jasonfried

8 ms·

31.
by jasonfried 14y ago
"tell me about the last time that happened" is better than "how often does that happen?" How often doesn't tell you much. Plus it's unlikely to be accurate - people just don't keep track of things closely enough before you ask a question li
32.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Dan didn't go into detail about this, but the reason to talk to people who just bought or just left is because they are very close to that specific moment. Decisions are still fresh in their mind. The information is cleaner, less embellishe
33.
by jasonfried 14y ago
As an example of this kind of very specific use case targeting: http://basecamp.com/breeze/bookclub
34.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Silence is not the same as quiet. Our office isn't silent. It's softly quiet.
35.
by jasonfried 14y ago
There are cases when people need to follow up with an email, but there are many more people who just have quick questions that can be answered publicly with a few words or a link to what they need.
36.
by jasonfried 14y ago
I hadn't seen this. Great list. I especially like "As we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time."
37.
by jasonfried 14y ago
No plans right now.
38.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Different people learn in different ways. There are lots of people - me included - who don't learn well from books or online tutorials. We need to be immersed in the environment. We want to be able to ask questions and get human responses.
39.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Fair point. I'm glad you knew what I actually meant ;) I've updated the post to reflect more of what I meant. This isn't the type of tech investment you normally read about.
40.
by jasonfried 14y ago
No liquidation, no. Financially we'll participate in the distributions (The Starter League is an LLC) as long as the company is profitable. But this is way more than that - this is an investment in helping other people learn and for us to b
41.
by jasonfried 14y ago
I'm not part of this to make sure anyone follows my advice. I'm part of this to offer my advice.
42.
by jasonfried 14y ago
This isn't an incubator. We're not making investments in the companies that might come out of The Starter League. Also, starting a company isn't required to attend The Starter League. You just have to want to learn how to build and ship sof
43.
by jasonfried 14y ago
We've discussed this, but we don't have a definitive answer right now. One thing we believe is that it's important for people to make some sacrifices to be here. We want totally committed students. Figuring out how to pay is a great test to
44.
by jasonfried 14y ago
No plans to expand outside of Chicago right now. We’re focused on quality and nailing the learning and teaching experience. One location makes that possible. We're interested in quality over growth. Expansion is dilution, not concentration.
45.
by jasonfried 14y ago
I'm here to if anyone has any questions about the partnership, the reasons behind the investment, the vision, or anything else.
46.
by jasonfried 14y ago
"why would have he not only given advice but invested in the company" First, let's get your facts straight: I have not invested a penny in Groupon. I haven't put any personal money into any private company other than my own. I was awarded o
47.
by jasonfried 14y ago
For some backstory... Flippa contacted us after we posted Sortfolio for sale on our blog ( http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3172-sortfolio-going-once-goi... ). They asked us to list on Flippa too. So I said, sure, we'll list it on Flippa to
48.
by jasonfried 14y ago
When you get dozens and dozens and dozens of inquiries, it's pretty easy to tell which ones are serious. People who are prepared to spend $480,000 make it very clear they they're interested in moving forward and not just browsing.
49.
by jasonfried 14y ago
We were quite open about the whole thing. We posted revenues, the deadline, the selling price, etc. Here was the post where we announced the sale on our blog: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3172-sortfolio-going-once-goi... A number of ser
50.
by jasonfried 14y ago
So you know the truth, we didn't have a buyer from the start. We didn't know if anyone would buy it. We'd never met or heard of the eventual buyers. We tried to sell Sortfolio a year earlier and nothing came through. We decided to try again
51.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Anyone who was a qualified buyer, and asked privately, got the answer. Lots of people asked privately. We even put serious buyers in touch with our credit card processing company so they could get additional questions answered directly.
52.
by jasonfried 14y ago
FYI, I responded to select private Flippa messages from buyers I considered to be qualified. If someone was serious about spending $480,000, they should have gotten in touch privately and demonstrated that they were serious, qualified buyer
53.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Great advice, as always. Listen to this man!
54.
by jasonfried 14y ago
"From 37signals' point of view it's the only way how entrepreneurship should be approached while heavily despising other ways" Nope. It's not the only way. It's one way. There are lots of ways to build a product and run a business. Getting
55.
by jasonfried 14y ago
I guess you'll have to wait and see.
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by jasonfried 14y ago
We may do that too.
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by jasonfried 14y ago
I think a smart businessperson could blow it up much bigger. Open it up to a variety of different industries. Wedding planners, photographers, florists, interior designers, architects, etc. Think big.
58.
by jasonfried 14y ago
No.
59.
by jasonfried 14y ago
"If nobody bids at $480,000 they will have to try to sell it at a lower price and it will seem like a fire sale." It's not being sold for a lower price. It's $480,000 by July 1 or we close it down.
60.
by jasonfried 14y ago
Believe it. Sortfolio isn't right for us anymore. Our attention is elsewhere. If we can sell it for a fair price (we consider $480,000 fair), then we'll sell it. If not, we'll close it down and move on. There's nothing condescending about t

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