7 ms·
Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?
I am a big fan of how Basecamp is run as a company, and of the work environment they create for their employees. (Or at least seem to. I don't have first-hand experience.)
You can get a sense of their philosophy by reading what the company's cofounders have written on the subject [0][1]. They've even written a book about it.
You may not buy it, and that is absolutely fine.
If you do however, and if you've ever worked at a company that works similarly, can you post about it here?
[0] https://medium.com/@dhh
[1] https://medium.com/@jasonfried
- manuelflara 9y agoA similar one IMO would be Buffer. Remote, extremely transparent, treating their employees and customer well, etc. One big difference is that Buffer, while initially bootstrapped, did eventually raise VC money, while Basecamp famously never has. You can read more about Buffer at their company blog: https://open.buffer.com/ https://open.buffer.com/
- EpicEng 9y agoWhat does this company actually do? I read through their site and it's just really vague, to me at least.
- chipgap98 9y agoYou might have just been on their blog. If you go to buffer.com you'll see they are a social media management tool
- Ocha 9y agoI think they are similar to Publer [https://superpubler.com https://superpubler.com], and allow you to automate your social media postings and schedule them in future
- jimminy 9y agoThey provide a tool set for scheduling marketing content across multiple social media services. Originally, it was built just to schedule tweets in the future.
- oelmekki 9y agoAlso worth noting that they are highly popular among marketers and community managers. It does not say anything about "what they do", but I guess it says something about how well they do it :)
- eggie5 9y agoit lets you send out tweets on a schedule.
- pixelmonkey 9y agoI'm the CTO at Parse.ly, you can visit us at https://parse.ly https://parse.ly. We run a fully distributed team. We have commented on our culture around this in these two blog posts-- The How & Why of Parse.ly's Fully Distributed Team: https://blog.parse.ly/post/3203/the-how-and-why-of-parse-lys-fully-distributed-team/ https://blog.parse.ly/post/3203/the-how-and-why-of-parse-lys... Fully Remote, But Here For Each Other: https://blog.parse.ly/post/4736/mission/ https://blog.parse.ly/post/4736/mission/ We actually recommend "Rework" and "Remote" as two reading materials for new hires when they join the company. As for financing, Parse.ly is no longer a bootstrapped company, but we do take a "lean" approach to SaaS VC fundraising. My co-founder wrote a bit about this in this post-- A Different Way — Thoughtful Financing, Or Why We Said "No" to a Lot of Money: https://blog.parse.ly/post/6282/why-we-said-no-vc-money/ https://blog.parse.ly/post/6282/why-we-said-no-vc-money/
- frankquist 9y agoSlightly offtopic but I went to your homepage to check it out. Immediately loved how it looked, but found it hard to find out what products are actually on offer until I went to the separate product pages. In the first two screens of the homepage, the general gist of your products doesn't become clear to me, only your specific Facebook/AMP product. After the first screen ("Do incredible things with your data") I expected the second screen to tell me what those were, and so I would've thought you offered only AMP/facebook stuff, hadn't I noticed later on that it was a "product update". Just my 2 cts.
- pixelmonkey 9y agoThanks for the feedback. Interestingly, we plan on revamping our homepage and flow a bit in early 2018 to make that sort of thing clearer. Appreciate the comment!
- hartjer 9y agoWhy Rework? I'm hoping I missed something the first time I read it, it seems like it would had been better as an office calendar than a book.
- misiti3780 9y agoMy company runs a very similar operation -- everyone works remotely, open hours, etc. The main difference is do not code in ruby (python) and we build a variety of different products for clients, we are not maintaining our own software. For more info, see: https://www.mathandpencil.com https://www.mathandpencil.com
- CryoLogic 9y agoLots of remote companies if you look hard enough. Wikipedia and Automatic come to mind.
- rahoulb 9y agoIt’s about more than just remote working though. 4 days a week to allow personal time in summer, treating employees as adults (for example credit cards with no approval process for purchases), using asynchronous communications wherever possible so no-one is interrupted are just a few of the things they implement.
- toomuchtodo 9y agoHealthy work/life balance and career/personal development as well.
- bdcravens 9y agoPlenty of companies if you don't limit yourself to "startups". For instance, my company (I'm the Director of Technology) is like that (just listened to DHH's interview on Ruby Rogues this morning, so many of these are fresh in my mind): 1) Pay talent fairly 2) Customers are more important than technology 3) Small team 4) Reasonable hours 5) Tight focus 6) Trust your talent 7) Remote friendly (people think this first when they think Basecamp, but I think that's just one piece of the culture) (And since it will be asked: No, we're not currently "hiring", but always interested in conversations if you reach out to me)
- erlend_sh 9y agoGreat advice. Here’s a good list of remote-friendly companies: https://github.com/remoteintech/remote-jobs/blob/master/README.md https://github.com/remoteintech/remote-jobs/blob/master/READ... Discourse is not hiring right now but we will definitely be hiring a lot more in the year to come. We’re all of the things above, plus a 100% Rails based, open source product.
- jdc0589 9y agoCheck out GitLab. I don't know how similar their culture actually is to Basecamp, but they seem to put a lot of importance on doing everything possible in the open, so you really get what seems like a good sense of what they are about from reading job postings, their public ops runbooks, mission statements, etc... In no small part due to that, they are one of the very few companies that I would actively like to work for and frequently check job postings. Unfortunately production ruby experience is a hard requirement for them now, and I've always been in .net/c# + nodejs at work, and my side projects have always been java, node, and python. When I start looking for a new job, the opportunity to get some production Ruby experience somewhere is going to be in the back of my mind as a benefit, just so the door to a job at GitLab might be open in the future.
- stefantheard 9y agoIs it just me or is their published compensation algorithm not competitive at all? I put in my information and it had me at a ~40k pay cut which seems silly.
- jdc0589 9y agoI've noticed that. I'm not 100% sure what the deal is. From what I know, my one major gripe is that they devalue you based on where you live.
- stefantheard 9y agoYeah, I actually removed myself from their recruitment pipeline a ways back because I saw the salary calculator. It does not and will not ever make sense to pay talent based on anything other than productivity. Where I choose to live should have no bearing on how much I get paid, ever.
- balsamiq 9y agoWe (Balsamiq) look up to Basecamp quite a bit, and people have compared our culture to theirs. Check out our blog for some of our policies and other stuff. Any questions, I'm here. Peldi
- mangoceylon 9y agoAs a user and recommender of your product in the past, that was always the vibe I got from your company. You seemed to espouse many of the same characteristics as basecamp, and I thought of you as very closely related in my mind. If you were building a super minimal web CMS, what features would be a must have?
- balsamiq 9y agoThank you! About a super minimal web CMS... I wouldn't build one. We can discuss more over email if you'd like, so we don't highjack the thread: peldi@balsamiq.com
- vram22 9y agoHey Peldi, Do you have remote?
- skrebbel 9y agoHijacking the thread a bit, but are there any published negative experiences about working at Basecamp? Everything I know about Basecamp's culture comes from their owners - obviously it is in their interest to be very enthousiastic about it, especially since their product supports a company with their culture particularly well. There must be downsides. Right? Are there any? For real people at Basecamp?
- nickbauman 9y agoI have a friend who's close to DHH. He claims that Basecamp has a very very very selective recruiting process. To the point where finding talent is extremely difficult. I suspect their litmus for excellence is the real reason their seemingly "guardrail-free culture" works as well as it does, not the other way around.
- johne20 9y agoIs there any insight publicly available regarding their hiring processes? I am interested in successful small software companies practices in particular, not google/facebook/et al, scale.
- briandear 9y agoGiven their retention rates, I'm pretty sure they're doing well in "reality." I don't have data handy, but last time I heard about it, they have very low attrition.
- dasmoth 9y agoHere’s one which isn’t exactly negative (and note that it’s hosted on their blog...) but does have an example of an employee running up against some limits. Found it pretty thought-provoking when originally published: https://m.signalvnoise.com/to-smile-again-ae0ba9f2198c https://m.signalvnoise.com/to-smile-again-ae0ba9f2198c
- hitekker 9y agoI liked parts of the article but this passage really struck me as cultish: > He [the founder] was right. He was absolutely right. In hindsight, this was something I [the employee] should have thought to talk to him about from the start. But it never occurred to me, and David’s insistence that we not teach the seminars was like a bucket of ice water over my head. I felt like I had been punched in the gut. The metaphorical rug had been pulled out from under me. > I don’t fault David at all, and I even agree that he was right to do what he did. But at the time I felt immensely betrayed. Capistrano was supposed to be my baby! Why, then, had I just discovered a limit beyond which I was not allowed to take it? You had a disagreement with your boss and you eventually came round to his position... but it's written like a paean to Basecamp's founder. I get that the author could totally feel this way... I still would have asked for him to tone it down a notch, lest people think the company was forcing an apology.
- resca79 9y agoI like this question. Well I can talk about my company. I'm the CTO of http://prestofood.it http://prestofood.it a small delivery food company based on Sicily. We started with fews resources and we made around 3.000 orders per month. We started from one city with a small team 2 developers. Here our initial configuration: * Heroku 7.00 per month * Rails app * Android and iOS app developed with Turbolinks plugin. Now we are in 3 other cities and we made a cms and backoffice to handle the orders workflow and we developed a printer system with raspberry-pi. Currently we are the biggest company of delivery food in the south of Italy. We have no investors
- jasongill 9y agoYour reply reads like an advertisement for your company, and doesn't mention anything about your corporate culture, which is what OP was asking about.
- resca79 9y agoI think that people that read this news are not our potential customer :) Our culture is implicit in our It stack, we started really small and growing around of orders number with no following the current startup culture(that basecamp team doesn't like it ) We started small and stay still small.
- peterlk 9y agoI work for Aha![0]. I'm wary of trying to define the culture of one company in terms of another, so I'll just tell you about where I work, and you can decide. We are a fully distributed team, and we build a lovable product. We published a book called Lovability[1] to help explain how we do it. We support each other, congratulate each other, and push hard to make it happen; these things require trust and talent in every part of the organization. I am a better person (and engineer) for having worked at this company. Here are the pillars of our culture[2]: * Have purpose: You know what you are working towards. You are aware of what success is and guided back to the purpose if you wind up in the weeds. * Value work: You have the opportunity to achieve and to do something important. Doing great work is valued and recognized. * Teach hard: Direct feedback is given on a regular basis to help you improve your skills every day. * Grows talent: There is a framework for success, people are trained on it and given room to grow. There is trust that people will step into challenging roles as the organization needs them to. Promotions occur from within. * Honor reality: Neither time nor money is invested in manipulation. Work is guided by values and purpose. * Work it: Work sometimes requires great effort. However, it does not burn you out but instead keeps you going. Some of my favorite blog posts: * https://blog.aha.io/your-success-think-like-a-grandpa/ * all of these :) - https://blog.aha.io/author/why-i-joined-aha/ * https://blog.aha.io/your-remote-co-workers-feel-left-out/ * https://blog.aha.io/hey-boss-stop-telling-me-to-bring-you-solutions/ [0] https://aha.io https://aha.io [1] https://www.amazon.com/Lovability-Build-Business-People-Happy/dp/1626344035/ https://www.amazon.com/Lovability-Build-Business-People-Happ... [2] https://blog.aha.io/signs-you-love-your-job/ https://blog.aha.io/signs-you-love-your-job/
- MrDrone 9y agoI work at Zapier and have for more than 2 years. Internally, we talk about Basecamp as one of the ideals we strive for and reference their writing frequently. We're all remote and pride ourselves on being humble, helpful and have a proper work life balance. We sometimes describe it as a midwestern work ethic. I'm not a founder or executive at Zapier so I can't pitch it from that perspective but as a happy employee and fellow fan of Basecamp I think you should check us out. http://zapier.com/about http://zapier.com/about
- wedaugtwo 9y agoI've seen companies that share some (or most) of Basecamp's culture, but I've yet to see one that truly values "personal time" by having a 4-day work week during the summer. And not that 10 hours for 4 days schedule, but actually 8 hours for 4 days.
- dasmoth 9y agoTreehouse had a (year-round) 4day/32hour week for a while. But seem to have abandoned it now... (I’m all for shorter work weeks but the seasonality of the Basecamp version seems to make a few assumptions...)
- wedaugtwo 9y agoGood point about the seasonality issue. I do wonder if they will eventually make it the norm if they see there is no real productivity drop.
- nathantotten 9y agoAuth0 is probably pretty close. I spent 3 years there (recently left, but not because of anything negative with the company). They hire remote, they are super flexible with work hours, etc. Culture is that of basically be responsible and get your work done. Really high bar on hiring though so it can be tough to get in, but if you do get in it’s an awesome place to work. Retention is super high - I was one of the few people who have ever left the company voluntarily. ;) I know they are hiring for lots of positions as well. auth0.com/jobs
- Ecco 9y agoI assume you meant retention is super high :)
- nathantotten 9y agoYes. Thanks. :)
- meesterdude 9y agoit's a great question to ask. Lots of great takeaways to be had from their culture, and many would do well to try and adopt some of them. But what i've observed is there is a tendency to rationalize away much of what basecamp advocates. Sure, it SOUNDS smart and good, but who needs frameworks really? "Rails is overkill" Or work/life balance? "it's about the hustle" or job satisfaction? "we're changing the world of ___". Basecamp is championed because at every decision, a reflection is made on the impact it has on the workers. That's why they created ruby on rails and why it is the most productive and enjoyable to use. That's why they hire remote and build a tool that helps remote workers. That's why they have sane project schedules, sane work schedules, and give back where they can. They are a creator focused organization, and optimize for creativity and focus. Most companies do not make such optimizations for their workforce. They have their own specific vision, their own timetable, and their own checkboxes to hit: staffing numbers, tech stack choices, retention numbers, sales goals, etc. To them, workers are more cog-like and treated as such. There's also often venture funding involved - which creates specific pressures that basecamp is specifically free from. TLDR: It takes a degree of humility, stubbornness, charity, empathy and perspective to do the things basecamp does for the reasons basecamp does it; that most do not posses or have interest in. But we would do well to raise these as standards and expectations; the demand for real leadership of a company.
- _____s 9y agoCustomer.io will come pretty close! Fully remote, great team, great culture. I've only recently started working here, but it's been a great place to work. Their interview process was also the best I've come across so far.
- bruncun 9y agoI work remotely for WorkBeast, a staffing company. We're not tech-driven or a startup, but we're bootstrapped and profitable. My workdays are spent on our custom internal CRM (Rails + AngularJS). I respond directly to the CEO, and have a lot of freedom and responsibility when it comes to my job. Prior I worked for a handful of local startups and digital agencies - this is the closest to Basecamp culture I've found so far. Some small non-tech companies share more in common with Basecamp than a lot of tech companies do. (Sorry, we're not hiring.)
- scrumper 9y agoI realize this is off topic. Hope you don’t mind a couple of questions - I’m always interested in companies which choose to invest in custom-built software for seemingly non-core functions. What was the justification for building an internal CRM vs customizing an API-rich commercial system like Pipedrive. How was the decision made? Did you review SAAS or installed offerings first? Do you consider CRM to be a core part of the business, or does it offer a competitive advantage to the company? Cheers!
- bruncun 9y agoNo worries! Unfortunately, the decision was made long before my arrival, so I'm not entirely sure - but I asked about that too during my interview. My CEO reviewed a few SAAS including Salesforce but none of them made sense for how he worked. Now, I've reviewed SAAS for other purposes with him, and my guess is that pitches went poorly. My boss is particular about his business, and I've witnessed more than one demo fall apart when customization came up. The CRM could someday be a core part of the business. It probably offers us the same competitive advantage that a secret recipe benefits a restaurant. I've also integrated into it some nifty functionality I haven't seen yet on the market. But ultimately, the business is driven by staffing.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- w0rldart 9y agoCloudreach is an amazing place to work for! Been voted amongst the greatest places to work a number of times, and it's for good reason... the projects are challenging, the perks are amazing, the people are wonderful, company is growing very fast and they live up to its core values: * Be easy to work with * Promote personal growth * Be one step ahead * Respect the individual and individuality Feel free to find me, I'd be happy to help out.