I RTFA and it seems the author is confused. The announcement 3 years ago was that Jeff invested in them, that's all. And like Amazon, 37Signals is pretty traditional and I see no indication of some "big idea" on the horizon, other than the big idea of running a profitable/growing/thriving business.
There's also no meat to the article, just a "hey what's up with that?" comment in regards to over-valued web companies and 37signals strong conviction to staying ... real.
One sells a collaborative business contact manager, a project tracker, and a personal information manager based on a popular web framework they created. They have a small number of employees, strong revenues, no funding, and apparently consistent operating profits. Their customer base is early-adopter small/medium business.
The other operates an extraordinarily popular social micro-publishing platform featured heavily in the mainstream media, which by capturing the attention of tens of millions of people has demonstrated enough potential long-term value to attract tens of millions of dollars of venture funding. It is staffed accordingly, and is pre-revenue.
One might succeed with a high-8-figures acquisition, or by operating for 10 more years and distributing 6-7 figure bonuses to key employees. The other might succeed with an 8-9 figure acquisition, or an IPO. Either strategy will make the company's key employees and their offspring financially secure.
Both have better-than-average chances at long-term success. Neither is a sure thing. One is more conservative than the other. The other has a higher upside.
Or, I'm sorry, were we talking about blogging personalities?
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[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 23.2 ms ] threada business plan?
being profitable?
number of users?
- * the better question is what doesn't (would be a smaller list)..
Besides, Twitter will eventually make money; it caters to too many of the seven deadly sins not to.
There's also no meat to the article, just a "hey what's up with that?" comment in regards to over-valued web companies and 37signals strong conviction to staying ... real.
The other operates an extraordinarily popular social micro-publishing platform featured heavily in the mainstream media, which by capturing the attention of tens of millions of people has demonstrated enough potential long-term value to attract tens of millions of dollars of venture funding. It is staffed accordingly, and is pre-revenue.
One might succeed with a high-8-figures acquisition, or by operating for 10 more years and distributing 6-7 figure bonuses to key employees. The other might succeed with an 8-9 figure acquisition, or an IPO. Either strategy will make the company's key employees and their offspring financially secure.
Both have better-than-average chances at long-term success. Neither is a sure thing. One is more conservative than the other. The other has a higher upside.
Or, I'm sorry, were we talking about blogging personalities?
>They have a small number of employees, strong revenues, no funding, and apparently consistent operating profits.
Funding: http://37signals.com/svn/archives2/bezos_expeditions_invests...