Look at the markets they sell to. 37Signals needs to remain professional and appear competent, because they routinely buck established business "truths" and thi

Look at the markets they sell to. 37Signals needs to remain professional and appear competent, because they routinely buck established business "truths" and this draws attention. I wouldn't listen to a person telling me they have a better way of conducting business from inside a green tent. Sorry, I'd think they were an immature kid... ...which is exactly why Zappos' approach works. They distribute a hip, cool product to people based on other businesses' reputation. The only thing they need to do is ship something once the right way to convince a retail customer they are competent enough to take a pair of shoes (or whatever) from point A to point B. People have very different expectations with regards to the deliverables of the companies. The office space simply flows from that.