A unique aspect of the profit sharing program we have at 37signals is that it's weighted exclusively by tenure. This means we have people working in, say, support taking home the same six-figure profit shares as those in programming, design, or operations. That's virtually never the case with equity-grant programs, but we've grown to really like this model. Salary is already set at market rate (except we've raised the floor substantially on support), so there's already a clear separation in take-home pay. And that's totally fine. This isn't a commune or a co-op. But I admit that the most rewarding part of this equation is knowing that we have people in roles like support making hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is pretty rare in our industry, to say the least. But why not? Some of them have been here for a decade or more helping our customers figure out how to get the best from Basecamp or HEY. Anyone who've ever spoken to a support person that really knows their shit will instantly recognize the value of kind, knowledgeable, and patient help. It's surprisingly hard to do well! Surprising, because at the surface, it sounds easy to "just" answer emails about a product that you know well. But anyone who've tried to do that, with 50-60-80 customers per day, for even just a week, know it's not easy at all. People can be rude! Frustrated! Inarticulate about their problem. Demanding. Terse. Short. And it takes real skill to judo those emotions into a good experience. I've done it a lot over time in my career. So I know how hard it is to stay calm and collected. Jason has done it even more. In the first three years of Basecamp, he answered every single customer support request. Eventually topping out at 150 emails/day ON TOP OF DESIGNING AND RUNNING THE BUSINESS. So I think we've institutionally been shaped to highly value the dividends from having an awesome support team. It's such a treat to pay that back in this way.

An unknown band called The Killers play their new song "Mr. Brightside" in 2002

Blimey. 37% of Brits admit to scanning items at the self-checkout but not paying.