James and I sat down with Dustin Bruzenak, co-founder of Modern Logic — a Twin Cities-based software development shop specializing in projects that emphasize compassion and human-centered thought. Dustin offers great thoughts on the software industry: building the products, building teams, and finding your cultural center.

You can listen to the episode here.

P.S. If you’re wanting software that makes a difference to the people that use it, seek out Modern Logic. I personally recommend their work — I have experience working with them.

Highlights

• Co-founded 5 companies with identical twin brother Dylan
• Built a lot of tech chops with Adobe

Figure 1: The Man Himself

• Modern Logic focuses on projects that impact not only customers, but the world — software that delivers business results, but is also compassionate
• I was impressed with how often “compassion” came up as a subject of the discussion. Hiring, building, and so on.

Money Quotes

Dustin

Think of digital products as the digital equivalent of actual, packaged products in the real world.

Start with the culture first…if you have a good culture fit, the talent comes along for the ride.

Everything you do in leadership, especially around talent, is sending a message to the rest of your team on what you’re willing to tolerate.

James

There’s a challenge in going super deep with people-focused design [in ERP]: that software is designed to be one-size-fits-all.

Paul

There’s a unifying factor for us — finding the right team of people to get together and do the stuff.