Hackers Incorporated

In this episode, Adam and Ben share some personal updates on lake houses, gym equipment, and luxury electric vehicles, and answer listener questions on topics like things they'd change when starting over, how to be more valuable as an employee, the point in their businesses that had the biggest impact on their happiness, and would they ever sell their companies.Discuss this episode on Twitter → Timestamps(00:00) - Personal updates (27:18) - "How come you've never released a trailer for Hackers Inc. on Art of Product?" (30:44) - "What's something you'd do differently if you were starting a business today?" (41:42) - "What would you do the same if you were starting a business today?" (45:24) - "What does your ideal employee look like?" (53:40) - "How often do you reflect on how far you've come?" (59:28) - "What was your biggest change in net happiness while running your businesses?" (01:10:56) - "Would you ever sell the company?" LinksAdam on TwitterBen on Twitter

Last year, Adam got very serious about losing weight and getting in shape and lost 70 pounds, getting to about 12% body fat and maintaining enough strength to still bench 315. In this episode, Adam and Ben talk about Adam's weight loss story and all the specific tips and tactics he used to overcome a lifetime of bad eating habits, change his relationship with food, and kick ass in the gym.Discuss this episode on Twitter → Timestamps(00:00) - Introduction (01:16) - Adam's weight loss story (03:27) - Working with an accountability coach (10:17) - How to eat less food (22:11) - Macros aren't your biggest problem (24:27) - Tracking what you eat (30:20) - Protein shakes (33:20) - A day of eating in Adam's life (37:35) - Adam's training background (41:37) - Adam's current training routine (47:17) - Using a training partner or personal trainer for accountability (48:37) - Adam's morning routine (50:30) - Training to build muscle vs training to maintain (53:53) - Mobility LinksAdam on TwitterBen on TwitterMyBodyTutorLose It!

Enterprise sales gets a bad rap amongst indie founders, but at Tuple it's become an important part of their business model. In this episode, Ben shares all his tips and tricks on how to sell to enterprise customers as a small startup without letting it slow you down.Discuss this episode on Twitter →Timestamps(00:00) - Ben's notes on enterprise sales (02:58) - Ben's first time (04:56) - Tactic: Build a product that can grow bottom-up (07:12) - Tactic: Ask buyers to answer their own questions (08:34) - Tactic: Say no to more than you think (16:11) - Tactic: Your pricing should make you uncomfortable (25:38) - Tactic: Charge more for SAML single sign-on (27:50) - Tactic: Don't sign something without charging a lot (28:34) - Tactic: Put an expiration date on your quotes (29:12) - Tactic: Dodge pricing pushback with quarterly payments (31:06) - Tactic: Make sure you lose some deals because of price (33:26) - How procurement works (37:54) - How important is enterprise sales for Tuple? (47:59) - Tactic: Ask procurement, "what helps this deal get done faster" (49:49) - Tactic: Have a /security page on your website (53:07) - Tactic: Use Y Combinator's sales agreement template (55:47) - Tactic: You probably won't be sued LinksAdam on TwitterBen on TwitterTuple's /security pageY Combinator — Sales Agreement

After over 20 years in business and despite being responsible for a larger-than-ever team, David still finds plenty of time to get his hands in the code and build new products himself. We run significantly younger companies and significantly smaller teams and even we can't seem to find the space to do that, so we talked to DHH about how he makes it possible.Discuss this episode on Twitter →Timestamps(00:00) - “Why the fuck did I do this?” (06:20) - What is minimalist management? (10:56) - Should you need to be a trained life coach to be allowed to hire people? (16:12) - Using systems to provide career progression guidance (18:50) - What do David’s days usually look like? (27:13) - What are David’s responsibilities at Basecamp, and what are people counting on him for day-to-day? (29:38) - How David and Jason use their Shape Up framework to give people more responsibility at Basecamp (36:30) - Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable when giving people more responsibility (45:54) - Letting people go when they can't live up to the responsibility (47:14) - What systems do the 37signals team rely on that that haven't already been talked about publicly? (50:04) - Letting people make decisions you may have to correct and being comfortable correcting them (55:03) - Radical candor and redirecting feedback (01:00:55) - How to say no to opportunities and being willing to take risks (01:11:22) - Learning to stop worrying when you finally do succeed LinksAdamBenDavid

Jason Cohen’s talk “Designing the Ideal Bootstrapped Business” from 2013 is a classic in the bootstrapper canon. In this episode, Jason joins Adam and Ben to see how the talk holds up a decade after its creation. Timestamps00:00 Intro00:27 Designing the ideal bootstrapped business06:53 Recurring revenue vs one-off sales13:30 Getting all the LTV up front18:31 Product validation24:56 Creating a cash machine26:05 Where does growth come from?41:25 Annual prepays46:41 Increasing your prices51:56 What new advice is there since this talk?59:00 What about freemium?01:03:39 What happens next?01:08:58 Picking an idea that's compatible with the life you want to live01:12:16 Ideas for TailwindLinksAdamBenJason

Ben Orenstein (Tuple) and Adam Wathan (Tailwind CSS) are back on the mics. Today they reflect on 2022 and lessons they’ve learned. Ben has some thoughts on delegation, priorities and enterprise sales, while Adam explains how he made time for proof of concepts and has figured a way to actually follow his to-do list.Timestamps00:00 Intro02:11 Setting priorities05:11 Shaping up08:27 Don't allocate everyone to every project15:46 Top down management17:13 Delegation gone wrong can still be a success22:06 Don't make your to-do list a chore list24:00 Declaring calendar bankruptcy27:43 Don't make promises future you has to pay for30:09 Make decisions quickly32:54 Making time for proofs of concept37:25 Bluffing in enterprise sales40:38 Doing things the way you want to, as much as you can afford toLinksAdamBen