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

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

#1

Post by kxr »

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

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

#2

Post by manuelflara »

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/

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

#3

Post by pixelmonkey »

I'm the CTO at Parse.ly, you can visit us at 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 Remote, But Here For Each Other:

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/

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

#4

Post by misiti3780 »

My 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

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

#6

Post by EpicEng »

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.

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

#7

Post by bdcravens »

Plenty 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)

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

#8

Post by jdc0589 »

Check 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.

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

#10

Post by chipgap98 »

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.

You might have just been on their blog. If you go to buffer.com you'll see they are a social media management tool
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