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One thing I've always been curious about is how investing in a company like 37signals makes sense for an investor. I obviously don't know everything about their
by ryanbrunner 13y ago
One thing I've always been curious about is how investing in a company like 37signals makes sense for an investor. I obviously don't know everything about their future plans, but it doesn't seem to me to be a company that's focused on generating an exit for an investor - they seem committed to staying at least relatively small, and a buyout doesn't seem very realistic. How would an investor expect to get a return on their investment?
- dd36 13y agoCash flow: distributions/dividends.
- beat 13y agoMore to the point, why would 37signals ever want to take investor money, much less need it? Surely, the founders are wealthy enough now that getting more would just be bouncing the rubble (see Jason Cohen's "Rich vs King"), so money is unlikely to motivate them. And from reading Jason Fried's extensive writings, it's very clear that they're more interested in making a company that's a truly excellent place/way to work than they are with making a company big. The only reason to take investor money is to grow the business faster than you can with cash flow alone - or to sell it in order to become wealthy and/or go on to the next big idea. The 37signals apparently don't want either of those things. I can imagine a line of venture capitalists basically begging for them to take some investment, and them just refusing.
- arikrak 13y agoDHH discusse that here: http://youtu.be/fPrvnlvnu-k?t=1h12m11s http://youtu.be/fPrvnlvnu-k?t=1h12m11s He says it was just to take some money off the table, and should encourage the founders to stay in the game.