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37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

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Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#141

Post by hsuresh »

pg wrote: post #130
whalesalad wrote: post #18

"I won’t name names. I used to name names. But I think all you have to do is read TechCrunch. Look at what the top stories are, and they’re all about raising money, how many employees they have, and these are metrics that don’t matter. What matters is: Are you profitable? Are you building something great? Are you taking care of your people? Are you treating your customers well? In the coverage of our industry as a wh…

The reason the press writes about funding rather than revenues is not some kind of conspiracy to focus on the wrong things, but simply because reporters know about funding rounds and not about revenues. It's clear that the press would write about revenues if they could, because they write a lot about the revenues of public companies. They're able to do that because public companies have to disclose their revenues. Pr…

Also, TC (and others) have a huge following from startup community. For early stage companies, funding and hiring have big impact, perhaps next only to customer acquisition (and that is usually not shared). So i wonder if they are only serving their big target segment well by reporting on these.

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#142

Post by larrys »

davidw wrote: post #63

> Actually, my cleaning lady, for example, she’s great. There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it. Let's just say that I bet she'd willingly trade places with him, cash out, and go enjoy herself instead of cleaning up after other people day in and day out. ( Edit to change the wording just a bit) > The other interesting thing about restaurants is you could have a dozen Italian restaurants in the cit…

"There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it."

Let me help you. But first I have to get my shovel. Because that's the typical shit that is heaved by the "haves" on the "have not's" try and make them seem humble and not anything special. Take Oprah. She just loves to talk about how this and that are so expensive as if she's just an ordinary person like the rest of us. He laid it on a little to thick with the cleaning lady spiel.

Particularly this part about the cleaning lady:

"she’s just respectful and nice and awesome. Why can’t more people be like that? "

Well for one thing he could start and figure out why in particular DHH is such a, well, asshole:

From wikipedia:

"Hansson is an outspoken character known for the crude and brutal way he expresses his opinions, both online and in real life. Hansson and his company have been accused of arrogance,[7][8][9], which he does not deny"

And of course I can't believe the example of why restaurants last 30 years (the ones that do that is) and tech companies don't last or whatever the point he was making.

Why not just compare cars which change every year vs. a burberry coat which is essentially the same?

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#143

Post by larrys »

pg wrote: post #130
whalesalad wrote: post #18

"I won’t name names. I used to name names. But I think all you have to do is read TechCrunch. Look at what the top stories are, and they’re all about raising money, how many employees they have, and these are metrics that don’t matter. What matters is: Are you profitable? Are you building something great? Are you taking care of your people? Are you treating your customers well? In the coverage of our industry as a wh…

The reason the press writes about funding rather than revenues is not some kind of conspiracy to focus on the wrong things, but simply because reporters know about funding rounds and not about revenues. It's clear that the press would write about revenues if they could, because they write a lot about the revenues of public companies. They're able to do that because public companies have to disclose their revenues. Pr…

" So if Jason really believes this is a terrible problem and wants to set things on the right course"

Well you know that's not going to happen especially since he made this statement below:

"We have 35 employees at 37signals. We could have hundreds of employees if we wanted to--our revenues and profits support that--but I think we’d be worse off."

So he isn't simply saying that he feels he could expand his business and have "hundreds of employees". He is saying that his "revenues and profits" would support "hundreds of employees".

Think for a second how much profit you need to support "hundreds of employees".

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he was misquoted on that. If not, he's simply full of shit. This is BS to challenge Donald Trump.

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#144

Post by larrys »

saraid216 wrote: post #85
davidw wrote: post #63

> Actually, my cleaning lady, for example, she’s great. There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it. Let's just say that I bet she'd willingly trade places with him, cash out, and go enjoy herself instead of cleaning up after other people day in and day out. ( Edit to change the wording just a bit) > The other interesting thing about restaurants is you could have a dozen Italian restaurants in the cit…

> There's something a bit... I don't know quite how to put it. Let's just say that I bet she'd willingly trade places with him, cash out, and go enjoy herself instead of cleaning up after other people day in and day out. See, the typical problem with claims like Fried made is that they're idealizing lives they don't know much about. But Fried didn't walk into that trap. He doesn't remark on her home life. He doesn't…

"All he says is that her business model is a good business model, and he's inspired by it."

He says:

"She’s been doing it some twenty-odd years, and that’s just an incredible success story. To me that’s far more interesting"

I have absolutely no idea why he feels that someone who has cleaned homes for 20 years is an incredible success story. It's almost as patronizing as it is naive.

What would be at least somewhat interesting is if she figured out a way to get paid 2x the hourly rate and/or get houses cleaned in 1/2 the time. Her station in life is to be happy cleaning homes. So she's a happy person. Great. What I'm not hearing is that he's living in her neighborhood or having her over for dinner etc. I hate this "I'm just a simple person let me go visit an ashram and live in nature" crap.

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#145

Post by larrys »

timsally wrote: post #50
Acne_Researcher wrote: post #35

This guy could have built the next Salesforce / google. but he eschewed hiring a sales team. He didn't want that, but still. Failing to achieve your true potential is not something to be bragging about all over the web.

The company brings in several millions dollars a year [1]. They have one of the nicest offices in Chicago [2]. One of the partners had a super car commissioned a few years ago which on a technical level is more sophisticated than the machinery available to your average military [3]. So how aren't they "living up to their true potential"? [1] From the article. [2] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2593-official-pictures-…

What are you exactly using to determine that in the city of Chicago "they have one of the nicest offices"? Impossible to say that from the pictures.

As far as the car goes, very little info on that and additionally you are drawing a conclusion as far as DHH's money which could have come from other sources as well as 37signals.

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#146

Post by hackinthebochs »

brc wrote: post #122
hackinthebochs wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions are simply a balancing force to that of the management whose sole purpose is to extract as much profit from the enterprise. Yes, a lot of bad things can happen when unions gain too much power. But that doesn't mean unions are necessarily evil. On the contrary, they are a necessary evil, as a balancing force of the evil of the profit incentive. The free market generally does not have the power to correct for ov…

>balancing force of the evil of the profit incentive. Seriously, you need to work on your language and mindset if you think profit is evil. Profit is just a surplus of outputs for inputs given. It's what makes people get out of bed in the morning. It is most definitely not evil.

Oh come on. I was hoping it was clear that I was using the word "evil" as generic label for the negative side of any dichotomy. I don't personally believe in actual evil anyways (does anyone?).

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#147

Post by hackinthebochs »

pg wrote: post #130
whalesalad wrote: post #18

"I won’t name names. I used to name names. But I think all you have to do is read TechCrunch. Look at what the top stories are, and they’re all about raising money, how many employees they have, and these are metrics that don’t matter. What matters is: Are you profitable? Are you building something great? Are you taking care of your people? Are you treating your customers well? In the coverage of our industry as a wh…

The reason the press writes about funding rather than revenues is not some kind of conspiracy to focus on the wrong things, but simply because reporters know about funding rounds and not about revenues. It's clear that the press would write about revenues if they could, because they write a lot about the revenues of public companies. They're able to do that because public companies have to disclose their revenues. Pr…

It's interesting how you always seem to chime in at all the appropriate times. Get some work done, you!

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#148

Post by hackinthebochs »

yummyfajitas wrote: post #120
hackinthebochs wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unions are simply a balancing force to that of the management whose sole purpose is to extract as much profit from the enterprise. Yes, a lot of bad things can happen when unions gain too much power. But that doesn't mean unions are necessarily evil. On the contrary, they are a necessary evil, as a balancing force of the evil of the profit incentive. The free market generally does not have the power to correct for ov…

The free market generally does not have the power to correct for overreaching management. Can you explain this claim? Specifically, why "overreaching management" is bad for consumers, and why the market can't correct for it?

I don't personally believe that overreaching management is necessarily bad for consumers. I was just trying to preempt what seemed to be a logical reply given philwelch's previous comments.

As to why the market won't necessarily correct for it, is because many times overreaching management is effective (at least in the short term). Degrade working conditions to cut costs and the consumer benefits. The information about how these lower prices were brought to the consumer is usually lost in the process. That signal simply doesn't reach all interested parties, and thus they aren't able to adjust their behavior in response. Some situations it can work, for example a business where customer service is a large part of the experience. The signal of overreaching management does eventually filter down to the consumer.

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#149

Post by nameuserc »

pg wrote: post #130
whalesalad wrote: post #18

"I won’t name names. I used to name names. But I think all you have to do is read TechCrunch. Look at what the top stories are, and they’re all about raising money, how many employees they have, and these are metrics that don’t matter. What matters is: Are you profitable? Are you building something great? Are you taking care of your people? Are you treating your customers well? In the coverage of our industry as a wh…

The reason the press writes about funding rather than revenues is not some kind of conspiracy to focus on the wrong things, but simply because reporters know about funding rounds and not about revenues. It's clear that the press would write about revenues if they could, because they write a lot about the revenues of public companies. They're able to do that because public companies have to disclose their revenues. Pr…

This is a fair point. Journalists are just using available public information.

37Signals' numbers are not public. "Talk is cheap" as they say.

I don't disagree with what he is saying in the quotes - that people focus too much on raising money as "business success". This is without question. But then again I still do not understand the value of 37Signals (compared to any other software company with aggressive marketing), at least not from the press they get. How are they being any more transparent?

All I know from recent reports is employees supposedly work 4 days a week and they have some sort of brainstorming sessions to come up with new ideas. What does the 37Signals software do? Specifically, not just some marketing buzzword. What does it do that I can't otherwise do without it? Are there some YouTube videos showing the software in action?

How do I know it's not just a Ruby on Rails consulting business for a few steady clients (who have an inseparable attachment to Rails), as opposed to a "unique" software company with amazing products? How do I know they're not just selling a Rails framework? So I have to install Ruby, Rails and a gazilion of their custom scripts to use their "product"?

Re: 37signals Earns Millions Each Year. Its CEO’s Model? His Cleaning Lady

#150

Post by rdl »

tptacek wrote: post #125
rdl wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gives an unwarranted endorsement to GRPN; their business practices are fairly reprehensible, so if a marginal investor or marginal small business customer gets screwed because a well respected guy lent credibility to their board, it's a poor choice for him.

Do you really believe any of this comment? You're a pretty smart guy. I don't believe you think anyone reads this article and thinks Fried is saying Groupon runs that way, or that Fried is in any way endorsing how Groupon is run. I know this is a message board and we're all committing message board thinking, but snap out of it for just a second. We're talking about a real person --- a person who by the way is posting…

Not based on the article at all -- just the general argument of "someone holding a board seat at a company is more of an endorsement than merely owning stock". There are people I respect who have board seats at really dysfunctional big tech companies, too, so maybe the argument doesn't work.

He's a great CEO (at least in the context of 37 Signals), and has a set of values which are internally consistent, and sits on a board of a company which is inconsistent with those values. I'm not sure how to reconcile this with my belief that boardmembers have a responsibility to exert governance and oversight over their companies.

Based on reading his responses elsewhere in the thread (left the board in 2010, was his first board seat, novelty, etc.), it makes more sense. I guess I am overly sensitized to passive board members from watching HP, Yahoo!, eBay, RIMM, etc.

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