How I Built A $30M Business Without A VC | David Heinemeier Hansson

Guest: David Heinemeier Hansson, CTO & co-owner of 37signals and creator of Ruby on Rails 

37signals CTO David Heinemeier Hansson has organized his life around his passions: Writing, racing sports cars, and coding. “ Why aren't we all doing that?” he wonders. “Why aren't we all trying to optimize our life in such a way that much of it is enjoyable?”

Part of the problem, David argues, is that it’s impossible to find a creative or productive flow inside of mainstream work culture. Open offices, managerial over-hiring, and sloppy scheduling prevents people from reaching a flow state.

“40 hours a week is plenty than most people,” he says. “... So many people today are focused on just adding more and more hours. They're not thinking about how those hours are spent.”

(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:17) 24 Hours of Le Mans
(00:07:03) Amateurs in sports car racing
(00:11:22) Flow and meditation
(00:16:11) Mundane bulls**t
(00:19:17) Optimizing for flow
(00:22:20) Calendars and open offices
(00:25:45) Full-time managers
(00:30:29) Small companies
(00:33:55) Selfishness and work
(00:42:16) Taking other people’s money
(00:47:54) Temptation
(00:52:13) Moderately rich
(00:58:00) “The day I became a millionaire”
(01:01:43) The hassle
(01:06:57) Achieving the dream
(01:11:50) Shopify and Tobias Lütke
(01:18:19) Trade-offs and downsides
(01:22:30) The impact of Ruby on Rails
(01:26:09) “I love being wrong”
(01:29:54) DEI and illegal drugs
(01:34:33) Not hiring
(01:35:23) What “grit” means to David
(01:38:29) - Outro