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it is so hard not to introduce you as Jason creed of 37 signals you can do
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that I just correct you know that you and I will also admit I'm going yeah I
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will admit that when you tweeted the announcement I fell for it I figure if
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you get exactly what you wrote but you're like something like after
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thirteen years after 14 years it's been a good run but it's
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time to leave 37 signals and I was like that and I was like wow I i really was
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just like I fell for it hook line and sinker and then I click through course
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the big news is that you would you tell you what that would have you guys done
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well I'm the new CEO Microsoft great timing that I decided to switch we we've
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switched the company around a bit so we're now base camp so we decided that
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37 signals as a name and as a company is no longer and instead you're gonna focus
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exclusively on just one product that's base camp and with that we're gonna
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change the name of the company to base camp just to reinforce the fact that
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that's what we're all about and it's good for reinforcements internal
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internally and also externally and that's what we're doing now
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innocent you know I think instant messenger right afterwards I thought
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about it and it was like you know as soon as you said I was like whoa that's
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crazy and then I thought about you know what that is
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such base camp thing to do I have the same reaction when I first came up with
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the idea
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hurts first start thinking about this next this is ninety it was tossed around
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Ryan singer in Iran's someone who works with me for a long time
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yeah he's been with me since 2003 it was it has been now he's been around for a
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long time in a few years ago we started sort of tossing the idea around but not
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not as clearly but there was something in the works there and then it just hit
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me again in August and it just made sense and but when I first thought about
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it again I have seen this is kind of nuts I mean 37 signals has been around
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for 15 years we've a lot of people know about us a lot of people know about the
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name there's a lot of history with the company and its just crazy just to
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change your name but it all made sense the more I thought about it just was so
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absolutely spot-on
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that we had to do it but the big thing is that it's not and you guys clarify
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this year's have a great FAQ 37 signals dot-com domain but the main point here
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something like this in a company makes a big change like this usually I would say
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I'm almost overwhelmingly usually it's because they're in trouble or or it's
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bad news in some way and this is it's the opposite you guys have never been
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how many people do you have any employees with 42 now that's crazy to me
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when you guys were you guys for years we're working out of Mike's spare office
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space could all studio that's right there's like five desks and we had a few
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extra people gornji cago but for a long time we've been fewer than 10 and we've
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we've been in business for a long time so just a few years you have a few more
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people we've never gone on a hiring spree earning like that but over time
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you know it just compounds and some other people but you guys you guys have
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cut products but you guys are not cutting staff at all now near business
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has never been better for us revenues profits highest they've ever been
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and this year this is not a cutting staff were cutting back because we need
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to it's because we want to and and now everybody the company all of us are
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going to focus on the same thing so there's plenty of work to go around I
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was just talking about this you know you've been around for a long time so
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you remember this software development lease on the web use to be so simple it
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was you just make a web out and now you know Basecamp basically is five products
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its base camp its base camp for iPhone or working on base camp for iPad right
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now its base camp for Android to just announced and you know you could say its
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base camp for gmail is Basecamp works really well technically all separate
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platform separate code bases we review some web use here and there but you know
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they're really different so even if you have one product you you have five
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products now and that's a lot of work so there's a workaround yeah I was just
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saying on last week's show them to you soon think that's the key to Facebook
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remaining relevant and successful even a facebook came up and exploded and when I
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P O during this whole period where the whole industry has has shifted where it
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was created and it was just a web web thing you type facebook.com in a browser
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and at age Facebook but they've clearly made a change where they see Facebook as
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a service and there are there's the website and there are apps and apps
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might be on the phone tablet may be anywhere but it's not just a web page
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anymore or a web app yeah and you know it's it's funny because Facebook
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Facebook's been doing a bunch of a bunch of these smaller apps I'm sure they have
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many more planned and even though its Facebook the company in facebook the
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product they they have a right about the things that they're working on and other
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products that time do it and it really is more of a service it's almost like a
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protocol or something now and and you know that's how they can keep all these
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great engineers busy because there's a lot of stuff going on such as
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facebook.com anymore and so we're gonna we're in the same boat obviously much
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smaller scale but was actually funny as base camps birthday in Facebook's
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birthday or the same day
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you put on your companies in February 4th 2004 week we officially announced
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base camp on our blog and the fifth so that's technically how when we announced
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it but it actually went live the night before in the fourth so it's kind of
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funny to see how things have shaken out over 10 years you know what that's funny
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you say that I never would have thought of it otherwise but it totally rings a
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bell because here's what I remember is I first announced marked down as a public
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beta in March of 2004 and I'm getting I don't know how long ago on ten years but
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what I remember is and I don't remember how I did this I don't because of my
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sons birthday was last month
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2004 he just turned 10 so I don't know in hindsight how in the world did the
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initial version of mark down in like the month before in two months after my son
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was born I think it's because I got no sleep and so it was just a way that I
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think that I think it was actually like in hindsight it doesn't make any sense
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to me but I think it was like I was actually more productive because I had
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had no sleep yet you knew you weren't gonna sleep so what do you do work but
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what I remember is that when when you guys launched base camp I was really
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close to announcing marked down but I hadn't told a lot of people about it and
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you guys launched with textile sport
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that was a disaster for us you know although it was good at the time because
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that's kind of that's all there was and then right on came out and it was funny
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and it's funny back down like there wasn't really was a wig and there were
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some really early stuff but it was pretty terrible because the browser's
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weren't really capable of doing this stuff and so but what will we regret it
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ultimately was you know the transition away from from textile we cut that off
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moving that over allowing all those messages that have been written to be
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rendered in another thing which is a huge huge nightmare that was that was a
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mass anyway and consistory but does it do remember now I remember that it was
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like you guys came first and it was really close I remember that now too
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yeah I mean I I don't know what we would have done I probably would have been
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marked down so much more elegant than I ever was so I would if we are up against
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it in that moment again there was two things available I'm almost certain
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would go with mark down but i wouldnt needed to be a couple months ahead of
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schedule but it coulda shoulda so what are the products that you guys are are
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looking for a new home for so just to give some background there it's was
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really important to us that when we made this announcement that we're very clear
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about a couple other things and one as you know we have some other very
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successful products and campfire we have high rise be a backpack with a few other
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backpack is a product that we we kind of retired although our definition retired
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little bit different so explain that in a second but few years ago we decided no
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longer to sell backpack wouldn't sell it anymore but anyone who was using it can
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continue to use it so we have made a commitment to our customers and
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ourselves that we will support our products
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until the end of the Internet is kind of how we think about it here as long as
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we're in business we will support products that are under our name even if
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we no longer develop them but we will keep them up
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will provide customer service on them will do all the security patches we need
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to care about performance and stuff we won't add new features to be more in
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maintenance mode so we did this with with backpack a few years ago and now
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it's time to consider what to do with with campfire high-rise and again same
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thing we don't want to let any customers down or leave them hanging so we're
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looking for new homes for these products at companies that would really want to
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run these products and not absorb them into some existing product we want them
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to to live on on their own but if for whatever reason we simply cannot find
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the right fit
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we've committed to maintaining those products and making sure they're still
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available for as long as we're still in business which is hopefully decades from
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now so that's that's where the way we're handling this so customers don't get
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screwed cuz it's not their fault that we're making this decision and we don't
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want them to be left out and campfire is just like basically it's it's a good
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group chat group chat with her simple came up 2006 and it's basically just
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just chat rooms for business and part of that is so I guess we can touch on that
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a bit but you guys are big you know literally written a book on it
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remote working and it is sort of you know that but where the name comes from
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its kinda like sitting around the virtual campfire to wait for remote
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teams to stay in touch throughout the day
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remote teams and and local teams I think it depends on the kind of company or
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these chat is trapped products there's a lot of them out there today and they all
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relatively new basically the same thing mister fromm takes on and stuff but for
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the most part they're really popular development teams software developers
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were really working on stuff all the time but a back and forth even people
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who are working nearby each other they like for example in our office in
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Chicago most of our comm we have a room and in our campfire account called
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Chicago talk when we talk about
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young people were in the room of people from Chicago and there's someone from
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Ann Arbor using it to close enough and and we talked about local stuff even
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though we're all sitting the same office we use campfire for that because it's
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actually a better way to have these kind of discussions rather than interrupting
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each other out loud all the time we can just kind of shimon in this room and
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drops images and links in and drop some stuff that's appropriate so it's good
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for any size any kind of team that needs to work together want to communicate
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serving real time without bothering each other right and and maybe to go back
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again to like 1999 in those days the only thing everything like that was well
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let's just let's set up everything was squeezed in the email and it would be
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but here's our company mailing list and then you'd set up a separate mailing
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list for Chicago company and then all of a sudden your email has thirteen
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different inboxes and if you hurt you know that was a problem and so that was
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the reason we built this also if you're really on top of things you might have
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an IRC you know room set up but that's highly technical and was entirely
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appropriate for most companies so there's no way that you can use instant
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messaging and have group instant messages which was fine but they weren't
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persistent and so there's nowhere to go to have a conversation you had to be
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invited to conversations all the time it was conquered complicated so that's
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where the idea came for came up and then high-rise is what will you said the
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phrase CRM CRM yeah I rises is actually our second most popular park behind base
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camp and is it is a huge project and very successful business in its own
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right it's basically way to keep track of the people you talk to what you talk
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to them about and we need to follow up with them next so it's
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it's it's it's CRM technically which is customer relationship management but
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it's more about keeping track of conversations people you you deal with
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and we built it because at the time we're getting popular with the press the
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press was emailing us a lot asking us questions you doing interviews and I
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just started losing track of who I talk to I forgot I talk to this person for
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who should I buy pitched where are we in the process of this the story and i was
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just using my you know using email
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much everyone does to try and contracts up in pretty quickly
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you lose you lose track of it all and so we built high-rise to keep track of all
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the conversations we had with them but the media and also the time where you
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live increase from venture capital firms and we need a place to keep track of
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that stuff too and so that's sort of how high rise came to be you know it's
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morphed into a tool a lot of sales people use small small-scale you know
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it's not trying to be Salesforce it's it's much simpler to offer much smaller
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sales teams that's exactly where I was going that which is that to me it it's
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it was a very natural successor to base camp because base camp in a knot is
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project management and project management traditionally is a
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notoriously the big names in project management software are notoriously big
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monolithic complicated systems yeah I mean really really big stuff
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and just OK when you just sit down and and base camp is was it just came out of
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the gate as a sort of let's forget let's not try to simplify the the existing
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monolithic idea of project management software lets throw it all away start
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with a blank piece of paper and just build something simple from the start
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and I think high-rises the same way with CRM it was and that's how we try to
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approach everything went right for project management you know all the
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tools that existed at the time were pretty much like microsoft project which
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was Gantt charts and project schedules and more of a broadcast to all and what
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we need it wasn't that we needed just a way to communicate with each other
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shared designed share ideas get feedback from clients that kind of stuff and so
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that wasn't what project management was about the time we we saw it differently
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we saw his communication not control so we made a communications platform
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basically for that and in high-rise with similar there's there's a lot of them
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there's no there's even more of course but there was some big-time CRM type
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type tools out there and you know they were just overkill for keeping track of
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simple conversations between people that you needed and business it wasn't about
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sales pipelines and it wasn't about you know it
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extensive tracking of sales people and how they're performing it was just like
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I need to keep our conversations in a way that makes sense to me and not have
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them just like tagged in inbox is where I can't really follow things and then if
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i'm having conversation to hand it over to David or someone else at the company
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that you can't do that in email your so you're kinda screwed that moment give to
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me before the huge threat of things it's just a total mass so high rises kind of
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shared shared communication shared history of communication and it just
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made a lot of sense for us to go in that direction
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yeah and I think it was they're both really perfectly timed
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for the you know again we're talking about ten fifteen years here but it's so
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much has changed in the last ten fifteen years in terms of not just the way we
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use software where everything is internet-connected and it's either in a
[TS]
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web browser or it's somehow talking 8 TTP is it syncs your phone or tablet or
[TS]
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whatever but but just the way that everybody talks about bring your own
[TS]
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devices to work and and this movement but there's really a lot of almost
[TS]
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choose your own software you know where and and word you know people are working
[TS]
00:17:09
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in smaller teams in a lot of people are broken off and you just pick what you
[TS]
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want to use and use it and I think stark contrast to like when I was in college
[TS]
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in the nineties and it seemed like companies everything was the enterprise
[TS]
00:17:23
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quote unquote and everything went through you know people don't just buy
[TS]
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software demos in and sign up they they went through procurement and the people
[TS]
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picking the software weren't the people using it and it's just that was just how
[TS]
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it was done and I think that's how you everything got into these situations
[TS]
00:17:42
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worked software was so inordinately complex because it was sold
[TS]
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you know based on how many features it had only met that's that's it that's
[TS]
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it's a simple as i think is that the in you you said which is that the people
[TS]
00:17:56
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who are buying the software back down when two people were using it so their
[TS]
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their their rules and reasons for buying something didn't line up with the people
[TS]
00:18:02
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who need it so a lot of people were buying it where you know if you're
[TS]
00:18:05
◼
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comparing 3 year for things you know you're going to get the win the longer
[TS]
00:18:10
◼
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list of things you know because like it costs about the same why not get more
[TS]
00:18:15
◼
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stuff well if that's that's that's the criteria that you use if you're
[TS]
00:18:19
◼
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purchasing something for somebody else but if you're approaching something for
[TS]
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yourself you're gonna look at things like simplicity ease of use clarity does
[TS]
00:18:25
◼
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this make sense as fast as it functional in a way that makes sense to me is
[TS]
00:18:28
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flexible and those are the things that matter and an enterprise software
[TS]
00:18:32
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there's a huge disconnect their tools like base camp you know our products are
[TS]
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used in pretty much every every major company every big huge company fortune
[TS]
00:18:43
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500 not every single one but
[TS]
00:18:45
◼
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most of them but they're used by small teams inside these companies and they've
[TS]
00:18:49
◼
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they've kind of done an end-around in that they're not really permitted in
[TS]
00:18:52
◼
►
some cases to use them but they do because they work and I love those kind
[TS]
00:18:57
◼
►
of rogue moves in companies because people just want something that works
[TS]
00:19:00
◼
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and though but you know they'll take 50 bucks a month on their own pocket to
[TS]
00:19:04
◼
►
paper-based camper 20 bucks a month depending on the tears just so they
[TS]
00:19:09
◼
►
could have something that works because that the software that's been forced on
[TS]
00:19:11
◼
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them does not work and so we have a lot of customers and a lot of places and we
[TS]
00:19:17
◼
►
don't have any sales people but yet you know huge airlines use our products in
[TS]
00:19:21
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in universities in huge governments and you did you know big big places that
[TS]
00:19:25
◼
►
normally would have to be sold something and frankly we could probably never sell
[TS]
00:19:30
◼
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Basecamp into an airline like that's not what we would ever want to do but I love
[TS]
00:19:35
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that the marketing department might be using either the design department might
[TS]
00:19:38
◼
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be using in order for the mark you know the advertising group in the company
[TS]
00:19:41
◼
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might be using it that's that's great that happens all the time I mean and
[TS]
00:19:45
◼
►
that's part of it too comes from your guy's background before you became a
[TS]
00:19:53
◼
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software company where you guys were doing client services you know people
[TS]
00:19:56
◼
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would hire 37 signals to do their website and so you guys have it's not
[TS]
00:20:02
◼
►
just you have the products you guys have always had to me very interesting
[TS]
00:20:07
◼
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product websites that base can you go to Basecamp dot com it sells itself is it
[TS]
00:20:14
◼
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supposed to and I guess if you decide you guys don't even have any sales
[TS]
00:20:16
◼
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people that must yeah it's interesting it's changed over the years so when we
[TS]
00:20:21
◼
►
first launched base camp I mean it was a new idea so we really had to explain the
[TS]
00:20:25
◼
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product in a way but but lately you know almost all of our business comes from
[TS]
00:20:30
◼
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word of mouth and we know that because customers tell us this and we can tell
[TS]
00:20:36
◼
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we don't do any outward spend we're not into SEO and PPC meanwhile six thousand
[TS]
00:20:41
◼
►
people a week
[TS]
00:20:42
◼
►
success and companies agency week or something up a base camp 6,000 every
[TS]
00:20:46
◼
►
single week we don't do any SEO don't do any Edwards don't have a marketing
[TS]
00:20:49
◼
►
budget don't buy ads anywhere else
[TS]
00:20:51
◼
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salespeople so this is a word of mouth thing and when when when word of mouth
[TS]
00:20:58
◼
►
when people come to Basecamp dot com today we're assuming that they kind of
[TS]
00:21:02
◼
►
heard of base camp at some point someone told them about hey guys check this out
[TS]
00:21:06
◼
►
or they've used it somewhere else that other companies that they were working
[TS]
00:21:08
◼
►
with working for or maybe they use their previous job and other new job and they
[TS]
00:21:13
◼
►
want to bring Basecamp into the new place so we've changed our our messaging
[TS]
00:21:17
◼
►
it's actually a lot less we just launched a new site last week this sort
[TS]
00:21:20
◼
►
of fun kind of throwback site which we can talk about it if you're curious but
[TS]
00:21:25
◼
►
the sites really now more about you know hey we've been around for a long time
[TS]
00:21:30
◼
►
you've probably heard of us lots of companies for lots of different things
[TS]
00:21:34
◼
►
here some of those things but it's less about the tools it's less about like we
[TS]
00:21:37
◼
►
have to do lists and we have a scheduler and we have a calendar and we have
[TS]
00:21:40
◼
►
messages it's not about the tool so much anymore it's more about what's the
[TS]
00:21:44
◼
►
outcome you know what he can to get out of this product
[TS]
00:21:46
◼
►
how many other people are using it to I feel comfortable with it because other
[TS]
00:21:49
◼
►
people have used to you know we've heard about from someone else you're in the
[TS]
00:21:52
◼
►
right place that kind of stuff so we've sort of shifted a little bit that way
[TS]
00:21:55
◼
►
but we've always been very heavy on on the message and writing and our our
[TS]
00:22:00
◼
►
sites have always had more words than everybody else's but we we think that
[TS]
00:22:03
◼
►
you know the writings tight and concise and we think that people and your writer
[TS]
00:22:10
◼
►
you get this alot of ppl will keep saying this to say today that people
[TS]
00:22:15
◼
►
don't read on the web
[TS]
00:22:16
◼
►
the thing is they don't read bad shit on the web I mean they don't rebadged
[TS]
00:22:20
◼
►
anywhere you know if you read a bad book it's not gonna get ready to write about
[TS]
00:22:23
◼
►
magazine articles I can you read so I believe people are happy to read good
[TS]
00:22:27
◼
►
things and so we work really hard on the copy and we pushed back on this sort of
[TS]
00:22:32
◼
►
the evolution of Web Design lately which is it's very very slick a lot of like
[TS]
00:22:37
◼
►
big huge pictures backgrounds are sliding past you know parallax effect
[TS]
00:22:42
◼
►
slotting past one another you know very little taxed more and more imagery and I
[TS]
00:22:47
◼
►
just wanna push back on that that's what our new site does because
[TS]
00:22:50
◼
►
I think I don't think it's very comfortable for people to run to sites
[TS]
00:22:55
◼
►
like that I think people are more comfortable in a sort of a more of a
[TS]
00:22:59
◼
►
cozy website where it's a little bit more obvious that they get the feeling
[TS]
00:23:06
◼
►
that they know the people behind it
[TS]
00:23:08
◼
►
compared to seeing that something was designed in any fashion sort of way so I
[TS]
00:23:14
◼
►
know I'm going off track here but no that's the idea that's how we've always
[TS]
00:23:18
◼
►
been knowin and you know you when I sure very similar views on that but marketing
[TS]
00:23:23
◼
►
communication lies the thing I believe in you guys always have to is is a sort
[TS]
00:23:31
◼
►
of no bullshit tone to the pros so you can write tons you could write like you
[TS]
00:23:38
◼
►
said way more tax than than an expert might recommend for a product page but
[TS]
00:23:45
◼
►
as long as every single bit of it is carefully written not just not just you
[TS]
00:23:51
◼
►
have a lot of words because you didn't added but you have a lot of words even
[TS]
00:23:55
◼
►
though you did at it and every word serves a purpose and it's just totally
[TS]
00:24:00
◼
►
honest just be radically honest with the deep customer potential customer it can
[TS]
00:24:07
◼
►
totally work and I think it like you said it's reassuring it sounds like
[TS]
00:24:13
◼
►
these are real people talking solely in that that's how we've tried to rights
[TS]
00:24:17
◼
►
for as long as I can remember which is i wanna write like I speak you know I want
[TS]
00:24:22
◼
►
to write when someone reads whatever written I would imagine myself telling
[TS]
00:24:25
◼
►
them this thing in person and if I can't imagine that I pull back in the bullshit
[TS]
00:24:30
◼
►
meter goes off I would never say this in person I would never speak this way in
[TS]
00:24:34
◼
►
person I would never describe the private this way in person and I think
[TS]
00:24:37
◼
►
if you go to a lot of websites today in you read the text you know you go they
[TS]
00:24:44
◼
►
would never talk to me like this if I was sitting next to them or no one
[TS]
00:24:48
◼
►
actually speaks this way I think a lot of marketing copy is is is almost
[TS]
00:24:52
◼
►
written in a separate incidents in a different language it's not even in
[TS]
00:24:55
◼
►
English
[TS]
00:24:56
◼
►
it's it's it's not conversational it's a very surface level shallow I don't know
[TS]
00:25:05
◼
►
how to explain it but it's just it's another language that people don't
[TS]
00:25:07
◼
►
actually speak and so I want to make sure that our sites are written language
[TS]
00:25:12
◼
►
people understand which is just plain English very very upfront candid about
[TS]
00:25:17
◼
►
everything and and honest and friendly and and and and using some liberties to
[TS]
00:25:21
◼
►
to say things that people
[TS]
00:25:23
◼
►
corporate websites might not normally say to me when I encounter it as a user
[TS]
00:25:29
◼
►
/ customer it's not that i disbelieve it it's not that I think I'm being lied to
[TS]
00:25:35
◼
►
and what they're saying here isn't true but it's that it it puts up a good
[TS]
00:25:41
◼
►
defensive shield in front of me though where I'm thinking that way like I'm
[TS]
00:25:47
◼
►
just sort of a exaggerated analogy but little bit like when you you hear a deal
[TS]
00:25:57
◼
►
that too good to be true if you're you know I can't remember that scene in real
[TS]
00:26:02
◼
►
life but it you know
[TS]
00:26:04
◼
►
showing three-card Monte on the street corner and it looks so easy I think and
[TS]
00:26:11
◼
►
I think most people with any common sense thing while there's gotta be a
[TS]
00:26:14
◼
►
catch you're gonna get ripped off right and you may watch the game a little bit
[TS]
00:26:18
◼
►
but I'm not gonna put my $5 up because I think you know there's gotta be a catch
[TS]
00:26:21
◼
►
when I encounter marketing uses like that on a webpage I feel like I'm in the
[TS]
00:26:27
◼
►
presence of three-card Monte dealer agree and that's a terrible in my
[TS]
00:26:32
◼
►
opinion letter three-card Monte dealer it's a better way to treat customers you
[TS]
00:26:36
◼
►
know it's it's just doesn't doesn't resonate it doesn't feel like us so yeah
[TS]
00:26:41
◼
►
anyway I think that for me writing has always been a fundamental part of web
[TS]
00:26:46
◼
►
designer design in general in fact I've always been a believer the words and
[TS]
00:26:50
◼
►
more important than
[TS]
00:26:51
◼
►
then then the pixels you know that that that the best design is the best writing
[TS]
00:26:56
◼
►
and writing is the best design and I've always said that if your gonna sit
[TS]
00:27:01
◼
►
around and read as a bigger spend money to redesign a website you're better off
[TS]
00:27:04
◼
►
rewriting it deep in the existing design but rewriting it in action redesigning
[TS]
00:27:08
◼
►
it with the same content so I think that that's really ultimately what's what's
[TS]
00:27:14
◼
►
most important when you communicate which is what are you saying what does
[TS]
00:27:17
◼
►
it say and so that's something we thought a lot about what the new site
[TS]
00:27:20
◼
►
and the specially since the new site is not just representing our product
[TS]
00:27:24
◼
►
anymore but it's also representing us as a company and it's one it's sort of one
[TS]
00:27:30
◼
►
voice now it's not a corporate thing over here and products in over here it's
[TS]
00:27:33
◼
►
one thing once I take a break and thank our first sponsor and its are a good
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you hear about 2,000 videos it's probably something like you to all sorts
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00:27:57
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of crap the reason they have two thousand videos is is not because they
[TS]
00:28:01
◼
►
have all sorts of crap it's because they've been around for a long time and
[TS]
00:28:04
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they've gotten really big and have a lot of experts and there's a lot of areas
[TS]
00:28:07
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they cover but they really cultivate high quality material they have stuff to
[TS]
00:28:15
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my listeners of the show they've got a bunch of iOS developer courses to have
[TS]
00:28:20
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you next from Mac OS 10 users so anybody out there who's ever thought hey I
[TS]
00:28:25
◼
►
really like to get to know you know the stuff that you can do in terminal on Mac
[TS]
00:28:28
◼
►
OS 10 better of course is for that
[TS]
00:28:31
◼
►
Objective C iOS 7 STK new features everything from getting started to like
[TS]
00:28:37
◼
►
what's the latest stuff web development they have stuff for Pearl them stuff for
[TS]
00:28:42
◼
►
ASP PHP Javascript just about any language you can think of web
[TS]
00:28:49
◼
►
development they have courses that can help you learn it
[TS]
00:28:52
◼
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Creative Cloud what if you're less of a coder little more of a designer
[TS]
00:28:55
◼
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Photoshop si CE InDesign see see you name it they have material for After
[TS]
00:29:01
◼
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Effects Premiere Pro you name it they even have stuff they have photography
[TS]
00:29:06
◼
►
podcasting videography an incredible selection of material that's one of the
[TS]
00:29:14
◼
►
reasons they have so many things to choose from is that a cover such a broad
[TS]
00:29:18
◼
►
range of stuff really high quality material really high-quality video
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00:29:23
◼
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production top notch stuff
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00:29:25
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here's the best part you don't have to take my word for it got a special deal
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00:29:29
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just for listeners of the show go to lynda.com ly nba.com / the talk show and
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00:29:39
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you can get a seven day free trial and watch as many of these videos as you
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00:29:44
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want and see for yourself how good they are so there's anything like that that
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00:29:47
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you're looking to learn check that out and you'll thank me for it
[TS]
00:29:53
◼
►
lynda.com / the talk show so let me ask you this I mention this before so you
[TS]
00:30:00
◼
►
guys are making this big change to go to Basecamp successful as you're in a with
[TS]
00:30:08
◼
►
a successful business why did why do you mean epitomizes what you and David in
[TS]
00:30:14
◼
►
particular have to me an uncanny knack for which is is always questioning what
[TS]
00:30:22
◼
►
you're doing and and why not just when you're in trouble but even when things
[TS]
00:30:29
◼
►
are going smoothly
[TS]
00:30:32
◼
►
yourself to do that or do you feel like that just comes naturally to you guys I
[TS]
00:30:39
◼
►
think I think when things are going well you you have to at some level force
[TS]
00:30:45
◼
►
yourself to to stop and look around because
[TS]
00:30:49
◼
►
it's really easy to get lazy when things are going well just think that whatever
[TS]
00:30:53
◼
►
decisions you made the pastor the right ones and just keep writing this I think
[TS]
00:30:57
◼
►
I think when things go bad it's natural to look at what's going on and
[TS]
00:31:02
◼
►
reconsider but when things go well it's really hard to do that so you know we
[TS]
00:31:07
◼
►
don't we don't consciously do this every year but occasionally you know I get an
[TS]
00:31:12
◼
►
itch and I just don't feel like we're thinking hard enough for questioning
[TS]
00:31:17
◼
►
things hard enough and I'll typically be the one to bring this sort of stuff up
[TS]
00:31:20
◼
►
and you know I think it's it's always been in need to be a bit uncomfortable
[TS]
00:31:27
◼
►
after I've been comfortable for a while and so that's how that's all the stuff
[TS]
00:31:32
◼
►
happens and I also think it's you know all this comes back to to the way we set
[TS]
00:31:36
◼
►
our company out the network or so fun to companies so we're on our own time frame
[TS]
00:31:40
◼
►
we don't have to do things because some investors telling us to do it or the
[TS]
00:31:44
◼
►
public markets are telling us to do it so we can take our time we can be in for
[TS]
00:31:47
◼
►
the long run in and when you're when you're doing that you know companies
[TS]
00:31:52
◼
►
typically don't stick around for a long long time unless they're willing to to
[TS]
00:31:55
◼
►
make some changes once things when things change hopefully if you doing
[TS]
00:32:01
◼
►
well you can you can preempt the moments that would normally force you to make
[TS]
00:32:06
◼
►
changes if you make them too late you know I think I think that I typically
[TS]
00:32:11
◼
►
get an edge and you know it comes up different times when we launch the new
[TS]
00:32:16
◼
►
version at base camp in 2012 we we've been running the old version of base
[TS]
00:32:20
◼
►
camp which has not called base camp classic for eight years and it was doing
[TS]
00:32:23
◼
►
really well and things were great and there's really no reason to to change
[TS]
00:32:27
◼
►
except that like I found that we weren't using Basecamp as much anymore
[TS]
00:32:31
◼
►
ourselves we're using other things campfire and some other stuff and that's
[TS]
00:32:36
◼
►
a problem like why are we using what we're making any more that's that's not
[TS]
00:32:39
◼
►
good I mean that was sort of the impetus to to read to question the question that
[TS]
00:32:44
◼
►
sometimes it's very obvious another time he just got to get ahead of it before
[TS]
00:32:49
◼
►
it's too late to make a change like a canary in the coal mine if you're not
[TS]
00:32:53
◼
►
using your own product yeah I know we've always built things that we need to use
[TS]
00:32:59
◼
►
it we were still using Basecamp
[TS]
00:33:01
◼
►
using this much because the way we we we work to change the way we work as has
[TS]
00:33:06
◼
►
changed and the classic version was little bit more pointed lower back
[TS]
00:33:12
◼
►
towards the days we're doing client work which we were no longer doing we weren't
[TS]
00:33:17
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doing work anymore we're we're making software and so are are sort of our
[TS]
00:33:21
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needs of change in the way we work to changed and and that's when the reasons
[TS]
00:33:25
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I think we're not using Basecamp as much as we had a problem in this new version
[TS]
00:33:29
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we were crazy users were incredibly heavy users of Basecamp probably no one
[TS]
00:33:33
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other than US I love the new version in this because we built it based on what
[TS]
00:33:38
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we need today so that those of those kind of moments were things like that
[TS]
00:33:42
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come up probably made for the new base camp to be a broader platform because it
[TS]
00:33:51
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still you guys still clearly had in mind your roots as a client services company
[TS]
00:33:57
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and I mean I know first-hand that a lot of people know my friends who still do
[TS]
00:34:02
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client services ton of them probably a majority do the client relationships
[TS]
00:34:08
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through base camp in the projects are still the new base camp is still a great
[TS]
00:34:14
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product for client services and actually it's it's even better the the old base
[TS]
00:34:21
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camp had some some air base in classic had had some tricky things that you had
[TS]
00:34:28
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to set up an order for someone to be a client there's this idea of the client
[TS]
00:34:31
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firm split which was sometimes a little bit complicated because if you had three
[TS]
00:34:36
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people involved like an external contractor in affirming a client it's
[TS]
00:34:39
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like who's the contract with a decline the firm in their sum is pretty rigid
[TS]
00:34:43
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actually and and the new version of base camp is a lot looser in that way that
[TS]
00:34:46
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you can have multiple parties involved in the same project you can also
[TS]
00:34:50
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designate certain people as the client and you can decide that i dont wanna
[TS]
00:34:53
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show The Client certain things in the project it's a lot clearer actually than
[TS]
00:34:57
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the old version but but yeah that's client services firms design firms big
[TS]
00:35:04
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part of our customer base and so are very very aware of what they need and
[TS]
00:35:07
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how they're using the product
[TS]
00:35:08
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and we still occasionally have client like arrangements like for example when
[TS]
00:35:12
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we're publishing our our book that the the the the publishing house Random
[TS]
00:35:18
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House her crown is actually the clients we kind of use that feature there too
[TS]
00:35:24
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but yet the new version of Basecamp tools functionalities similar but the
[TS]
00:35:30
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approaches are different the ideas are different implementations very different
[TS]
00:35:33
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the interface is very very different and but fundamentally projects and people
[TS]
00:35:39
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working together need need a similar tools regardless of whether or not it's
[TS]
00:35:43
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ten years ago or today only need a way to communicate the easy way to keep
[TS]
00:35:46
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track of the work that has to be done many do we keep track of schedules and
[TS]
00:35:49
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he wears a way to share files and give feedback that's all basic functionality
[TS]
00:35:53
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the people need but you can implement that in different ways so one of the
[TS]
00:35:59
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other things and you very mention it to you guys when you in 2012 so about two
[TS]
00:36:03
◼
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years ago launched the new base camp and it really is it is a lot more than a a
[TS]
00:36:10
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1.0 to 2.0 change you guys really kind of started over and it had all the
[TS]
00:36:17
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features of the old base camp at organized very differently and you guys
[TS]
00:36:21
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kept base camp classic because it's different enough that there might be
[TS]
00:36:25
◼
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some people who really are real I'm presuming that they're just either
[TS]
00:36:28
◼
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either at their personality and they just don't want a big change or they're
[TS]
00:36:32
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just have a process that two rooted in the old base camp that it would be a big
[TS]
00:36:38
◼
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shake-up for them to move in the thing that's interesting to me is that you
[TS]
00:36:41
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guys have a reputation in big changes like changing the name of the company
[TS]
00:36:46
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from 37 soon as the base camp shedding all the other products and you guys sort
[TS]
00:36:54
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of have a reputation rhetorically as flame throwers you know that you'll go
[TS]
00:36:59
◼
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out there and and if you're going to encourage people to work remotely you're
[TS]
00:37:02
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going to do it and a bold way right but you guys also do things that are very
[TS]
00:37:09
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few software developers do which is to
[TS]
00:37:13
◼
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keep do something like keep base camp classic around and you know like you
[TS]
00:37:19
◼
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said till the end of the internet or the end of the company you're gonna keep it
[TS]
00:37:23
◼
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working and keep software security updates and stuff like that where does
[TS]
00:37:32
◼
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that come from
[TS]
00:37:33
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you know it's it's it's it's so fundamental to us because you know
[TS]
00:37:39
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what's different about our products is that their services to and in a lot of
[TS]
00:37:43
◼
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companies have come to rely on the services they train their staff they've
[TS]
00:37:47
◼
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trained their clients have ongoing long-term projects and and for us to
[TS]
00:37:52
◼
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disrupt their business because we want to change something that doesn't sit
[TS]
00:37:57
◼
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well with us it's not fair to them and we've always been a company's confronted
[TS]
00:38:01
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by our customers so you know we we we look out for them and in this case we
[TS]
00:38:07
◼
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saw no reason why we should force changed anybody that there's a thing you
[TS]
00:38:11
◼
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know people always say like people don't like change and I don't think that's
[TS]
00:38:15
◼
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true I think people of change if if it's changed it ready for it if they want to
[TS]
00:38:19
◼
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make it themselves but I don't think people like force change they certainly
[TS]
00:38:22
◼
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don't like it when someone forces them to change especially when you're looking
[TS]
00:38:26
◼
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at a product like base camp which is not just used by a single person you like
[TS]
00:38:29
◼
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for example you upgrade your phone from I was 16 I was 72 pretty much just
[TS]
00:38:33
◼
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affects you but if you if you move from base camp classic to the new base camp
[TS]
00:38:38
◼
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or you're forced to for example that might affect forty different people your
[TS]
00:38:41
◼
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company and seven of your clients you know we're paying your clients are
[TS]
00:38:45
◼
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paying you you know maybe there are hundreds of thousands of dollars a year
[TS]
00:38:49
◼
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like to to to uproot down for us to force you to upload them and make their
[TS]
00:38:54
◼
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lives more difficult is going to have a negative impact on your own business and
[TS]
00:38:57
◼
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ultimately and ours it doesn't make any sense so we're very careful about that
[TS]
00:39:01
◼
►
very thoughtful about that and a large number of our customers continue to use
[TS]
00:39:05
◼
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classic and and we will never ever ask them to change their free to change we
[TS]
00:39:10
◼
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have a migration path if they choose to change some customers use the old
[TS]
00:39:14
◼
►
version with older clients in the new resort clients are different
[TS]
00:39:17
◼
►
combinations of things
[TS]
00:39:18
◼
►
but we just decided fundamentally Rep the beginning that this wasn't gonna be
[TS]
00:39:22
◼
►
a force transition for anybody because it just simply too disruptive for for
[TS]
00:39:28
◼
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clients who have chosen a certain way of working and and that's how we want to be
[TS]
00:39:32
◼
►
with with everything that we do and there's a cost to that you know
[TS]
00:39:36
◼
►
obviously have to maintain two separate code bases and whatnot but there's also
[TS]
00:39:41
◼
►
some some some limits you know we don't we don't improve classic in fundamental
[TS]
00:39:46
◼
►
ways and more classic is sort of as is we maintain it will fix bugs as they pop
[TS]
00:39:51
◼
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up will handle security updates but it's kind of a maintenance it's in
[TS]
00:39:55
◼
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maintenance mode but performances is still the same level BCX in terms of
[TS]
00:39:59
◼
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uptime and all that stuff and infrastructure all that stuff gets
[TS]
00:40:02
◼
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upgraded along with all the other upgrades at new hardware that sort of
[TS]
00:40:06
◼
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thing so it's it benefits from that as well but fundamentally it's it's a
[TS]
00:40:12
◼
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product that exist if you like you can keep using it will never ask you to
[TS]
00:40:15
◼
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leave and that's just what I think when you when you went went when you sell
[TS]
00:40:20
◼
►
something to somebody and we feel there's a responsibility for us to
[TS]
00:40:24
◼
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maintain that contract with them that they signed up for this thing and they
[TS]
00:40:29
◼
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expected to be around we should we should hold up our Saudi contract which
[TS]
00:40:32
◼
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is different if your company doesn't sell things you just give stuff away for
[TS]
00:40:38
◼
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you don't feel an obligation to anybody because no one has an obligation to you
[TS]
00:40:43
◼
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know one's no one's invest no one's betting on you in a big way no one's
[TS]
00:40:47
◼
►
investing their time in the process to really sink in and really believe in
[TS]
00:40:51
◼
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this thing just getting this thing for free and they just don't care about it
[TS]
00:40:54
◼
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so much so if we were just giving stuff away for free
[TS]
00:40:56
◼
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it'd be a lot easier for us to say screw them but that's that's not what we do
[TS]
00:41:00
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and that's how we went at it you said there's definitely a cost to that sort
[TS]
00:41:06
◼
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of strategy but no matter what there's a cost because of what were your other
[TS]
00:41:10
◼
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options your other options would have been
[TS]
00:41:13
◼
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to go with the new platform and you know have like I said like a three-month or
[TS]
00:41:18
◼
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six-month scheduled to shutter the old one and risk alienating a lot of
[TS]
00:41:23
◼
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customers which is a cost or you could have just kept building on the old one
[TS]
00:41:30
◼
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and you would have never gotten it to be too satisfied that it's that you're
[TS]
00:41:35
◼
►
saying you saw were like you know what this isn't good enough for today anymore
[TS]
00:41:39
◼
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and if you would just iterate on the old platform you wouldn't have gotten there
[TS]
00:41:43
◼
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that's right we thought about that was an option
[TS]
00:41:47
◼
►
early on which was you know do we in fact that that's kind of how this whole
[TS]
00:41:52
◼
►
thing started not the name change but the the new version Basecamp a couple
[TS]
00:41:56
◼
►
years ago is that we had some new ideas on things we want to speed up
[TS]
00:41:59
◼
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specifically in Basecamp and we looked at what it would take to do that and
[TS]
00:42:06
◼
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structurally you know basic chem class was on an older codebase it wasn't as up
[TS]
00:42:11
◼
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to speed with a variety of things that we were doing at the time interface
[TS]
00:42:15
◼
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ideas that we had what not and and retrofitting these new ideas into the
[TS]
00:42:20
◼
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old product was going to create sort of a massive compromise in that that wasn't
[TS]
00:42:29
◼
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the way forward we didn't think compromise was the way forward so we
[TS]
00:42:34
◼
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just decided that look there's there's a
[TS]
00:42:36
◼
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at the time of course means a big risk to do a new version basically we had no
[TS]
00:42:39
◼
►
idea what's going to happen but at the time of our customers were using
[TS]
00:42:43
◼
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Basecamp classic and you know we just felt like let's let's not rock the boat
[TS]
00:42:50
◼
►
from them they're happy are ready and but let's spend some time to make sure
[TS]
00:42:56
◼
►
that what this new version that we do is we can stop which we actually wrote from
[TS]
00:42:59
◼
►
rewrote from scratch which is something we said was always a bad idea
[TS]
00:43:03
◼
►
David David always been really really big on this which is rewrites her
[TS]
00:43:07
◼
►
terrible idea at the time there but what turns out they're terrible if you're
[TS]
00:43:12
◼
►
just trying to rewrite the back end just too
[TS]
00:43:15
◼
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you know but not have have no customer facing changes using a change tack or
[TS]
00:43:19
◼
►
text after something that can be really bad but if you fundamentally different
[TS]
00:43:22
◼
►
ideas about how to implement something going for it it's actually faster faster
[TS]
00:43:26
◼
►
for us to to build a new version from scratch me get all sorts of other things
[TS]
00:43:30
◼
►
because we did that we got to reconsider all sorts of things along the way we had
[TS]
00:43:34
◼
►
those are the options the option was to to modify the existing version in a way
[TS]
00:43:38
◼
►
that we never thought we could really get far enough along we wanted to be so
[TS]
00:43:41
◼
►
that was just not going to happen the other option was 22 forced migration a
[TS]
00:43:46
◼
►
certain point which we thought would be really disruptive in a bad way and
[TS]
00:43:51
◼
►
harmful and you'd probably end up with a lot of customers who loved us who all
[TS]
00:43:55
◼
►
the sudden hated us which would be the worst possible scenario and so even
[TS]
00:44:00
◼
►
though was a hard decision to make a whole new version of Basecamp it became
[TS]
00:44:04
◼
►
obvious decision after weighing all the options and then the other option was
[TS]
00:44:08
◼
►
you know I'm not the other option but you know how how much how easy do we
[TS]
00:44:12
◼
►
want to make
[TS]
00:44:13
◼
►
to move from classic to the new version so we spent a lot of time on the
[TS]
00:44:16
◼
►
migration touts it was what was interesting about that experience was
[TS]
00:44:21
◼
►
that we actually made it too easy and because we made it too easy to move from
[TS]
00:44:26
◼
►
classic to the new one
[TS]
00:44:27
◼
►
a lot of people who tried the new one who loved classic didn't like the new
[TS]
00:44:31
◼
►
one because they're so used to the old one we saw we made it almost too easy
[TS]
00:44:34
◼
►
for them to try it and then they sort of recoil because it was so vastly
[TS]
00:44:39
◼
►
different that they've never given another chance to go back or see want to
[TS]
00:44:44
◼
►
go back and they could cause the migration was not destructive so we
[TS]
00:44:48
◼
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actually made a copy of the data moving forward we didn't we didn't move any
[TS]
00:44:51
◼
►
data so they can continue to use what they what they had but looking back on
[TS]
00:44:56
◼
►
it now and I think we would have done or what we would do differently if we do
[TS]
00:45:00
◼
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this again was not to make it so easy in fact but to to to make it a little bit
[TS]
00:45:04
◼
►
harder to move so people didn't
[TS]
00:45:06
◼
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sort of out of curiosity try the new thing when they're perfectly happy with
[TS]
00:45:11
◼
►
the old thing we didn't introduce that we would would have introduced next
[TS]
00:45:15
◼
►
rings I T two people had when they saw the new one and didn't do exactly the
[TS]
00:45:19
◼
►
same things as the old one people get nervous about that so I think we learned
[TS]
00:45:22
◼
►
we learned a great lesson there which is don't always make things easier in some
[TS]
00:45:26
◼
►
cases you want to add an extra step to make things harder you want to make
[TS]
00:45:29
◼
►
people think about things a bit more before they do that yeah and that's a
[TS]
00:45:32
◼
►
perfect example of of what I've always admired about you guys is that I guess
[TS]
00:45:38
◼
►
the phrases you know this is not one of the slogans of rails as a framework that
[TS]
00:45:42
◼
►
it opinionated software yes you guys are deadly opinionated people but it's not
[TS]
00:45:49
◼
►
being opinionated strongly opinionated doesn't necessarily mean even though I
[TS]
00:45:54
◼
►
think a lot of people jump to the conclusion that in mind that you always
[TS]
00:45:57
◼
►
think you know better than everybody else our way or the highway that you
[TS]
00:46:01
◼
►
guys do have an incredible amount of attention that you pay to your customers
[TS]
00:46:07
◼
►
and have been like a respect for the customer I think you have to have that I
[TS]
00:46:15
◼
►
mean if you have to happen if your company like us which is funded by our
[TS]
00:46:19
◼
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customers we work for them
[TS]
00:46:22
◼
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our job is to help them do their job better and that's what we're here for so
[TS]
00:46:25
◼
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obviously want to make things that we're happy with more proud of but but our
[TS]
00:46:30
◼
►
customers pay us and we have to make sure that they're really really happy
[TS]
00:46:33
◼
►
with what we're doing and where we have to be thoughtful about what it's like to
[TS]
00:46:36
◼
►
be them software company sometimes can think a lot about themselves because I
[TS]
00:46:42
◼
►
think a lot about technology advances and they think a lot about design and
[TS]
00:46:46
◼
►
they're talking about how you know how beautiful things are and how streamline
[TS]
00:46:50
◼
►
things are and all these things but a lot of that stuff doesn't really matter
[TS]
00:46:53
◼
►
to people who are just in the trenches doing the work what what they want to
[TS]
00:46:57
◼
►
know what they want is not to be forced into major changes in the middle of a
[TS]
00:47:03
◼
►
project I mean think about like how disruptive it would be easier if your
[TS]
00:47:06
◼
►
customer base camp in your in the middle of a new project
[TS]
00:47:10
◼
►
with a client if it's your first project with this client maybe it's an old-time
[TS]
00:47:14
◼
►
client who notes and it's a seven-month project Nova sudden and months and
[TS]
00:47:18
◼
►
months fives and you've got all these assets in Basecamp minimum five leading
[TS]
00:47:22
◼
►
company says hey you can't use it anymore you gotta learn this new thing
[TS]
00:47:25
◼
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like that is so disruptive to them it be terrible business for us to do that but
[TS]
00:47:30
◼
►
it'd be easy for us to do that to say no this is the way it is
[TS]
00:47:33
◼
►
you got it you gotta move of course you want this better version of Basecamp why
[TS]
00:47:36
◼
►
wouldn't you want a better version of Basecamp it's so much better but it
[TS]
00:47:39
◼
►
doesn't matter if it's so much better because they're not those aren't the
[TS]
00:47:43
◼
►
qualities that they're concerned about their concern about longevity they're
[TS]
00:47:46
◼
►
concerned about consistency they're concerned about maintaining order
[TS]
00:47:50
◼
►
they're concerned about looking organized to cut to clients you know
[TS]
00:47:55
◼
►
they don't wanna forced air force big changes on their clients these are the
[TS]
00:47:59
◼
►
things that matter to them
[TS]
00:48:00
◼
►
continuity is very important to them and that's kind of sexy gotta think about
[TS]
00:48:03
◼
►
that stuff too it's not just about the software and what's better matters not
[TS]
00:48:07
◼
►
being right about this maybe this will spur me on her about a better is not a
[TS]
00:48:11
◼
►
quality that matters to a lot of people because time isn't time is a factor as
[TS]
00:48:18
◼
►
better might matter eight months from now to somebody but right now
[TS]
00:48:22
◼
►
matters not what they want they want continuity right now because people are
[TS]
00:48:26
◼
►
different points in a relationship with a client projects so anyway I'm rambling
[TS]
00:48:29
◼
►
well it's almost like you know it's the way that better can mean so many
[TS]
00:48:33
◼
►
different things where maybe objectively this news burden is better software than
[TS]
00:48:38
◼
►
the old version but what better for the customer is the lack of an interruption
[TS]
00:48:43
◼
►
totally right and if you just think about you know our customers base camp
[TS]
00:48:49
◼
►
is important part of their work but it's not what they do for a living in a base
[TS]
00:48:53
◼
►
camp they service clients for a living
[TS]
00:48:56
◼
►
they deliver work to clients for living they take care of clients for living in
[TS]
00:48:59
◼
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to have us all the sudden jump in the middle of them in their clients say hey
[TS]
00:49:03
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you gotta learn this new system right now you know you've got a deadline next
[TS]
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that would just be so arrogant of us to do that and that would be a terrible
[TS]
00:49:10
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mood so you have to be very thoughtful about that kind of stuff and you have to
[TS]
00:49:15
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keep in mind it betters now people are always looking for
[TS]
00:49:17
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yeah let me take a second break here in thank our second sponsor and good
[TS]
00:49:22
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friends back please
[TS]
00:49:24
◼
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you know back please i've been talking about it for the last few weeks online
[TS]
00:49:28
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backup for the Mac $5 a month to native app unlimited on throttle you have big
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00:49:36
◼
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external hard drives you can back that up
[TS]
00:49:40
◼
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how do they do that is a good question I got asked on Twitter how do you do that
[TS]
00:49:43
◼
►
how how can it be that they only charged $5 a month unlimited backup its they
[TS]
00:49:48
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actually have some blog post using Google about it but it's by on their
[TS]
00:49:52
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side they found a way to build storage really cheap and another factor they
[TS]
00:49:59
◼
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don't have for users you can get a free trial you can try it out for two weeks
[TS]
00:50:03
◼
►
no charge and you can see how it works but long-term everybody's a paying
[TS]
00:50:08
◼
►
customer it works great they've been around for a while now they're founded
[TS]
00:50:14
◼
►
by X Apple engineers I always emphasized that because it really shows in the Mac
[TS]
00:50:18
◼
►
software you just install it it's a little System Preference panel you set
[TS]
00:50:23
◼
►
it up and then it just goes it just backs up everything and you can control
[TS]
00:50:28
◼
►
how much of your bandwidth that uses you can set it to be to use as much as it
[TS]
00:50:33
◼
►
can get for like the initial backup when you have a lot of stuff to push and then
[TS]
00:50:37
◼
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you can dial that down and it's never going to use up all your WiFi bandwidth
[TS]
00:50:42
◼
►
just backing it up because you put a new movie on your hard disk or something
[TS]
00:50:45
◼
►
like that and it just works they have an iOS app that allows you to access and
[TS]
00:50:51
◼
►
share any of the files that you've backed up from your system you can
[TS]
00:50:55
◼
►
restore one file at a time or all of your files easily through their website
[TS]
00:51:00
◼
►
or in the case of some kind of an emergency you can do something even like
[TS]
00:51:06
◼
►
get your entire back up onto a USB hard drive
[TS]
00:51:13
◼
►
and they'll ship it to pay for that $5 a month but it's something like $189 or
[TS]
00:51:20
◼
►
something like that and you can get your backup delivered to you if you're across
[TS]
00:51:25
◼
►
the country around the world in an emergency or you can just download one
[TS]
00:51:32
◼
►
file that you have on your back up anywhere you want rundown Mavericks
[TS]
00:51:38
◼
►
there's no add-ons no gimmicks no additional charges you can try it for
[TS]
00:51:42
◼
►
two weeks free see they like it and then when you sign up it's just $5 a month
[TS]
00:51:46
◼
►
per computer after that and the best part totally automatic once you have
[TS]
00:51:51
◼
►
installed the account you never have to worry about it you just know your stuff
[TS]
00:51:56
◼
►
is backed up which is really the only way a real backup can write your only
[TS]
00:52:00
◼
►
running back up to manually murphy's law says you're going to need it the most
[TS]
00:52:03
◼
►
when you've gone the longest between initiating so go check them out here is
[TS]
00:52:08
◼
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how you can do it and I know you came from the show but at WWW dot Backblaze
[TS]
00:52:13
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dot com slash daring fireball and you came from the show so we mention him a
[TS]
00:52:22
◼
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couple times we've mentioned david that David Hanson how long have you guys been
[TS]
00:52:27
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working together since I think it's 2001 or two pretty much the whole stretch 37
[TS]
00:52:39
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signals existed for a few years before that yes since 99 @ Turner member so
[TS]
00:52:44
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David David to the prisoners in Basecamp with me but before that I hired him to
[TS]
00:52:48
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do another project for me which was a web based app to manage your book
[TS]
00:52:54
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collection that was the first time that we work together and I think that was
[TS]
00:52:59
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2001 at some point but he was originally a was in school he was a student at
[TS]
00:53:06
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Copenhagen Business School and so I only bought like 10 hours a week from him for
[TS]
00:53:09
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for quite a while and it wasn't until Basecamp launch that he actually became
[TS]
00:53:14
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an employee and eventually became a partner in the business I remember it is
[TS]
00:53:18
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I just have to tell this story I remember meeting him
[TS]
00:53:21
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and I think maybe we knew each other online you know just you know me writing
[TS]
00:53:26
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during fireball and him contributing to your guy's blog but we met in person in
[TS]
00:53:32
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San Francisco at the Web 2.0 Summit in 2005 I think I'm almost sure it was when
[TS]
00:53:40
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I was working at join in and we were demoing we had some web stuff to demo we
[TS]
00:53:45
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built it on rails and David was there quite sure what he was there but
[TS]
00:53:51
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something else related in Rails is really really it was new but it was
[TS]
00:53:55
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really hot in 2005 and we're in San Francisco and it should show I mean web
[TS]
00:54:02
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to Huntington called web 2.0 me 90 95% of the people there were just fortunate
[TS]
00:54:06
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as naturally happens a bunch of us who who you know well maybe were full of
[TS]
00:54:13
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shit in different ways but we were ushered in a different way than a lot of
[TS]
00:54:16
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the people who were there we needed lunch and was me and David and I don't
[TS]
00:54:21
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we had a pretty big group as it may be like 10 of us but mostly you know a lot
[TS]
00:54:25
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of rails engineers people were conrail stuff good group we had a good lunch we
[TS]
00:54:30
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went to Chevys down on the street it's on their own
[TS]
00:54:36
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don't you know and and not a great restaurant but it was near the hotel
[TS]
00:54:39
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where we were and we had to get back and I'm not afraid to admit I've many meals
[TS]
00:54:45
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that show he's not embarrassed but a David and I i remember we ordered we
[TS]
00:54:54
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both got the same thing we got the fetus and I don't know that David ever had for
[TS]
00:55:00
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years before but they sounded good to him and i said i could get chicken fried
[TS]
00:55:06
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onions peppers guacamole and all this stuff and and
[TS]
00:55:11
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I'll never forget this and then you know the food comes and as anybody's evening
[TS]
00:55:17
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tex-mex Mexican chain restaurant like that knows when you get fajitas you get
[TS]
00:55:22
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like a hot sizzling platter with the meat and vegetables grilled vegetables
[TS]
00:55:27
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in a separate thing with the tortillas and then little things like here's the
[TS]
00:55:32
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guacamole here is the salsa here is the cheese and then you get a empty plate
[TS]
00:55:37
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and then you you make it yourself right and I'm so I just did my food came I
[TS]
00:55:41
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start making my thing and David just sort of standard and goes why why why do
[TS]
00:55:46
◼
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I have to do this and I was and I really was and then he just he just answering
[TS]
00:55:53
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he was just like I don't know anything
[TS]
00:55:56
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presumably the people in the kitchen here are professional chefs why why am I
[TS]
00:56:03
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expected to be the one to know the proportions are going to be the best
[TS]
00:56:06
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shouldn't they have done this for me and I instantly realize I he's writing it's
[TS]
00:56:11
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what you have to make you you you put these things together he he he says the
[TS]
00:56:17
◼
►
same he says something about burgers he doesn't like construction kit food is
[TS]
00:56:22
◼
►
how he puts it right I think he's changed on that stands for every time I
[TS]
00:56:26
◼
►
construction kit food where you get a burger you know you know it's kind of
[TS]
00:56:30
◼
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open face because you've got the bun and then you've got the lettuce tomato onion
[TS]
00:56:33
◼
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like on the inside and you've got that the patio and a left with the bond under
[TS]
00:56:38
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it and he's like what am i what am I supposed to do i do i what why would I
[TS]
00:56:42
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make this decision and i think that that while it's sort of a silly anecdote like
[TS]
00:56:47
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►
it has a lot to do with how he sees things which is you know convention over
[TS]
00:56:53
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configuration that that was one of the fundamental tenets of rails which is it
[TS]
00:56:58
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should just work out of the box I I had made some intelligent decisions for
[TS]
00:57:01
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other people the way I think they should be made of you can go and change them if
[TS]
00:57:05
◼
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you want but if you don't change them everything works the way it's supposed
[TS]
00:57:07
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►
to and I think that that that mentality where where he's like why would you
[TS]
00:57:13
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►
serve the heat is deconstructed or something that makes us wind rails right
[TS]
00:57:18
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he's like I don't know what's going to taste good and so you know like with
[TS]
00:57:21
◼
►
rails you start anywhere else product you don't have to set up all the full
[TS]
00:57:24
◼
►
yourself you just type I forget the exact command but it's a trail scaffold
[TS]
00:57:28
◼
►
or something like that and you get these scaffold of an empty Rails project and
[TS]
00:57:34
◼
►
here here's where you'll put your CSS files and here is where you'll put your
[TS]
00:57:39
◼
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image files because we've already figured that this is a logical folder or
[TS]
00:57:44
◼
►
directory set up you don't have to worry about it you can just start making the
[TS]
00:57:48
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►
images in putting them in there and start making the style sheets and
[TS]
00:57:51
◼
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putting them in there and I'll never I just remembered that I just remember
[TS]
00:57:56
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►
when he first started I was like what the hell is he talking about
[TS]
00:57:58
◼
►
within 15 seconds I was like yeah this is this is bogus why am i doing it it's
[TS]
00:58:04
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it's it's one of those things you don't question until someone from the outside
[TS]
00:58:09
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comes in and questions that you like I never thought about how ridiculous it is
[TS]
00:58:13
◼
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absolutely right but same time like there's there's another there's another
[TS]
00:58:16
◼
►
angle to it which is getting a bit too deep on the heat is here but there's
[TS]
00:58:21
◼
►
another angle which is which is entertainment and and control and
[TS]
00:58:24
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►
sometimes you know sometimes I feel like we've actually made this mistake with
[TS]
00:58:28
◼
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our products over the years in some cases where we've been a little bit too
[TS]
00:58:31
◼
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much about convention and we haven't given people a little bit of control
[TS]
00:58:37
◼
►
over their environment people like to have a little better control over their
[TS]
00:58:40
◼
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environment in terms of what color should this be or tripod milo gonna hear
[TS]
00:58:44
◼
►
things like that and so I think I think he can do you can take it to the extreme
[TS]
00:58:48
◼
►
in the wrong direction as well but anyway there's obviously happy medium is
[TS]
00:58:53
◼
►
the right place you don't overload people with tons of settings and tons of
[TS]
00:58:57
◼
►
options because that's overwhelming and they don't really know what to do but
[TS]
00:59:01
◼
►
sometimes a little bit being to sort of strip back in terms of customization is
[TS]
00:59:06
◼
►
also not a great experience it's kind of a funny thing but I think he does like a
[TS]
00:59:11
◼
►
great day great metaphor for that because it would be just fine if you
[TS]
00:59:15
◼
►
deliver it to me already folded up with everything in it that be just that be
[TS]
00:59:19
◼
►
just great but there's also some people were like I wanna meet mine and I want
[TS]
00:59:22
◼
►
vegetables I don't like peppers and so you
[TS]
00:59:24
◼
►
flexibility you know I don't like walking i dont care thats how it got
[TS]
00:59:29
◼
►
started I'm sure that it got started with you know somebody who was making
[TS]
00:59:32
◼
►
them and then there is you know the guys I want mine without guacamole the other
[TS]
00:59:36
◼
►
guy was like I want I don't want any sour cream yeah that's how it goes and
[TS]
00:59:42
◼
►
then you know there's out in every culture seems like there's a hot
[TS]
00:59:45
◼
►
sizzling plate option like here in Chicago Greektown have the stuff called
[TS]
00:59:50
◼
►
saganaki which is flaming cheese in it comes out on a hot griddle and and and
[TS]
00:59:56
◼
►
the waiter you know he he he takes his or something or whatever some Greek
[TS]
01:00:03
◼
►
liquor and whores and over the top and lights with a matching lights on fire
[TS]
01:00:07
◼
►
like everyone gets that stuff because it's like this hot sizzling plate if you
[TS]
01:00:12
◼
►
go to an Indian restaurant sometimes you get tender chicken it comes out in the
[TS]
01:00:15
◼
►
hot sizzling plate this hot sizzling plate thing is like made its way across
[TS]
01:00:18
◼
►
the world and every culture has Showtime and food I think that's a good thing it
[TS]
01:00:23
◼
►
always scares me a little bit crazy like this hot cast iron disc is placed in
[TS]
01:00:30
◼
►
someone's carrying it with a bunch of other things like that could be
[TS]
01:00:33
◼
►
incredibly tragic if so if that dropped sort of playing with fire for real let
[TS]
01:00:42
◼
►
me just do the third sponsors a good break it actually will lead me into the
[TS]
01:00:48
◼
►
topic posting we close the show out our third sponsors are good friends and
[TS]
01:00:52
◼
►
hover however HOV ER is the best way to buy and manage domain names they have
[TS]
01:00:59
◼
►
great search and search for keywords in the show you the best available options
[TS]
01:01:03
◼
►
and suggestions
[TS]
01:01:05
◼
►
everybody knows greeley kind of hard to find good domain names
[TS]
01:01:09
◼
►
lot of them are taken a lot of the best top-level domains their search will help
[TS]
01:01:14
◼
►
you find them clean simple website to mess around the complicated interface
[TS]
01:01:18
◼
►
and if you already have a domain
[TS]
01:01:22
◼
►
they have something I did another service registered somewhere else they
[TS]
01:01:27
◼
►
are not happy with it you'd like to move they have something that they called
[TS]
01:01:31
◼
►
Valley a domain transfer
[TS]
01:01:34
◼
►
sign up with upper talk to their support and their support staff will just take
[TS]
01:01:40
◼
►
over and they will do all the stuff that needs to be done to get that domain
[TS]
01:01:46
◼
►
transferred for you sounds too good to be true but it really is and it's just
[TS]
01:01:51
◼
►
part of the support that they offer and transferring a domain can be such a pain
[TS]
01:01:55
◼
►
in the ass especially if you don't do it regularly because who's an expert on on
[TS]
01:01:59
◼
►
DNS not me however domain transfer Valley service is just great at no
[TS]
01:02:06
◼
►
additional cost they just want your business as a customer famously
[TS]
01:02:11
◼
►
registering domains domain registrars are are scamming scummy unpleasant
[TS]
01:02:19
◼
►
experience however is the complete opposite they've been around for a long
[TS]
01:02:22
◼
►
time they've been around since the nineties and they're not in it for
[TS]
01:02:26
◼
►
upsells they're not in it for a bunch of scam he adds at the end there's no
[TS]
01:02:32
◼
►
things that you get opted into that you have to double check you know the check
[TS]
01:02:38
◼
►
that the check box isn't the same kind of weird double negative really don't
[TS]
01:02:41
◼
►
know if the check mark you know all sorts it's coming tricks like that other
[TS]
01:02:45
◼
►
reg starts to cover is the complete opposite take a breath of fresh air
[TS]
01:02:50
◼
►
go check out their website and you'll see just how unlike any other registrar
[TS]
01:02:56
◼
►
it looks like they have all sorts of great top-level domains died I owe
[TS]
01:03:03
◼
►
everything all the new stuff they have email stuff if you wanted poster email
[TS]
01:03:08
◼
►
or forward your email you want to use Google Apps for your domain they make
[TS]
01:03:12
◼
►
that super easy they're totally integrated on that you can try thirty
[TS]
01:03:16
◼
►
days of Google Apps on your domain for free just to see if you like it before
[TS]
01:03:19
◼
►
you start paying
[TS]
01:03:21
◼
►
where do you go to find out more easy easy easy go to hover dot com HOV yard
[TS]
01:03:28
◼
►
dot com slash talk show and you don't know you came from the show my thanks to
[TS]
01:03:34
◼
►
them after the show so one of the things you guys did you guys with the name
[TS]
01:03:42
◼
►
change you guys went to you had bad you had Basecamp HQ dot com from back in the
[TS]
01:03:50
◼
►
day when you finally now you have Basecamp dot com without hard work he
[TS]
01:03:56
◼
►
wasn't cheap take it that it was one of those sort of six figure things we had
[TS]
01:04:04
◼
►
to do so we didn't have to do it actually I'd never really felt like
[TS]
01:04:07
◼
►
domains matter that much that's what I was going to ask you know it certainly
[TS]
01:04:11
◼
►
didn't you only changed last week
[TS]
01:04:14
◼
►
know when changed about to change with the new the new base camp wasn't it
[TS]
01:04:17
◼
►
wasn't something that you really paid attention to because of our corporate
[TS]
01:04:20
◼
►
site so those two last week so we want to get Basecamp way back in 2004 we
[TS]
01:04:25
◼
►
couldn't get it so we got his campaign HQ and we felt like who cares it doesn't
[TS]
01:04:29
◼
►
really matter and I think domains are less and less relevant every day that
[TS]
01:04:34
◼
►
goes by because Google is kind of the most important domain Basecamp go to
[TS]
01:04:39
◼
►
google and type base camp and we show up first like that's that's how most people
[TS]
01:04:43
◼
►
get to base camp right so I don't think demeans matter that much but it felt to
[TS]
01:04:49
◼
►
me like it just was one of these irritants I just wanted to gone I went
[TS]
01:04:54
◼
►
to the beach Q parte gone in and I really wanted to Basecamp dot com and so
[TS]
01:04:59
◼
►
we talked to the guy who owned it you know look we have the trademark we could
[TS]
01:05:05
◼
►
have gone after it legal in some way but anytime lawyers involved it is
[TS]
01:05:11
◼
►
unfortunate I'm happy day for me so i'd i'd rather not bring lawyers into
[TS]
01:05:16
◼
►
anything that I actually don't have to and I would I would rather spend more
[TS]
01:05:20
◼
►
money not with a lawyer then then spend money with lawyer so I like her lawyers
[TS]
01:05:25
◼
►
but I have to bring them into things like this so we know
[TS]
01:05:28
◼
►
negotiate this guy for a while and finally he was willing to do to do
[TS]
01:05:31
◼
►
something and and it was a very smooth transfer that point and the other day
[TS]
01:05:36
◼
►
I'm very happy we did it I I don't regret it for a moment I think it's just
[TS]
01:05:40
◼
►
it's better for us especially now they're company mean the same name as
[TS]
01:05:43
◼
►
the product in Basecamp just like one little nagging irritant every night as
[TS]
01:05:48
◼
►
you went to sleep it was it in like you know high-rises is higher as HQ and
[TS]
01:05:53
◼
►
campfires campfire now dot com and backpacks backpack it
[TS]
01:05:57
◼
►
dot com we never ever had our own sure domain it was bugging me and so you know
[TS]
01:06:04
◼
►
fifteen years actually 13 years into it I felt like okay it's time to splurge 13
[TS]
01:06:09
◼
►
years into it like this is something we do with our office we gotta know we've
[TS]
01:06:13
◼
►
been as you mentioned star of the show we've been sharing office space pretty
[TS]
01:06:17
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much for our entire existence and then ten years into it
[TS]
01:06:20
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11 years into it and it's finally time to spend some money in office I'm so we
[TS]
01:06:25
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did that and then I feel like now it's finally time to spend some money domain
[TS]
01:06:29
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so I don't ever recommend anybody spending a ton of money to get a domain
[TS]
01:06:33
◼
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name in the starting a business it seems like the the worst possible way to spend
[TS]
01:06:36
◼
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money it's that money should be precious to you and you should hold on to that
[TS]
01:06:41
◼
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and you're going to need it can be tough when you get started but in a certain
[TS]
01:06:45
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point if you want to make a luxury spend I think I think it's a nice thing to do
[TS]
01:06:49
◼
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if you can afford it
[TS]
01:06:50
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yeah I think especially with the likes second bunch of top-level domains that
[TS]
01:06:59
◼
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have come into somewhat widespread use over the last few years the country code
[TS]
01:07:03
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ones like died so I Q branch with Vesper weed weed we just got . Co's . CEO which
[TS]
01:07:12
◼
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i think has the advantage popular because it looks like dot com but it's
[TS]
01:07:17
◼
►
widely used enough that it doesn't seem weird anymore
[TS]
01:07:21
◼
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but we can we got them for you know just the regular 15 bucks that cost to
[TS]
01:07:26
◼
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register a new domain yeah and look you're not losing sales over that right
[TS]
01:07:30
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you know it's it's doesn't affect you guys that all people are gonna talk
[TS]
01:07:34
◼
►
about fester because someone's use Vesper they're gonna look at on the App
[TS]
01:07:37
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Store and I know from the analytics wow people find it they go to Google and
[TS]
01:07:41
◼
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they type Vesper app yeah there you go and that's where we could we could have
[TS]
01:07:47
◼
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a domain name that doesn't even have aspirin it and it would you could just
[TS]
01:07:51
◼
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say like Q branch . Coast / up and people would get there because they go
[TS]
01:07:55
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from Google yes I yeah it's just it doesn't it doesn't matter but we we just
[TS]
01:08:01
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we waited long enough it was talking out long enough to get it done so that the
[TS]
01:08:07
◼
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last time I talked about was a story linked to two day during fireball this
[TS]
01:08:11
◼
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post by John Bell who used to work at RealNetworks from 2000 to 2005 and if so
[TS]
01:08:22
◼
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what kind of its a trip down memory lane to like 2002 2005 but like at the time
[TS]
01:08:27
◼
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real was it's hard to imagine you know it's one of those things where a man
[TS]
01:08:32
◼
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times change so fast but the time RealPlayer an awful lot of video on the
[TS]
01:08:37
◼
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web was real player and you had to get this plugin and you know anybody's old
[TS]
01:08:43
◼
►
enough to remember but if you're too young or you have a bad memory it was
[TS]
01:08:49
◼
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this plugin you'd get for the Mac or Windows in your web browser to play
[TS]
01:08:53
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proprietary real player audio and video
[TS]
01:08:58
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and it was such a pain in the ass to get and you'd go to you can get to their
[TS]
01:09:02
◼
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website but their website they made the link hard to find and they have like a
[TS]
01:09:06
◼
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paid version they were trying to get you to have and there was a free version but
[TS]
01:09:10
◼
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it was really hard to find it was like enough that you you would think like
[TS]
01:09:15
◼
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when you're setting up a computer for your parents and you know I hadn't been
[TS]
01:09:18
◼
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there in a couple months or you just by yourself a new computer and you know
[TS]
01:09:24
◼
►
wanted to get it installed you would I would think to myself like them I am I
[TS]
01:09:29
◼
►
not my notes i cant find this anymore and then once you had it it was just bad
[TS]
01:09:35
◼
►
software and they're always up selling stuff and John Bell who was there had a
[TS]
01:09:41
◼
►
piece today and he said that it was you know inside the company was everybody
[TS]
01:09:45
◼
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knew and that they would complain about it and you know everybody can do about
[TS]
01:09:51
◼
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whatever and but they were well aware of it they knew that people didn't like
[TS]
01:09:56
◼
►
their the plugin we're gonna call they didn't like the website they did they
[TS]
01:10:01
◼
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resented the whole thing but that one day his manager called him in and took
[TS]
01:10:06
◼
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him to a whiteboard Andrew this graph was a straight line then had to drop a
[TS]
01:10:11
◼
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line when backup and he goes this is our revenue here this drop this is where we
[TS]
01:10:16
◼
►
tried to get rid of these tactics we tried to do what you're saying we should
[TS]
01:10:20
◼
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do and we did the money dried up so what do you think we should do should we do
[TS]
01:10:24
◼
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that and fire half of our employees or should you know should we keep going and
[TS]
01:10:29
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I thought you know it's exactly what I assumed was the case but I never heard
[TS]
01:10:34
◼
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it from anybody who worked there before I just presume they have to know and I
[TS]
01:10:38
◼
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was like they must somehow painted themselves into a corner where this is
[TS]
01:10:41
◼
►
the only way they're they're keeping the lights on but I to me it's like they're
[TS]
01:10:46
◼
►
there is no good answer to that question at that point because you already you've
[TS]
01:10:50
◼
►
already painted herself in a corner there's no way out
[TS]
01:10:54
◼
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and that the trick is that you you should never ever find yourself even at
[TS]
01:11:00
◼
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the beginning even I get the in the early days is one bad decision you
[TS]
01:11:04
◼
►
should never put your users or customers interests in opposition to your
[TS]
01:11:10
◼
►
company's interests yes I love this post I'm glad you liked it up I looked at it
[TS]
01:11:16
◼
►
briefly earlier and i was just kind of reading through it as yours talk as
[TS]
01:11:19
◼
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you're talking to me this is this is such a fundamental thing because when
[TS]
01:11:25
◼
►
you when you launch in our member RealNetworks and it's amazing how
[TS]
01:11:31
◼
►
dominant they were and then how quickly they went away i mean that was the only
[TS]
01:11:35
◼
►
way to play audio and video basically on the web for many years and a boom gone
[TS]
01:11:40
◼
►
they're gone overnight and I think when you start getting into really
[TS]
01:11:46
◼
►
complicated tricky business models like this this is where you're going to find
[TS]
01:11:49
◼
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yourself when you know I think the closer you are to business 101 which is
[TS]
01:11:54
◼
►
make something worth paying for
[TS]
01:11:56
◼
►
and charged for it right from the back right from the start just like every
[TS]
01:11:59
◼
►
other business on the planet does the closer you're gonna be 22 having a
[TS]
01:12:03
◼
►
really solid business where where the right thing for you is the right thing
[TS]
01:12:07
◼
►
for the customers but the further away you are from business 101
[TS]
01:12:12
◼
►
RealNetworks was which was like give stuff away for free
[TS]
01:12:15
◼
►
do some weird stuff hide little links here you know like be annoying like the
[TS]
01:12:20
◼
►
more you do the more you trying more you go in that direction the further partner
[TS]
01:12:25
◼
►
interests are gonna be and and this is something that I've always believed very
[TS]
01:12:29
◼
►
strongly in which is that business is not that complicated unless you make it
[TS]
01:12:33
◼
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complicated obviously I'm not saying it's easy it's hard to build a
[TS]
01:12:37
◼
►
successful business but fundamentally it's not a complicated thing you make
[TS]
01:12:41
◼
►
something that is worth paying for
[TS]
01:12:43
◼
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and you sell to people and they get more value out of it and you charge them for
[TS]
01:12:47
◼
►
it like you're in a good position is launching cover your costs you could do
[TS]
01:12:50
◼
►
that forever you're you're in really good spot that's that's what it should
[TS]
01:12:53
◼
►
be about and so here you know base camp now this is something we took we talk
[TS]
01:12:58
◼
►
about time like selling tensely selling high rise or or campfire or
[TS]
01:13:03
◼
►
were assigned to sunset them in a way where only existing customers can use
[TS]
01:13:07
◼
►
them that could have a short-term impact on a revenue in a negative way we're not
[TS]
01:13:12
◼
►
gonna have as much revenue coming in as we did but I've never been one who's
[TS]
01:13:16
◼
►
been interested in maximizing revenue to last you know percentage point I don't
[TS]
01:13:20
◼
►
find that to be an enjoyable experience an interesting one
[TS]
01:13:23
◼
►
I always trying to figure out the right thing to do in a situation if that means
[TS]
01:13:28
◼
►
a little bit less money as long as my expenses are covered everything is ok
[TS]
01:13:31
◼
►
I'm totally fine with that but when you start getting in this situation which is
[TS]
01:13:36
◼
►
like do the right thing and we go out of business
[TS]
01:13:40
◼
►
you're screwed like you said you're screwed you been screwed up for a long
[TS]
01:13:43
◼
►
time and there's very little very little hope you can get out of it unless you
[TS]
01:13:46
◼
►
have a long enough time ahead of you unless you have ten twenty years to
[TS]
01:13:50
◼
►
write that wrong and most companies in that position don't because it funded by
[TS]
01:13:54
◼
►
investors right and that's why the first place they're able to give stuff away
[TS]
01:13:58
◼
►
for free because they didn't have to make money we don't have to make money
[TS]
01:14:00
◼
►
up front
[TS]
01:14:01
◼
►
you're not gonna be good at it when it's time to make money and then you're
[TS]
01:14:04
◼
►
screwed so this is a great post I think revenue maximum maximization as a as a
[TS]
01:14:10
◼
►
number one priority
[TS]
01:14:13
◼
►
can often leads to ruin but it leads to ruin ten years down the road maybe
[TS]
01:14:20
◼
►
twenty years down the road but in an office said nobody even remembers the
[TS]
01:14:24
◼
►
decisions that led you there but it just starts you down the path of making
[TS]
01:14:29
◼
►
decisions that pit you against your customers and users and and this happens
[TS]
01:14:34
◼
►
a lot in in public companies may come as a forced to go public because now you
[TS]
01:14:39
◼
►
gotta make quarterly numbers and that's where all the stuff starts to happen in
[TS]
01:14:42
◼
►
gaza I'll give you an example I think for example I would be absolutely
[TS]
01:14:48
◼
►
terrified to be an executive at or to own stock in a cable companies like
[TS]
01:14:56
◼
►
Comcast or Time Warner
[TS]
01:14:58
◼
►
because it's paid Comcast make tons of money and ordered headquartered here in
[TS]
01:15:04
◼
►
Philly David biggest skyscraper in the city and they just announced plans for
[TS]
01:15:09
◼
►
the second biggest skyscraper in the city right next door they they bought
[TS]
01:15:13
◼
►
NBC Universal couple years ago
[TS]
01:15:16
◼
►
tons of money but I would I would be terrified to be part of that because
[TS]
01:15:23
◼
►
it's so clear that people hate their cable companies and they resent the
[TS]
01:15:28
◼
►
bills that they pay every month for it and I don't know what you know what the
[TS]
01:15:33
◼
►
path is to monthly cable subscribers collapsing shriveling away or something
[TS]
01:15:42
◼
►
like that and maybe it won't happen I don't know but the fact is that so many
[TS]
01:15:46
◼
►
people wanted to happen to me is terrible I feel again not terrible any
[TS]
01:15:52
◼
►
kind of moral sense but terrible in those type of situations usually end up
[TS]
01:15:57
◼
►
badly at some point that there's that there's also just the morale of
[TS]
01:16:02
◼
►
employees when everybody hates your company it's not a good place to go to
[TS]
01:16:08
◼
►
work and and when when when the morale search the dive and people are motivated
[TS]
01:16:14
◼
►
to to work because everyone hates them in like when customers call upon the
[TS]
01:16:17
◼
►
phone they just you know yell at the Customer Service folks like it's just
[TS]
01:16:21
◼
►
not a pleasant place and and great things don't come from those
[TS]
01:16:24
◼
►
environments
[TS]
01:16:25
◼
►
you know i i dont think companies like that are capable over the long term of
[TS]
01:16:29
◼
►
delivering great things when when their employees don't want to be there or are
[TS]
01:16:33
◼
►
ashamed of being there or don't agree with with what they're doing so i think
[TS]
01:16:37
◼
►
is a long term things I mean Comcast I think Comcast made a really smart
[TS]
01:16:42
◼
►
decision back back before cable modems were out you know they were just
[TS]
01:16:47
◼
►
basically cable provider a TV cable TV provider and that they stuck with that
[TS]
01:16:52
◼
►
they'd be dead but since they own the pipe into your house and since they
[TS]
01:16:57
◼
►
provide the connectivity that drives all these other things they probably much
[TS]
01:17:02
◼
►
longer runway than they would have so that was smart but you're right I mean
[TS]
01:17:05
◼
►
you get your cable bill I got in fact I was just how I don't have cable TV at
[TS]
01:17:11
◼
►
home and i was thinkin about gettin exam one to watch the Bulls and I can only
[TS]
01:17:15
◼
►
watch some of the choose some of the games on local WGN TV so your reason I
[TS]
01:17:20
◼
►
wanna get cable is for live sports that is the only reason I wanna get cable and
[TS]
01:17:25
◼
►
I have a feeling that I'm not alone there I think a lot of people just get
[TS]
01:17:28
◼
►
cable for live sports and then ok so i didnt i didnt do it because it was just
[TS]
01:17:35
◼
►
it seems so expensive just to watch Live Sports for me was one team so I didn't
[TS]
01:17:41
◼
►
do it and then start looking into some other options like what else could I do
[TS]
01:17:43
◼
►
and I i've landed on NBA game time or whatever it's called where you can buy
[TS]
01:17:49
◼
►
packaged and watch eighteens lives or on your computer or iPad or iPhone so I
[TS]
01:17:56
◼
►
sign up for that but I find out that I can't get the Bulls because it's a local
[TS]
01:18:00
◼
►
blackout and I'm just like all these all these rules you know this is gonna come
[TS]
01:18:05
◼
►
crumbling down there is no way you can maintain this mode with these tiny
[TS]
01:18:09
◼
►
exception rules it's gonna turn in the moment that turns I would I would look
[TS]
01:18:14
◼
►
out below
[TS]
01:18:15
◼
►
I would not want to be sure you know the baseballs exactly like that where an MLB
[TS]
01:18:21
◼
►
as great-great-great I mean I just cutting edge and the NBA is hot on their
[TS]
01:18:27
◼
►
heels maybe the second most involved pro network with the internet and delivering
[TS]
01:18:31
◼
►
stuff but it it works out super great for me as a Yankees fan living in
[TS]
01:18:37
◼
►
Philadelphia but you can't I couldn't watch the Phillies and you know I go to
[TS]
01:18:41
◼
►
dinner couple times a year and I was there last year and I'm so used to being
[TS]
01:18:46
◼
►
able to watch the Yankees on my iPhone or iPad
[TS]
01:18:50
◼
►
and it stopped working and I I was so confused it's the blackout I'm actually
[TS]
01:18:55
◼
►
now that I'm in New York I can't do this thing which is awesome and which is just
[TS]
01:18:59
◼
►
a totally arbitrary you know make some technical sense rule and it you know
[TS]
01:19:06
◼
►
anything like that where you're pushing people and you can do things like sign
[TS]
01:19:09
◼
►
up for like a VPN type thing yeah you read director Internet traffic through
[TS]
01:19:15
◼
►
you know make it look like you're in Florida or somewhere else and then you
[TS]
01:19:20
◼
►
can do it just doesn't end up well if you're asking your customers to do so or
[TS]
01:19:27
◼
►
not encouraging but if the rules are set up make your customers want to do stuff
[TS]
01:19:34
◼
►
like that you just don't think it's sustainable and I think this comes full
[TS]
01:19:40
◼
►
circle because this comes back to the reason why a lot of people in big
[TS]
01:19:45
◼
►
organizations you something like base camp they're not actually allowed to but
[TS]
01:19:49
◼
►
they do because what they're told they have to do doesn't work and so people do
[TS]
01:19:54
◼
►
hacker on systems take to get into two to be able to use something that they're
[TS]
01:19:59
◼
►
not technically permitted to use but they want to use and and I think like
[TS]
01:20:03
◼
►
you said something for piano or having a friend you live somewhere else you know
[TS]
01:20:07
◼
►
sign up for you in some way like HBO Go people do this all the time with HBO Go
[TS]
01:20:11
◼
►
right they they they use a friends login who has cables I can go another good
[TS]
01:20:16
◼
►
example I wanna watch HBO I love HBO I can't watch HBO because most importantly
[TS]
01:20:22
◼
►
and most importantly though you want to pay for HBO right you're not you're not
[TS]
01:20:27
◼
►
saying I want to get it for free
[TS]
01:20:30
◼
►
you're saying I would love to pay for HBO and I'm be happy to pay a hundred
[TS]
01:20:35
◼
►
bucks a seasoned hundred fifty bucks of season two and about this season of the
[TS]
01:20:39
◼
►
MBA to watch the Bulls I would be do that in a moment in fact I was signing
[TS]
01:20:43
◼
►
up for four NBA season pass wherever it's called it's like a hundred and
[TS]
01:20:47
◼
►
thirty bucks or whatever it is and I was so glad that I could buy
[TS]
01:20:52
◼
►
my balls viewing I was like so pumped and then I find out that I can't because
[TS]
01:20:56
◼
►
I'm chicago market of course I want to watch the Bulls I'm in Chicago like what
[TS]
01:21:01
◼
►
a weird setup that I can't watch my home team it's such a bus system so whenever
[TS]
01:21:07
◼
►
I see things like that out there it's so obvious that those those institutions
[TS]
01:21:11
◼
►
are are hanging on for dear life and who knows when they come crumbling down for
[TS]
01:21:14
◼
►
something to happen right so like MLB I know that they've had in there is about
[TS]
01:21:18
◼
►
the same price I think it's hundred and twenty bucks some somewhere around there
[TS]
01:21:22
◼
►
per season again and they've had year-over-year growth for years and
[TS]
01:21:27
◼
►
years and years and they started even before mobile stuff where you had to use
[TS]
01:21:30
◼
►
flash on a website to do it but every year there it's grown and thats people
[TS]
01:21:35
◼
►
who are signing up for $100 subscription rate which is a ton you know and yeah
[TS]
01:21:39
◼
►
everybody says it's free it's ever gonna work people you know
[TS]
01:21:44
◼
►
year-over-year growth hundred dollars per season and it's all of that is
[TS]
01:21:49
◼
►
without anybody getting their local team which has got to be 95% of the people
[TS]
01:21:54
◼
►
who would subside upward
[TS]
01:21:56
◼
►
can you even imagine how many people would sign up for it paid $100 if they
[TS]
01:22:01
◼
►
can watch their local team and one of the great things that I think makes
[TS]
01:22:06
◼
►
sports a sustainable long-term business is that if anything stuff like Twitter
[TS]
01:22:12
◼
►
and other things have made the everybody usually wants to watch sports live
[TS]
01:22:17
◼
►
anyway here live because yesterdays game today's game it means your gonna be
[TS]
01:22:23
◼
►
there during the commercial breaks right if you're watching live those are
[TS]
01:22:28
◼
►
commercial breaks that people are are gonna skip over right I don't I almost
[TS]
01:22:33
◼
►
never watch commercial I don't want that much commercial TV but when I do it on
[TS]
01:22:37
◼
►
TiVo and the commercials get forward it but I'm 1 I'm watching sports the
[TS]
01:22:41
◼
►
commercials played some cod up cuz i dont wanna be behind cuz I have my
[TS]
01:22:44
◼
►
Twitter OpenID and get spoiled Tony spot on and then also I know and they're also
[TS]
01:22:53
◼
►
talking about fans and so fans are are are fired up and like I was truly was so
[TS]
01:23:02
◼
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excited to spend $130 with the NBA I was like wow I can do this I can watch the
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Bulls on my iPad killer I'm in I am so in an hour so I get there and and its
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base like you know face and hand like no you can't and then I was I was somebody
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who they had sold hundred and thirty bucks in on Sunday tell me know that is
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01:23:24
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a moment where you actually get a stop at a company it's not a moment like oh
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01:23:27
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man that's too bad you actually are pissed off and companies are pissing off
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people who have money to spend it
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you can see things are just breaking down there and that was really bummed me
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out so I'm so I'm like I was pissed at a company that I want to give a hundred
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01:23:44
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and thirty bucks normally I'm not pissed at a company I want to buy something
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01:23:47
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from I'm excited about the company
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01:23:50
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the way in a way I see it as a like I said that I I just see it is inevitable
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01:23:54
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that it's gonna crumble is that if you don't have your customers and users
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behind you and and their enthusiasm in their loyalty you've you're creating an
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01:24:05
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opportunity and maybe the technology doesn't exist but technology in a new
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01:24:10
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technology has the whole point of you know everything we do and talk about
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01:24:14
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it's coming and you're you're creating opportunities for potential disruptors
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01:24:23
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in the future it's gonna happen to me of course the tricky thing they're right is
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01:24:27
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is licensing and but but but still like at one point somewhere in the future
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01:24:32
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this is gonna get worked out clearly it's clearly getting it worked out it's
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01:24:36
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gonna be a new company is able to do something no one's done before and it's
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01:24:39
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probably not gonna be Comcast right well and the big thing like you said they own
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01:24:44
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the pipe here's the here's the thing that could happen
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01:24:47
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LTE is already it's not as fast as I can but LTE is pretty fast now the big
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01:24:53
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problem with LTE as it stands now is everybody's got data caps
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almost impossible to get an unlimited Lt
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01:25:01
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by you know five years ago we're all using iPhones I mean this stuff moves
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fast who knows you know what
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01:25:12
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cellular wireless networking will be in just five years five more yrs you know
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01:25:18
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maybe it's still LTE but the limit is 20 times higher or maybe it's something a
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01:25:24
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generation ahead of LTE and it's faster than cable and they can't keep up
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01:25:28
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because the cable is a literal copper pipe underneath the streets of the city
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that they can't just dig up old ones like yeah you know it may be impossible
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01:25:38
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for someone else to get a physical pipe in the house like like what the cable
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01:25:42
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monopolies have but I don't know something Wireless seems to me like
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would be crazy to me of ten years from now we don't have something Wireless
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01:25:51
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that could replace cable totally agree and I mean comcast will probably try by
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01:25:55
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that company it's funny I have a farmhouse up in Wisconsin about three
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01:25:59
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hours from Chicago and there's no internet access up there for me because
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01:26:03
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I'm sort of in a valley and I don't have mine of so there's no cable internet
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there's some line of sight options but I can't get to the valley in the line of
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sight there is huge satellite which is really terrible and slow
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01:26:19
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and then there's dial-up which is really bad and the only option I had at the
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01:26:23
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time this is about three years ago was was actually getting a T one line which
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is physically bringing US Circuit a phone line to your place that only used
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it cost me 600 bucks a month
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28031 line in I did it for a while because I needed internet access cuz I
[TS]
01:26:40
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told myself and I'm up there I might work order it was right so I did this
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01:26:43
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for a while and then Verizon comes around and offers 3G like it's kind of a
[TS]
01:26:49
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remote location but they added some some 3G towers along the highway and boom
[TS]
01:26:54
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like 3G speed was actually better than the T one it was like you know fifty
[TS]
01:26:58
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bucks a month enemy fire whatever they're called and immediately like 600
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01:27:03
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bucks no I cancel 50 bucks a month now and now they have 4G LTE there which is
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01:27:09
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about the same price and you know like 10 x faster than 3G or whatever it is
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01:27:13
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and it's just a matter of three years and I went from spending $600
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01:27:17
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reluctantly
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01:27:18
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to to be excited to spend $50 a month to have this service so things that things
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01:27:23
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are changing obviously rapidly in the companies that are set up to fall are
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01:27:28
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the ones that really pissed customers off and they just they're just holding
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01:27:32
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on to their just there just almost stockpiling money through fees in
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01:27:36
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annoyance is because I think they have like they're gonna need that down the
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01:27:40
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yeah totally yeah I thought you'd agree and I do it do it it's a bummer it's a
[TS]
01:27:48
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bummer that's it that's a savings but it's it's it's also kind of exciting
[TS]
01:27:51
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because these are the moments when do things happen if things don't happen
[TS]
01:27:57
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creating things don't happen everyone's content you know there has to be
[TS]
01:28:00
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struggle people have to be upset with something there has to be injustice in
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01:28:04
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some way that someone just has to be pissed enough for them to come up with a
[TS]
01:28:07
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brand new audience oh yeah these moments are actually exciting for me because
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01:28:10
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these are the times I know something great's gonna be here in three years
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01:28:13
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unhappy customers are a great opportunity certainly like you said
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01:28:19
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business sometimes it's not that complicated
[TS]
01:28:21
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make something make something that's fair fairly priced that works well
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01:28:25
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that's clear I mean you know it's it's not it's
[TS]
01:28:29
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it's hard still to be in business but it doesn't have to be anywhere near as hard
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01:28:33
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as people make it to be with all these fancy Street strange business models
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01:28:36
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that they're going to figure out down the road you don't have to figure things
[TS]
01:28:39
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out on the road it's it's not complicated sell something that you make
[TS]
01:28:42
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people buy it
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01:28:43
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people buy food every day to buy clothes everyday by transportation people are
[TS]
01:28:46
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used to buying things and and that's what that's how they that's how they
[TS]
01:28:51
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exist and to to to say that that that model doesn't work doesn't make any
[TS]
01:28:55
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sense to me I think it actually works great show
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01:28:59
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thank you for being here Jason Basecamp dot com is the company and product and
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01:29:06
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the new website for the blog is I believe from wrong signal the noise dot
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01:29:14
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com sorry but if you just do it we said and Google signal signal vs noise blog
[TS]
01:29:20
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you'll find it in fact great example we try to get signal vs noise dot com taken
[TS]
01:29:25
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so that works to guarantee you will not alter your readership by one so I don't
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01:29:33
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think so
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01:29:34
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alright I should go to get back to playing flapping bird
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