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You really think they need the money? They're a small company that made a million dollars off their last book sales alone, and they have another contract right
by unalone 18y ago
You really think they need the money? They're a small company that made a million dollars off their last book sales alone, and they have another contract right now. They're legendary in the computer world and they said they weren't at all damaged by the recession. Don't you think there's a chance that they just really, really, really like what they're doing?
- pclark 18y agoI think they really, really, really like making lots of money.
- unalone 18y agoThere are much easier ways of making money if you're in their position. Teaching and preparing for a set of seminars like this is time-consuming and most likely exhausting. If they were in it for money, they could be doing much better.
- menloparkbum 18y agoThere are much easier ways of making money if you're in their position. What would one of those much easier ways be? Corporate training is a gold mine.
- teej 18y ago> Teaching and preparing for a set of seminars like this is time-consuming and most likely exhausting. Those are the only two pieces that require extra work. They don't need to spend time on content creation, finding a market, or marketing in general. They have an audience, they know that audience has deep pockets, and they'll tell that audience the same damn thing they've been saying for 10 years. The only difference is the format and the price.
- josefresco 18y agoThis argument is such bullshit. "If they were really in it for the money they'd be doing X" is giving them and anyone in that position too much credit. Sometimes people, even successful people don't have all the answers to effectively make a "money printing machine."
- axod 18y agoThey certainly seem to need constant self promotion. I'm at a loss to know what they could say in a 'university' that they haven't said already.
- adamhowell 18y agoIt's called marketing.
- axod 18y agoMarketing is a lot better when it just 'happens' though. Google wasn't marketed, they didn't start selling books about the right way to make a business, they just made something good and watched as people started using it.
- adamhowell 18y agoBack in the day Larry and Sergey accepted every interview they were approached for and hammed it up all over campus posing for photos standing on balls and playing with toys in order to keep that "wacky geniuses" thing going and get on all the magazine covers. Once they found a business model and could hire enough programmers to basically churn out a new feature/project every week, they had built-in marketing and enough brand to self-sustain itself. Are 37signals already to that point? I don't know, maybe, but faulting a 10(?) person, self-sustaining, Chicago company for keeping their name out there by comparing them to a grow-as-fast-as-possible, well-funded, Valley startup-gone-gangbusters that's been the feather in the web's crown for the past 10 years is a little unfair.
- unalone 18y agoReally? Because they avoid advertising themselves beyond their blog. Is writing a really good, useful blog self-promotion? If so, it's not the greedy sort that the terms "self-promotion" implies.
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- ptn 18y agoI don't think they need the money, I think they want it. And that's perfectly fine, they can be doing this for both the money and passion.
- josefresco 18y agoJust replace 'need' with 'want' and there's your answer. There's no shame in wanting more, as long as you do something good with that 'more' you get.