Joel Spolsky – FogCreek, Trello, Stack Overflow, HASH and Business of Software

Joel Spolsky, founder of FogCreek, Trello, Stack Overflow, HASH – and, with Neil Davidson, one of the original movers behind a thing called Business of Software Conference, announced that Stack Overflow has been acquired by Prosus, a European private equity firm that is the largest shareholder in Tencent, for $1.8 billion.

Congratulations to the team for another notable exit. Don’t forget, Trello was a FogCreek production that was purchased by Atlassian – you can hear the story behind how they almost messed up Trello here…

Joel was one of the first tech entrepreneurs to talk about the business of software and the process and thinking behind how you grow great products and great companies. These days you can’t even consider yourself to be a tech entrepreneur if you aren’t blogging your way through your entrepreneurial journey to $1k MRR, $100k ARR, $1M, how you raised your $20M round, why you regret taking your $20M round – and so it goes. Joel is a pioneer in many ways. He rarely blogs these days, so his ‘Kinda big announcement’ post is worth a read, reflecting as it does on a few decades of thought and insight on the software business and how it has changed.

He has spoken at Business of Software on a few occasions and his talks seem as relevant today as they were when he made them. Some things have changed and Joel would say that he wouldn’t agree with everything he said in the past, but they are all interesting, insightful and thought provoking.

Joel Spolsky founder of FogCreek, Trello, Stack Overflow, HASH and more reflects on the Business of Software…

Being Number One

Joel shares his thoughts on the three important things that set number one in a market apart from the rest.

Simplicity vs Value in Software Development

Joel argues, going against the wisdom at the time, that features are good if you can add them without making a product too complex. This can create real value for customers and revenue for your business.

My VC Year

From bootstrapped and fiercely independent business, to venture backed behemoth. Joel reflects on the things that changed when he took external investors on board to grow Stack Exchange.

The Cultural Anthropology of Stack Exchange

Or, why Stack Exchange didn’t allow cat gifs. Some brilliant insights into what makes a community strong and purposeful.

One Final Share

Joel Spolksy, Neil Davidson, Dharmesh Shah and others, explain the thinking behind Business of Software Conference. I hope as relevant today as it was over ten years ago.