4 ms·
>I've seen a lot of articles from 37signals.com on HN but I have no idea who they are or what they do. If you also read the articles, how is that other stuff d
by batista 14y ago
>I've seen a lot of articles from 37signals.com on HN but I have no idea who they are or what they do.
If you also read the articles, how is that other stuff difficult to find out? It's like a google query away...
The make a SaaS offering for groupware (coordination, scheduling, chat, etc).
They also created the Ruby On Rails framework, related to which you'll see 2-3 articles per day on HN.
They also wrote a few business books, two of which have been NYT best-sellers.
The make several million dollars a year, and have tens of thousands of customers.
Their business, a standard profitable, bootstrapped business if a ever saw one, is often sneered by startup kiddies on HN because they haven't sold their company for VC mega-bucks or had a huge IPO, VA Lin^H^H^H^H^H^H Google style. (Normal companies are apparently passe in the web 3.0 age -- a new Apple would be something to point and laugh at, a Ben & Jerry's even more so).
- roopeshv 14y agowait. why is this being downvoted?
- prawn 14y agoThe last paragraph is pointed and snarky.
- pcopley 14y agoAnd accurate.
- prawn 14y agoQuestion was why was it being downvoted; being accurate wasn't one of those reasons. Easy to frame the original opinion without the snark, make the same point and avoid downvotes IMO.
- batista 14y agoYes, but snark was part of the point --just as "sneer" seems to be part of the point on a lot of comments I read about 37 Signals or "lifestyle businesses". I wanter to counter than a little. I find the very term "lifestyle businesses" condescending. They are bona fide businesses, nothing "lifestyle" about them. Not every business has to be on the stock market or cash-out for big bucks --or even make "billions" You know what's cooler than a billion dollars? Doing what you like, making a living and employing as many people you can, without turning into a money making monster where what exactly you're making is not as important as ever increasing your revenues and finding new cash-cows. Pivot, for me, is another word for "my goal is to make money, not to build something specific".
- prawn 14y agoNot disagreeing with all that, just that you can counter the sneers without dropping down like them. And to be honest, I was really only here to respond to the initial question about downvotes! I don't really care about the labels - if you're making money and happy, who cares!
- pcopley 14y agoYou know what's cooler than a billion dollars? A TRILLION DOLLARS. In all seriousness though, I 100% agree with you, especially on companies that pivot to something lightyears away from their original purpose. Chasing money isn't always a bad thing, but it is when it's the only thing.