Where this was said
How 37signals is embracing live sessions with customers
At 2:48 · chapter starts 0:10
For Jason, the deepest value of the live sessions isn't feature explanation — it's philosophy transfer. When customers ask how teams stay coordinated, the honest answer is often 'we don't coordinate the way you'd expect.' He walks them through 37signals' actual workflows: the What Works project where everyone shares daily updates, cross-functional teams sharing a single list of responsibilities rather than siloed task boards, and a deliberate aversion to excessive integrations [1] — Jason Fried "At 37signals, programmers and designers share the same to-do lists in the same Basecamp project. It sounds obvious — but to most customers …" 04:20 . The consistently most shocking revelation is that programmers and designers work on the same to-do list in the same Basecamp project — no handoffs, no separate tools, no integrator role needed. Jason illustrated the power of this with the story of showing Basecamp to his doctor, whose practice was spending tens of thousands of dollars a month on five fragmented tools, missing information constantly, and assuming that was just the way things had to be. The demo planted a seed — not a sale, just the possibility of a different, better way.
37signals hosts weekly Zoom demos with up to 400 customer sign-ups, of which roughly half actually attend each session.
Each live Zoom session opens 500 slots for customers to register, and early sessions sold out so fast they ran two a week.
Since the Basecamp 5 launch, 37signals has run weekly live Zoom demos with up to 400 customers, letting the audience drive every topic for 90 minutes. No script, no guardrails — just a real Basecamp account on screen and every question on the table.
The live sessions typically run 90 minutes with no scripted agenda — the audience drives where the demo goes.
David invoked Kathy Sierra's principle that companies can either outspend competitors on advertising or out-teach them — 37signals chooses the latter through live demos.
Companies can either outspend competitors on ads or out-teach them. Jason's live demos embody the out-teach strategy — and no ad budget can replicate what happens when a founder shows you not just a product, but a whole new way of working.
At 37signals, programmers and designers share the same to-do lists in the same Basecamp project. It sounds obvious — but to most customers who've grown up with siloed tools, it's a total revelation about what collaborative work can look like.
At 37signals, programmers and designers work from shared to-do lists in a single Basecamp project — a fact that consistently surprises customers who assume teams always use separate tools.
