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Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?

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Re: Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?

#51

Post by w0rldart »

Cloudreach 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.

Re: Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?

#52

Post by hitekker »

dasmoth wrote: post #34
skrebbel wrote: post #14

Hijacking 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?

Here’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

I 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.

Re: Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?

#53

Post by toomuchtodo »

rahoulb wrote: post #28
CryoLogic wrote: post #5

Lots of remote companies if you look hard enough. Wikipedia and Automatic come to mind.

It’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.

Healthy work/life balance and career/personal development as well.

Re: Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?

#54

Post by wedaugtwo »

dasmoth wrote: post #37
wedaugtwo wrote: post #22

I'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.

Treehouse 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...)

Good 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.

Re: Ask HN: Companies with a culture similar to Basecamp's?

#56

Post by eggie5 »

EpicEng wrote: post #6
manuelflara wrote: post #2

A 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/

What does this company actually do? I read through their site and it's just really vague, to me at least.

it lets you send out tweets on a schedule.
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