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Sortfolio lives

37signals.com

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Re: Sortfolio lives

#61

Post by Flippa_com »

jasonfried wrote: post #41
dangrossman wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't really share anything someone would need to valuate the site publicly. You (well, Jason) posted an auction with no information about costs or profit, traffic sources or subscriber turnover, handover or whether the billing info of the customers would transfer, etc. These are the most basic pieces of information you'd expect to see in any listing of a site for sale there. Nobody responded to questions on the…

For some backstory... Flippa contacted us after we posted Sortfolio for sale on our blog ( http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3172-sortfolio-going-once-goi... ). They asked us to list on Flippa too. So I said, sure, we'll list it on Flippa too. I couldn't include specific information the way I wanted to include it, so I didn't include everything in that listing. I got a few private inquiries, they didn't go anywhere, and…

Shucks Jason ... now we're blushing! ;-) Happy to confirm all this. Great to hear you were able to find a qualified buyer.

Your comments on buyers needing to qualify themselves to get a response is right on. Professional buyers pitch themselves to sellers as much as the other way around.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#62

Post by j_s »

jasonfried wrote: post #41
dangrossman wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You didn't really share anything someone would need to valuate the site publicly. You (well, Jason) posted an auction with no information about costs or profit, traffic sources or subscriber turnover, handover or whether the billing info of the customers would transfer, etc. These are the most basic pieces of information you'd expect to see in any listing of a site for sale there. Nobody responded to questions on the…

For some backstory... Flippa contacted us after we posted Sortfolio for sale on our blog ( http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3172-sortfolio-going-once-goi... ). They asked us to list on Flippa too. So I said, sure, we'll list it on Flippa too. I couldn't include specific information the way I wanted to include it, so I didn't include everything in that listing. I got a few private inquiries, they didn't go anywhere, and…

This is the most helpful information here. Perhaps the best take-away for everyone is learning what doing something so public without enough attention can easily lead to.

Success to you!

Re: Sortfolio lives

#63

Post by mhartl »

I'd still be interested to know the motivation for their process. If someone made a firm offer of $450K, it doesn't make any sense to shut down the service just because they didn't meet the $480K requirement. That would flush $450K down the toilet. The obvious solution is an auction, not an ultimatum.

I'm generally a defender of 37signals' methods, but it seems they didn't think this one through. They're lucky they found a buyer—it saved them a lot of embarrassment.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#64

Post by asto »

moe wrote: post #36
jasonfried wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you know the truth, we didn't have a buyer from the start. We didn't know if anyone would buy it. We'd never met or heard of the eventual buyers. We tried to sell Sortfolio a year earlier and nothing came through. We decided to try again this time with a deadline and a public price. This deal materialized because the buyers were interested in what we were selling, we liked their enthusiasm for the product, and we…

Sorry, I still have trouble believing you. Partly because I don't believe the premise of just not giving a shit about $220k in passive income. And partly because this all snaps together way too snug. Short of the fortuitous hero riding into the sunset as the exit-credits scroll by. On his Louis Vuitton designer-pony. But it doesn't matter what I believe. You're the guys with the sportscars.

When the maintainers are uninterested in their website, it makes more sense to sell something when it's making revenues of 200k+ than wait till it's in shambles and worthless.

Also, you never know if they needed the sale proceeds to pay for something. Maybe some ambitious project that requires a high upfront capital cost.

Too many things that are unknown to us to just call them liars.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#65

Post by raheemm »

Reading all these comments I feel sorry for 37S. I guess this is the downside of having a successful blog - people get to have an opinion about you.

37S gets to sell Sortfolio in whatever fashion and to whomever they want. Oh man... you guys should try to rent an apt in NYC.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#66

Post by jpalomaki »

One should probably view this in context of 37's other businesses. Spending lots of time and effort to squeeze few extra dollars from website sale may not be worth it if your core business is something else and generating much higher profits.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#67

Post by jaylevitt »

FuzzyDunlop wrote: post #44
richardv wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you always so bitter to people asking straight questions? If you didn't want people to draw their own conclusions then you should have acted responsibly and made some attempt to answer and respond to the questions posted on sale page. If you had no intention of providing this additional information because it was not worth your time, then you should have made it clear to people that no additional information…

Given several potential dates, you don't court them all equally.

I think it's unfair to expect any of us on HN to understand this metaphor.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#68

Post by prawn »

FuzzyDunlop wrote: post #44
richardv wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why are you always so bitter to people asking straight questions? If you didn't want people to draw their own conclusions then you should have acted responsibly and made some attempt to answer and respond to the questions posted on sale page. If you had no intention of providing this additional information because it was not worth your time, then you should have made it clear to people that no additional information…

Given several potential dates, you don't court them all equally.

But you could respond to dates' questions just to be polite (in this case on Flippa) or head off further questions by inviting potential datees to contact you via email and deal with them there.

That's the only thing that irked me - having the property on Flippa but ignoring the questions submitted there. Other than that, the price was openly disclosed and the operators interacted on HN, etc.

Re: Sortfolio lives

#69

Post by junto »

37S: You need to pay us $480K. We advertised this price publicly and kind of went on and on about sticking to it.

Buyer: Umm ok, how about we pay your $480K publicly and you quietly give us $430K in 37 Signal's stock?

37S: Deal.

In all seriousness I'm a big admirer of 37 Signal's and I like their equity grants concept[1] for employees. This above is meant as a joke.

[1] http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2987-an-alternative-to-employ...

Re: Sortfolio lives

#70

Post by jpastika »

Am I the only one here on HN that finds the whole 37Signals vs HN battle entertaining? DHH makes a direct (sometimes arrogant) comment, HN jumps all over him, Jason "clarifies", and HN hugs Jason. DHH and Jason seem to have contrasting personalities which is probably an important contributing factor to their success. DHH says what he thinks, whether we agree with him or not isn't the point. Jason calms the storm. I'm happy for the Sortfolio customers who see value in the service continuing. I'm also glad that 37Signals shared at least some of the details behind the sale and the process. But most of all, I'm entertained!
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