How about all the many online shops that sell actual products, and others that fall below the radar, that sell everything from property advertising to job listings.
YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
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Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 employi…
You are right. I used the term "enterprise software" only as a contrast to "consumer software". The "Fortune 5,000,000" is probably the best target market for a startup. Why? Targeting large enterprises (what the company I work for does) is also an extremely difficult market, but for other reasons than the consumer market. Selling to large enterprises requires professionel and experienced sales people with very good…
Reaching a bunch of relatively small, and perhaps not well-connected companies does, of course, present some obstacles of its own.
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#23"37signals/DHH style" companies--in other words, not startups? This is interesting, because his advocacy of non-startups is an oblique way of saying "don't start startups". I wonder, did PG and others even know what the talk was gonna be about?
Are you suggesting that they should crush dissent had they known? DHH wasn't saying don't start startups. His point is that people have a warped view of the world and the average startup is more like 37signals than it is like Google/facebook.
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#24the fortune 5,000,000 company I work at subscribes to GoToMeeting.com - .. desktop sharing.. teleconferencing for product demos and meetings
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#25One 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 end-consumer market is very difficult since internet-users are used to get everything for free.
...except for Mac users, who support a healthy little industry made up of one- and two-person software companies.
In other words, consumers don't spend money for software, except for the ones who do.
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#26Github.com, Lighthouse, a lot of companies that make Mac software (think TextMate).
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#27Maybe existing DHH style companies are a good area to look for inspiration to build free alternatives with some premiums added afterwards... Like flickr added pro accounts for $25/year. Read Wired's "Why $0 is the future" http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-03/ff_free
Building less of an app also means it will be easier for others to come later and build what you made and give it away. Look at how it took 2 people at Google a few days to build HuddleChat which some said was too similar to 37signals' campfire.
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#28"37signals/DHH style" companies--in other words, not startups? This is interesting, because his advocacy of non-startups is an oblique way of saying "don't start startups". I wonder, did PG and others even know what the talk was gonna be about?
37 signals style companies cannot be startups? Are you saying that a talk on starting a company that charges money for their product is not appropriate for Startup School?
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#29Take a look at alot of the popular Mac software companies out there. Many of them make quite a living, like Panic, and Delicious Monster.
Re: YC Analysis: "37signals/DHH style" companies?
#30One 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 end-consumer market is very difficult since internet-users are used to get everything for free. ...except for Mac users, who support a healthy little industry made up of one- and two-person software companies. In other words, consumers don't spend money for software, except for the ones who do.
So - for the analysis part of the question: why? What makes them different?