This is Signal vs. Noise, a weblog by 37signals about design, business, experience, simplicity, the web, culture, and more. Established 1999 in Chicago. Visit the Product Blog for more information on our products.

There is nothing wrong with profit!
http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Ideal-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451147952/

Wow, this is a surprisingly well written article. It’s not all Web 2.0 bubbly.

It’s also funny that he refers to David as an outcast for wanting profits. Where the hell have all the gone entrepreneurs gone to?

Calling DHH an outcast in Silicon Valley is sensational, a contrarian sure but I hardly think they’d shun him or anything if he showed up there.

Agree with Brad above.

Also isn’t his comment about business plans incorrect as well?

‘he mocks the widespread notion that new technology ventures shouldn’t worry about business plans or revenues but should instead work on acquiring customers, even if it means giving away their products’

I think he mixed that up. Revenues yes, business plans no.

And acquiring customers, even if it means giving your product away for free doesn’t make sense. They aren’t customers if you’re giving it away for free.

Followed the link to the Forbes article. Wow, for 29 you’re looking old 8)

I’ve noticed a lot lately that Matt is the primary poster to this blog.

Does that imply his time is less value than the rest at 37signals – how are busy building/improving/designing.

Who’s the picture of in the article? It certainly isn’t David. If it’s the writer of the article, that’s an odd practice…

@Sarah

I completely agree. Poor design on Forbes part.

That is in fact the journalist, Lee Gomes, who wrote the article.

http://images.forbes.com/media/authorbox/leegomes.jpg

I thought 37s was Jason’s company, is David running around telling everyone he’s the boss?

I had never read Forbes before, and this piece (of shit) is inaccurate on so many little things, that I’ll never read Forbes again.

It seems as if the author didn’t do any research at all!

I think everyone should start their own microbusiness that generates profit, even if it’s a dollar a day. The best way to do this is charge real money for your product. I’m a big believer in that piece of the 37Signals philosophy. Of course, it’s possible to make a LOT of money getting VC funding and gaining huge traction and selling your revenue-less company to someone else. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love for that to happen to me. But the reality is it’ll probably never happen to me, or to you. You’re much better off going for singles than home runs. I’m glad to see this Forbes article shine some light on the subject. I feel that constant media attention on the few revenue-less lottery winners out there dissuades regular people from starting a microbusiness.

The article of Forbes.com is a parochial piece of “we have to educate our users to pay for all now!!” dogma, the great bussines model of Encarta.

Wow. This article is really poorly written. It feels like next to no real research has been carried out.

I loved this piece -

“He is especially unpopular with venture capitalists, since he argues that abundant VC money allows companies to avoid figuring out what their business is or if they even have a business besides finding a greater fool to one day buy them out.”

I love the tone of the article, it makes David out to be some pariah of Silicon Valley. I would imagine most of Silicon Valley could give a crap.

Mike, David is a partner at 37S. So he is one of the bosses, though I would guess Jason and Ryan own more of the company.

@Michael

Is Ryan a partner?

There are some good quotes in there, but some things that I felt were inaccurate or misleading.

The title “The Pied Piper of Pay” has negative connotations. Are paid app developers rats that DHH is leading to their death?

No credit is given to the rest of the 37signals gang for anything. It makes DHH sound like a quixotic lone crusader against facebook, twitter and the rest of the established internet.

The author seems to think that rails makes 37signals money and that’s what customers are buying.

Good quotes from DHH , but it’s clear the author doesn’t get it.

Tim, sorry about that. For some reason I thought Ryan and Jason co-founded 37S, but I see from Wikipedia that’s not the case. So I have no idea, but I DO know David is a partner because he said so here: http://www.loudthinking.com/about.html

Wow, this is a pathetically written piece. However, it could have been interesting if the author focused on the part he understood (A successful entrepreneur goes against the VC grain) and got someone else to write the parts that involve the technical, and the facts around DHH & 37s.

When a piece this simple is done so poorly, it always makes me wonder if the other things I read, that are not about things I know well, are as poorly written. It really casts a bad light on Forbes.

@brian

So true. And i’m afraid the rest of them just as inaccurate. Every time I read an article on a subject I am very familiar with, I see how wrong it is. So, it must be the same for the rest. :(