Fried: A Company's Only True Competition Is Its Own Operating Costs
Jason Fried · Jason Fried: Your Only Competition Is Your Costs · Feb 15, 2026 · at 3:15
Jason Fried, co-founder and CEO of 37signals, discusses his core operating philosophy with David Senra regarding why founders should focus on internal cost discipline over external competitors.
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“Well, like, a business is very simple. You gotta make more than you spend. That's a business, basically. Like, I mean, you can keep borrowing money, and then you can, you know, borrow more than you spend, and eventually you got to make more than you spend. So if you're making more than you spend, then your competition is your cost. And that's what you're really in business against is how much it costs you to stay in business. It's not all the other alternatives that are on the market. Of course, like they exist and they're real, but you can't do anything about them.”
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