Chad Pytel is a developer, founder and CEO of thoughtbot, a product design development consultancy with six studios across the U.S. and U.K. For over 15 years, thoughtbot has produced top quality web and mobile apps with hundreds of clients from one person startups to Fortune 500 enterprises, universities and nonprofits. Chad co-authored two books, Rails AntiPatterns and Pro Active Record, has spoken at conferences around the world and is the host of the podcast Giant Robots Smashing Into Other Giant Robots.
On today’s episode, I sit down with Chad to talk about how thoughtbot went from an idea to a small five person Web agency. From there it grew to over a 100 person consultancy. During this conversation, we also discuss how Chad has been able to grow this company over the last decade and what that’s been like to expand and grow across multiple geographic locations.
My big takeaway from today’s conversation is that there are a lot of ways to build the type of business you want to build. But the one thing that’s critical is the vision, what you care about, how you do work, who you want to work with, and the things that will separate you from others because there’s always going to be competition. The thing that’s going to separate you from the competition are your values, your goals and how you organize the work you do and why you do it.
In this broadcast, Chad and I talk about:
How to Connect with Chad:
Get the Latest Broadcasts of In The Trenches on Your Favorite Podcast Platform:
Subscribe to In The Trenches on iTunes
Listen to In The Trenches on Spotify
Get your weekly dose of In The Trenches on Google Play
How You Can Support In The Trenches
Did you enjoy today's broadcast of In The Trenches? Please click here to leave an honest rating and review on iTunes. Your review helps me spread the word of this podcast, which allows me to line up amazing guests and continue to produce this podcast ad-free. Thanks so much in advance for your support.
ITT 077: How to Get Paid to Speak with Grant Baldwin
ITT 076: How to Build a 6-Figure Magazine with Nathan Chan
ITT 075: How to Use Exposure to Build Your E-mail List with Cloris Kylie
ITT 074: How to Build a Platform-based Business with Sangeet Paul Chaudary
ITT 073: How to Grow a Successful Business on the Side with Brennan Dunn
ITT 072: How to Scale an Agency with Mark Hayes
ITT 071: How to Create 6-Figure Courses with Breanne Dyck
ITT 070: How to Prosper as a Writer with Honoree Corder
ITT 069: How to Self-Publish with Matt Gartland
ITT 068: How to Build a Media Platform with Greg Rollett
ITT 067: How to Automate E-mails to Grow Your Business with Paul Minors
ITT 066: How to Write for Movies and Video Games with Justin Sloan
ITT 065: How to Hack Sales with Max Altschuler
ITT 064: How to Break into Hollywood with Scott Levy
ITT 063: Philanthropic Entrepreneurship with Tyson Adams
ITT 062: Finding the Perfect Mentors with Geoff Woods
ITT 061: How to Build a 6-Figure Membership Site with Bjork Ostrom
ITT 060: How to Launch a Six-Figure Course with Sean McCabe
ITT 059: How to Develop the Entrepreneur's Heart with Dane Maxwell
ITT 058: How to Dominate Digital Marketing with Bryan Harris
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Commercial Edge: Unleash the Power of People
The emPOWERed Half Hour
Aligned Money Show
Gorse Culture PODcast : The H.R. Detective Agency!
HCI Leadership Revolution
The Ramsey Show
Planet Money