37signals

Adam Robinson is the CEO and founder of Retention.com, an industry-leading Shopify Ecommerce solution for increasing cart abandonment revenue.

Adam bootstrapped Retention.com to 14M ARR with 6 people in 2.5 years, and is on the road to reaching 50M ARR by 2024. 

Retention.com delivers innovative customer growth solutions for e-commerce brands to monetize their first-party audience, successfully generating over $1bn in retail sales for Shopify stores since its inception in early 2020. 

Before starting Retention.com, Adam founded, bootstrapped and sold Robly Email Marketing, a marketing automation SaaS, for 8 figures to private equity in 2021. 

Adam is on a mission to support startup founders by sharing lessons learned from his entrepreneurial journey through his weekly podcast “10 years in the Making”, and posts content twice-daily on LinkedIn. 

When he’s not busy building a unicorn startup in public, he’s spending time with his wife, Helen, newborn daughter, Emma, and dog Bonnie in Austin, TX.

To learn more, visit: http://honestecommerce.co

Resources:

• Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on Youtube
• Watch the video episode to see what Adam is sharing on his screen
• Connect with Adam linkedin.com/in/retentionadam
• Shoot Adam an email if you have questions adam@retention.com
• Follow Adam on Twitter @retentionadam
• Quickly and easily grow your email list and boost your shopping cart abandonment revenue with retention marketing solutions retention.com

On this special end-of-year crossover episode, the hosts from Up Next in Commerce, Marketing Trends, and IT Visionaries meet up again to discuss their biggest takeaways from their guests over the past year, and to make some predictions for what should be an exciting 2023 in marketing, tech, and ecommerce.

Tune in to learn:

• Why your employees are your greatest customers (8:43)
• Why good business instincts can help overcome a lack of data (14:43)
• Why intuition matters, even in data-driven industries (20:47)

Mentions:

• David Ting, Zenni
• David Heinemeier Hansson, 37signals
• Stephanie Dobbs Brown, CMO, Intercontinental Exchange
• Lil’ Wayne
• Kevin Warren, UPS
• Eric Toda, Meta

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

Meetups offer remote companies an opportunity to gather away from the day-to-day for more in-depth conversations that foster deeper relationships for the team and bigger leaps for the company. 

At the beginning of October, sixty 37signals employees met up in Amsterdam for the first company-wide meetup outside the U.S.

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, the Co-founders of 37signals, discuss the importance of in-person meetups for remote companies, the structure they use for their twice-yearly team gathering, and tips and insight for other companies on planning their own offsite meetings. 

Show Notes: 

• [00:34] - The essential value of gathering the entire team together. 
• [02:05] - Why the company decided to gather outside the U.S. for their latest meetup.
• [02:29] - The changing rhythm of a global company working across several time zones. 
• [04:12] - How moving the event to Amsterdam turned it into a social experience.
• [04:51] - The priceless value of extravagant experiences and live connections to stay strong and connected as a remote company.
• [06:39] - Post COVID-19: Why the company-wide meetup experience is an expense not to be cut. 
• [07:26] - How the scarcity of the experience adds to its value.
• [07:54] - The structure 37signals uses for their meetups.
• [09:41] - How getting together as a group fosters bigger, more crystallized discussions for bigger leaps as a company.  
• [11:22] - From the intimacy of the small group dinners to the peer appreciation event, how the meetup fosters deeper relationships for the team. 
• [13:33] - Unifying the unique human experience through sharing cultural diversity.
• [15:10] - The challenges of transporting such a large and diverse group to the meetup location.  
• [15:52] - Introducing the Amsterdam meetup lessons into future events. 
• [17:04] - Jason and David share their tips and advice for other remote companies looking to host their own company meetup.

Links and Resources:

The REWORK podcast

@reworkpodcast on Twitter

@37signals on Twitter
Sign Up for 30-day FREE trial at Basecamp.com

Co-founders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson discuss decision making within an organization. Small businesses have the advantage of being nimble and able to change course quickly, so there's no reason to get caught up in the "what ifs." 

Show Notes:

• 0:47 – Avoiding overthinking and overcomplicating issues
• 1:47 – Getting rid of the "what ifs"
• 4:30 – Making decisions as small as possible
• 5:45 – The advantages small business have when it comes to being agile and nimble
• 8:30 – Getting comfortable with uncertainty
• 11:00 – Calculations and projections in decision making
• 13:50 – Deciding when to pivot on a decision
• 15:20 – The Tyranny of Metrics by Jerry Z. Muller
• 18:04 – The 37signals Guide to Making Decisions
• 19:05 – The 37signals Guide to Internal Communication
• 20:20 – Using instincts in decision making
• 22:01 – Maverick by Ricardo Semler
• 23:14 – 37signals upcoming technical blog

Sign Up for 30-day FREE trial at Basecamp.com

David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founder of 37signals, and Eron Nicholson, Director of Operations, discuss why 37signals is making the move away from the cloud.

Show Notes:

• David's piece, Why We're Leaving the Cloud
• 0:59 - 37signals history with on-premise and cloud storage
• 8:26 - How cloud solutions don't necessary reduce operations teams costs
• 10:58 - What types of companies are the best fit for cloud solutions
• 14:14 - 37signals costs for cloud solutions and potential savings with on-premise options
• 15:25 - Advantages of working with on-premise storage companies that are similar in size to 37signals
• 20:08 - What the transition might look like, including timing
• 26:02 - Advice for medium-sized companies that might be thinking about making the switch

Sign Up for 30-day FREE trial at Basecamp.com

Software itself is constantly being updated, but are some conventional approaches used by tech leaders also in need of an upgrade? David Heinemeier Hansson is the Co-owner & CTO of the software company 37signals, producer of the successful web services Basecamp and HEY. On this episode, David explains the forward-thinking methodologies that his company has successfully implemented, like championing prospective customers rather than current ones, enforcing a short six-week planning cycle, and placing a higher value on intuition over data.

Tune in to learn:

• David describes the “six-week cycle” approach at 37signals (03:30)
• How did 37signals develop its short-term planning method? (08:30 )
• The relationship between designers and programmers at 37signals (13:30)
• David’s reliance on intuition over data (29:15)
• The importance of writing and advice David received from Jeff Bezos (37:50)

IT Visionaries is powered by Salesforce Platform and Dreamforce 2022. Catch the news and insights coming out of Dreamforce this year for free on salesforce.com/plus. Content will start rolling on September 20th.

Mission.org is a media studio producing content for world-class clients. Learn more at mission.org.

This episode we are hosting Ryan Singer from Basecamp. Ryan is one of the earliest members of Basecamp. Along with Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hannson he built the first version of Basecamp. 15 years later he wrote a book on how Basecamp approaches building software. 

We talk about:

• Techniques on Shape Up
•  Why Agile doesn't work for most teams
• How to approach building software
• What you should be doing first when building software
• Why do you need to learn betting 
• How to communicate with team
• How to plan work
• Why Basecamp doesn't have product managers
• What is Basecamp looking for  when hiring 
• How to compensate in person time in remote teams

Links:

• Shape Up
• Basecamp
• Jobs to be Done
• iPad Pro
• Apple Pencil
• Notability
• Zoom
• Economist

Credits:

• Gramatik for music

Mig Reyes is a writer and traditionally trained graphic designer who found himself designing for the web before the UI and UX designers were common job titles. In addition to being the co-president of AIGA Chicago, he's formerly worked at Tock, Basecamp, and Threadless, really blazing a trail of beautiful spaces and experiences on the web. Now Mig is taking his talent and experience to Trunk Club as a design lead. On this episode of Well Made, Stephan talks to Mig about his role in the conception of these iconic web companies, and how he sees the role of the designer evolving.

Visit the Lumi Blog for examples of Mig's work and highlights from the episode.

Should you start a SaaS company in 2016? Does it still make sense to run a SaaS as a solopreneur?

(Originally posted on the MegaMaker podcast)

SaaS isn’t a destination. It’s just a licensing and delivery model. Don’t treat it like a religion!

Show notes

• Had two separate friends from the internet visit me this past week! Photos.
• Justin's book is out! He's sold 666 copies so far. He'd like to get to 1,000 copies. Get a special podcast deal here.
• See Jolt's books reviews.
• The fiery blog post: SaaS is ripe for disruption. Have we reached peak SaaS?
• Commander Keen
• What's a BBS?
• Examples of SaaS companies: Freshbooks, MailChimp, Squarespace. You pay a monthly fee, and access the software via your web browser.
• Rob Walling on episode 292 of Startups for the Rest of Us
• Our theme music is by Striker-Metal.com
• Podcast hosting by Simplecast.fm

Want to support the show?

The only way I can keep making cool stuff (like this podcast) is if fans support the show! There's two ways you can help:

1. Buy something I've made. My new book is less than $12 with this coupon.
2. Leave a review for the show! Go to iTunes, search for Product People and click ★★★★★

🎙️ Podcast hosting is provided by Transistor.fm.
📺 Learn how to start your own podcast!

Should you start a SaaS company in 2016? Does it still make sense to run a SaaS as a solopreneur?

(Originally posted on the MegaMaker podcast)

SaaS isn’t a destination. It’s just a licensing and delivery model. Don’t treat it like a religion!

Show notes

• Had two separate friends from the internet visit me this past week! Photos.
• Justin's book is out! He's sold 666 copies so far. He'd like to get to 1,000 copies. Get a special podcast deal here.
• See Jolt's books reviews.
• The fiery blog post: SaaS is ripe for disruption. Have we reached peak SaaS?
• Commander Keen
• What's a BBS?
• Examples of SaaS companies: Freshbooks, MailChimp, Squarespace. You pay a monthly fee, and access the software via your web browser.
• Rob Walling on episode 292 of Startups for the Rest of Us
• Our theme music is by Striker-Metal.com
• Podcast hosting by Simplecast.fm

Want to support the show?

The only way I can keep making cool stuff (like this podcast) is if fans support the show! There's two ways you can help:

1. Buy something I've made. My new book is less than $12 with this coupon.
2. Leave a review for the show! Go to iTunes, search for Product People and click ★★★★★

Nate Kontny, the new CEO of Highrise, joins me to talk about the path he's been on that lead to him becoming head of the company recently spun out of Basecamp.