Fresh listener questions are on the table this week. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson tackle whether small builders can realistically compete with industry heavyweights, what the AI agent wave actually means for the future of SaaS, and whether mixing your personal social presence with your business is a smart move or a mistake. Key Takeaways 00:11 – Competing in a market dominated by big players 04:40 – Is AI really the end of SaaS as we know it? 15:52 – When it makes sense to build versus buy 17:43 – Personal social accounts and promoting your business Links and Resources Record a video question for the podcast Watch The REWORK podcast on YouTube Basecamp is the no-nonsense project management system. Sign up for free at Basecamp.com HEY is a fresh take on email. Sign up for a 30-day free trial at HEY.com Fizzy is a modern spin on kanban. Sign up for free at fizzy.do Books by 37signals Jason Fried on X David Heinemeier Hansson on X

Competing with giants, the end of SaaS & other listener questions

REWORK

[SPEAKER_A] Welcome to Rework, a podcast by 37signals about the better way to work and run your business. I'm your host Kimberly Rhodes, joined by the co-founders of 37signals, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. This week we're gonna knock out a couple of listener questions. I'm gonna start with this one, which was an email from Dan. Jason, you emailed Dan directly with your response, but I thought we would tell our Rework listeners what you have to say. So Dan said, my name is Dan. I'm an avid listener to Rework as well as a big fan of Basecamp, HEY, and Omachi. I'm at the early stages of building my own business and would "Love your thoughts on building a product in a competitive market. In my space, there are competitors, but I'm confident I can build something better. I wonder how much better does it need to be? As 37signals have built products competing with giants like Jira, Gmail, and Apple, I'm curious if that scares you. Do you worry about the big players?" That's from Dan.

[SPEAKER_B] Sure. I mean, look, you're not going to beat Apple or Gmail at their game because they have massive market share. They're massive companies and they, they're in a different category. I think if you're Dan, like, you're not really competing against them. What you're trying to find are your own customers and carve out a business that's sustainable for you. So you're competing against your costs, you're competing against the ability to find some customers and enough customers to build a great product for them and for yourself. Like, you got to start there. You can't be like, I'm going to take down Google. I mean, I guess you could, but it's probably a bad idea.

Competing with giants, the end of SaaS & other listener questions

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

Competing with giants, the end of SaaS & other listener questions

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.