I am fascinated with everyone's response to DHH.
Maybe it's because I am a bit older. I've been working in industry for 20 years. The subscription model and the idea of going after Fortune 5 million businesses, is from my view, the standard business approach.
It's what you do when you don't have an idea that you are excited about. He's right that most ideas won't work but so what. From my view, it's not about the success, it's about the effort and the process. If you find an idea that you are passionate about, you give it your all and see what happens.
Still, I think that DHH really connected with the audience. When I questioned DHH at the conference, he said that the approach he outlined is actually the approach he's taken. So, it is very interesting that this approach resulted in something as revolutionary as Rails.