEO of Basecamp
12
MENTIONS
11
EPISODES
10
PODCASTS
Search complete. 12 mentions across 11 episodes found for "Jason Fried".
Nov 5, 2026
Nathan BarryHOST
Yes.
Nathan BarryHOST
I remember listening to Jason Fried from Basecamp, someone that I've really, really admired and learned a ton from.
Chenell BasilioGUEST
And if you listen to him on 10 podcasts, you're probably
Nathan BarryHOST
going to hear 80% the same content, right? Or Will Godera from Unreasonable Hospitality, right? He's going to tell his greatest hits and stories and those are going to keep coming up.
Dan MartellHOST
I'm just super lucky to have been an early investor there and seen their growth from just this you know, super raw product that they focus on, they obsess on, like truly obsessed to finally scale it up.
Dan MartellHOST
And what I've seen amongst, you know, even early days of Basecamp, being able to go to Chicago and spend time with Jason Fried and the guys there in one of their workshops and seeing the way they think, I've really distilled it to five characteristics that I think all SaaS companies, great SaaS companies have.
Dan MartellHOST
The first one is the product is core to the customer's business.
Dan MartellHOST
And what I mean by this, if you think of products like Intercom and FreshBooks and Basecamp and Slack, they're great B2B SaaS businesses because at the core of their value, it is part of their customer's workflow.
Dave GrayGUEST
I would like to see, I think of companies like Basecamp.
Dave GrayGUEST
Jason Fried, a friend of mine, runs a company.
Dave GrayGUEST
It's a software company, but it's extremely personal.
Dave GrayGUEST
It's fun.
Nick HerrigesGUEST
Yeah, we had a whiteboard session, Conrad.
Conrad EngstromHOST
Bring in Nick Harrigan, the guy who can't keep his trap shut half the time I see him, and he just brings in the Jason Fried cue cards.
Conrad EngstromHOST
It's unbelievable.
Nick HerrigesGUEST
Wow.
9 MINS LATER
Conrad EngstromHOST
AI.
Conrad EngstromHOST
That might be the first original content that you've actually given us in the first 17 and a half minutes.
Conrad EngstromHOST
That did not come from the Jason Fried whiteboard session.
Conrad EngstromHOST
Yes,
Melissa KwanHOST
I mean, it sounds like you guys have built a business that has maximum freedom and control, and I, I love that.
Melissa KwanHOST
It's like, uh, it's like the Jason Fried's philosophy, right, which I also admire and I follow.
Melissa KwanHOST
Optionality, right, as, as you've called it before.
Melissa KwanHOST
Like, what do you think this lets you do that other founders can't?
Eric SiuHOST
Um, and so if you're in the top .2%, like, of course they're gonna want your help, right? That's why Mark Cuban is so bullish on, on how, you know, he would just help people with AI implementation.
Eric SiuHOST
He wouldn't even raise money today, right? And then Jason Fried retweeted that.
Eric SiuHOST
He's like, "If I wasn't working on Basecamp right now, I honestly would just be helping people with that." Um, whether it's AI marketing or AI implementation, whatever it is exactly, um, because the world is so behind.
Eric SiuHOST
So, um, workflows as a service, I think that's gonna become more and more of a thing.
Steve GubermanHOST
... you're also super intentional about like, on, on top of culture is like how you build your team and having everybody in-house, which I was very similar.
Steve GubermanHOST
It was kind of at the dawn of people were thinking, "Oh, we can just hire people all over the country." Jason Fried had just put out Rework, and so like there was the, the mindset of not everybody needs to be in-house, and you are all local, all in the agency, all in the studio.
Steve GubermanHOST
Freelancers as needed, but like no outsourcing, no remote.
Steve GubermanHOST
Talk about like what that means to you and to the work you're doing and to your team and culture and everything.
Dan MartellHOST
And what I've seen amongst, you know, base...
Dan MartellHOST
You know, even early days of Basecamp, being able to go to Chicago and spend time with Jason Fried and the guys there, uh, in one of their workshops and seeing the way they think, I've really distilled it to five characteristics that I think all SaaS companies, great SaaS companies have.
Dan MartellHOST
The first one is the product is core to the customer's business, and what I mean by this, if you think of products like Intercom and FreshBooks and Basecamp and Slack, they're, they're great, you know, B2B SaaS businesses because at the core of their value, it is part of their customer's workflow.
Dan MartellHOST
Like, they, they use it on a daily basis to actually produce value and/or run the business, and that is an incredible place to be as a software.
1 more episode mentions Jason Fried.
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