Building the right team with Jason Fried

About this episode

Adam Wathan discusses hiring strategies with Jason Fried, focusing on building the right team for Tailwind Labs.

Adam wants to start the process of growing the team at Tailwind Labs, but knowing exactly who, when, and how to hire people (and have them actually work out) is a lot harder than expected. In this episode, he sits down with Jason Fried, founder and CEO of 37signals, to get all of Jason's best advice about hiring. Timestamps (00:00) - Talking hiring with Jason Fried (02:04) - Knowing when it's time to hire (04:57) - Grouping different responsibilities into single roles (11:49) - Example: Delegating some of Adam's responsibilities at Tailwind Labs (20:47) - Hiring to get more done vs. free up more time (23:58) - Stuff Jason has successfully delegated at 37signals (31:09) - Hard truths about hiring and growing a company (40:39) - Patrick Collison — Fast (44:13) - Anxiety about making bad hires (53:28) - Letting people go (54:55) - Jason's advice on making new hires successful (58:49) - Giving feedback (01:01:32) - Assessing good judgment (01:05:18) - Reviewing candidates Links Adam on Twitter Ben on Twitter Jason on Twitter Patrick Collison — Fast

People in this episode

Host: Adam Wathan

Guest: Jason Fried

Topics covered

• hiring
• team building
• entrepreneurship
• delegation
• company growth
• leadership

Keywords

• hiring
• team growth
• delegation
• leadership advice
• company culture
• job roles
• feedback
• candidate assessment

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tailwind Labs, 37signals

More episodes of Hackers Incorporated

• Ben Spent $600 on Amp credits · January 27, 2026 · 1h 1m
• 2024 year in review and plans for 2025 · January 13, 2025 · 1h 28m
• Catching up · October 4, 2024 · 45 min
• Hiring for tiny teams with Justin Jackson · May 25, 2024 · 1h 39m
• Ben steps away from Tuple · April 2, 2024 · 1h 11m
• Building the HEY Calendar with Jason Fried · January 17, 2024 · 51 min