Rethinking "calm company"

Years ago, I wrote an essay called The Calm Company. It came out of watching startups burn people out with 80-hour weeks while quietly running out of money. That essay ended up shaping a lot of how we built Transistor. Transistor has given me a foundation for calm. We don’t track hours, we pay well, and if your kid’s home sick, you go take care of them. But getting Transistor off the ground was incredibly hard, and staying competitive is still hard.  So lately, I’ve been wondering if the essay needs a revision. I reached out to my friend Jesse Hanley (Bento, PostShiba) and he sent back a voice memo that reframed the whole thing for me: "A calm company isn’t a destination. It’s a side effect of running a company whose revenue isn’t under threat." In this episode I play Jesse’s memo, then think out loud about competition, the pace of work in the AI era, and why I still feel grateful to work in software. This is also the first video I’m publishing to Spotify using Transistor’s new video publishing feature, so you should be able to leave a comment right there on Spotify. I’d love to hear what you think. Timestamps 00:00 Why I’m revisiting The Calm Company 00:50 Calm vs. working on the hardest thing 01:10 What I asked Jesse Hanley 02:15 Transistor is still hard to compete with 02:55 Jesse’s take: calm is a side effect, not a destination 03:45 When your market gets squeezed (Bento + launching PostShiba) 05:00 Calm as a “passive buff” 05:50 Don’t forget, you’re running a business 06:30 Some perspective: plumbing, retail, and digging ditches 07:40 Rereading the original Calm Company essay 08:45 The pace of work in the AI era 09:35 First video published to Spotify with Transistor Links The Calm Company essay Jesse Hanley on X Bento PostShiba Transistor video podcasting Leave a comment on: 📺 YouTube 🟢 Spotify This podcast is hosted and distributed by Transistor.fm