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YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?

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YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?

#1
Everyone has probably read about or seen DHH's talk by now, where he advocates attempting to create small/medium sized, sustainable companies with a simple, direct business model (sell something directly to your customers).

A lot of his examples are from 'real world' products (Italian restaurants, say), that clearly have very different economics from on line businesses. The marginal cost of another bottle of Bardolino is not indifferent, even though the markup is also going to be good. The marginal cost of another basecamp customer is very small. Also, his Craigslist example was not particularly compelling for me. Those guys dominated their market, but more because people flock to the site because everyone else does (network effects). Their choice to keep things small/real seems like a very conscious one, but not necessarily something they could get away with if, say, they were kijiji and eBay were the owner of Craigslist.

So, my question: what other web or software companies make a living the 37signals way? What are they key characteristics of their markets? Obviously they can't be in a winner take all market dominated by network effects.

Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?

#7
I think another aspect of this to consider is this:

Eventually, most things will be commoditized, but this happens slower for some things, and faster for others. How does the 'dhh style company' keep that at bay - or do they? How sustainable is the business in the face of cheaper competition?

Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?

#8
post #6

lessaccounting.com Key characteristic: a real problem being solved and customers willing to pay for a solution. In the case of lessaccounting, mom-and-pop shops (online and off) that don't use quickbooks or find quickbooks too complicated.

Seems pretty new. We have information about things like smugmug or 37signals being profitable for a number of years...

Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?

#10
post #9

One characteristic is that they all provide enterprise software. The end-consumer market is very difficult since internet-users are used to get everything for free.

The term "enterprise software" usually refers to software products sold to very large companies, or at least "small and medium businesses" which have 200-500 employees. David's examples were geared more toward the "Fortune 5,000,000" -- the much larger market of small businesses with a handful of employees.

The economics of the "Fortune 5,000,000" are very different than true enterprise software, as it avoids employing a direct sales force. Obviously 37signals wouldn't turn away a team from General Motors who wanted to use Basecamp, but they don't actively market their products to large companies.

You're right about the difficulty of charging for online products in the consumer market. DHH said that they were having trouble getting customers for their personal organization product, Backpack, even at $5 a month. After they repositioned Backpack to be used by small businesses, they were able to increase the price and sales still grew tremendously.

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