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Not that long ago, we were living in a grow-grow-grow economy where stock options in a hot venture-backed startup were what most employees coveted. Today, a profitable bootstrapped company that shares its profit with its own employees feels like a revelation. In this episode of Brave New Work, Aaron Dignan and Rodney Evans speak with Nathan Barry, founder and CEO of ConvertKit, about how his bootstrapped software company shares profit with its employees, and while we're at it, how they think about compensation more generally. Hopefully, some of our listeners will follow in their footsteps. Learn more about Nathan on LinkedIn and Twitter. You can read the thread that sparked this episode here: https://twitter.com/nathanbarry/status/1231227172238422016 Learn more about ConvertKit at their website. Mentioned references: ConvertKit's publicly available financial metrics Coinbase's decision making framework (PPS and RAPIDs) Radford Global Compensation Database "Joel and the transparency episode": BNW Ep. 6 nathanbarry.com/uncertainty ----------- Our book is available now at bravenewwork.com We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to podcast@theready.com Looking for some help with your own transformation? Visit theready.com ----------- 00:00 Intro + Check-In: Share one way in which you are difficult to work with, and one way in which you are easy to work with. 04:21 Nathan’s ConvertKit story 05:56 ConvertKit’s profit sharing approach 13:16 Walking away from tying performance intro profit sharing 17:03 Calculating what profit is available to share 20:20 Shadow of profit sharing 24:09 ConvertKit’s transparency principles 27:07 The other components of compensation 33:06 Trade-offs to reach philosophical outcomes 36:37 Nathan’s advice for leaders navigating this moment 39:44 Wrap Up: Leave us a review!