Cool that this was written in 2004. Also reminds me of what David Ogilvy said about running his company- he'd only seek out clients that he personally wanted to help, only wrote copy for clients whose products he actually used and believed in, and he experienced joy and a thrill doing what he did.
I'd love to hear/read about other such companies and founders. I imagine Buffer might be a real-world modern example.
I run such a company (https://coderpad.io/). One of the things you start to realize very quickly is that the term "lifestyle business" is often just a matter of convenience.
Put another way, a lifestyle business can be looked at as simply a good business patiently looking for its opportunity to go big. Or, a lifestyle business can be avowedly lifestyle. Businesses can change a lot over time.
It's also odd that you'd mention Buffer as being a candidate for a lifestyle company. They've taken about $4m in funding, which implies that they convinced all of their investors that they'd see a significant return on their money. That's not to say that they can't operate like a lifestyle business, but they are almost certainly looking to generate a very large return.
I have literally no idea what this means. At first I took "lifestyle company" to mean "company that produces things for people's lifestyles", but his description seemed to be more about one's work for the company being a part of their lifestyle.
Regardless, I recoil and avoid like the plague any product or service targeted at my "lifestyle" (typically with the word "luxury" thrown in for good measure). It's a sure tell of a company looking to separate fools from their money.
And therein lies the problem with the author's attempt to extract huge meaning from a two-word term. Or perhaps he truly understood what the CEO meant, but just utterly failed at articulating what he meant.
Erm, that's... no, not what they mean. A "lifestyle business" is a colloquial term for a business that is built to stick around, not on an aggressive growth trajectory, and which can provide a reasonable lifestyle for its proprietors, but not a meteoric rise, "fuck-you-money-providing" exit event. It's a business that's a going concern: a company that is profitable, healthy, and well-rounded, but not spectacular, and not a startup that is burning investor capital on the way to their hopeful exit.
I think you might have gotten caught up on the phrase and extrapolated quite a bit of meaning from that which isn't there. It's a pretty common phrase, and it has nothing to do with luxury goods or providing "lifestyle" products to people.
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[ 1.5 ms ] story [ 47.4 ms ] threadI'd love to hear/read about other such companies and founders. I imagine Buffer might be a real-world modern example.
Put another way, a lifestyle business can be looked at as simply a good business patiently looking for its opportunity to go big. Or, a lifestyle business can be avowedly lifestyle. Businesses can change a lot over time.
It's also odd that you'd mention Buffer as being a candidate for a lifestyle company. They've taken about $4m in funding, which implies that they convinced all of their investors that they'd see a significant return on their money. That's not to say that they can't operate like a lifestyle business, but they are almost certainly looking to generate a very large return.
Regardless, I recoil and avoid like the plague any product or service targeted at my "lifestyle" (typically with the word "luxury" thrown in for good measure). It's a sure tell of a company looking to separate fools from their money.
And therein lies the problem with the author's attempt to extract huge meaning from a two-word term. Or perhaps he truly understood what the CEO meant, but just utterly failed at articulating what he meant.
I think you might have gotten caught up on the phrase and extrapolated quite a bit of meaning from that which isn't there. It's a pretty common phrase, and it has nothing to do with luxury goods or providing "lifestyle" products to people.