Slicehost—a scrappy web company bootstrapped with $20,000—cashed out for big bucks in 2008. How did they do it? More importantly, was it worth it?
We had a growing wait-list of people that wanted to give us money but couldn’t.
David Heinemeier Hansson chats with the founders of Slicehost, Jason Seats and Matt Tanase, to find out.
In a big company you have to construct artificial ways to get information.
Watch the complete interview at 37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost.
37signals wrote this on Jul 15 2011 There are 35 comments.
AC 15 Jul 11
Very odd design for 37signals at their new Founder Stories web site.
Newbury 15 Jul 11
As a request: Transcripts would be lovely.
AC 15 Jul 11
Interesting that at the end of the first video, that they say they didn’t start paying themselves a decent salary until 1.5 years into the company and then 6 months later (2 years from start) Rackspace wants to buy them
Bridget 15 Jul 11
Not cool to have a picture of Rackspace dragging down the Slichehost guys on the Founder Stories web site.
Can we seen here
Kevin Haggerty 15 Jul 11
Great interview, great video production, great stories. Assuming this will be a series? Looking forward to more. Thanks.
Manuel Fernandez Lara 15 Jul 11
Is it just me or is the link to http://37signals.com/founderstories/ broken? (error 403)
Jake McGraw 15 Jul 11
Awesome, really well put together, you can’t get this kind of information or level of sincerity anywhere. When 37signals has a story to tell they nail it.
DHH 15 Jul 11
We had a problem with the permalink. The right one is http://37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost. Sorry about that!
Radex 15 Jul 11
Awesome! Awesome interview, design and video :)
Manuel Fernandez Lara 15 Jul 11
I’ve read lots of your “Exit Interviews” but I’d say this one is by far the best, probably because of the added emotional value of watching them speak on video and seeing their face. Keep them coming :)
Andrew 15 Jul 11
Thank you for doing this. Inspiring, informative, and very well done.
I like that these guys didn’t come across with just one view point on selling the business but that they seemed to be internally conflicted about a lot of the decisions they made. Some writing about business makes it seem like it’s easy to make these types of decisions, I’m sure it’s not, so it’s refreshing to see the Slicehost guys tell their story.
Rishi 15 Jul 11
Show up and start working… and sometimes good things can happen
Anonymous Coward 15 Jul 11
Great blog post. Please have lots more.
Nick 15 Jul 11
Thanks for this. As a fellow developer working on my thing, I enjoy listening to words and hearing the stories of my peers. I find them very useful and exceedingly valuable. The community benefits from stories like these.
DL 15 Jul 11
Thank you so much for doing that interview. It was one of the best interviews I’ve seen done on a “success story” of a bootstrapped business. I also love the page design. Very cool.
Eric 15 Jul 11
Really enjoyed the interview. The page design is cool and the little depictions (Rackspace ball & chain on Jason) don’t bother me at all.
Looking forward to more Founder Stories.
Ted Pearlman 15 Jul 11
David,
Dude, this is your (2nd or 3rd) calling. It was an impressively empathetic interview. I could have watched 10 of those in a row.
More!
Ted
Chris 16 Jul 11
David, you’re a good interviewer. You ask questions, then get out of the way. Rumor has it that you can be pretty arrogant, but your interview style doesn’t seem to indicate that. Keep em coming.
Jason 16 Jul 11
Chris, I can squash that rumor outright. DHH was about as genuine, humble and like-able in person as one could be.
David Andersen 16 Jul 11
One man’s confidence is another man’s arrogance far, far, too often.
Dmitry Mazin 16 Jul 11
That was just wonderful. What nice guys.
Anonymous Coward 16 Jul 11
@bridget
why is that not cool? did you not listen to the interview? thats how he felt. listen to it again.
Bryan Sebastian 16 Jul 11
Very nicely done. I had to send a link to a friend of mine who sold his company a few years ago. He told me it was the hardest decision he ever made. The Slicehost guys are saying the same thing.
Note, my friend also stayed on at the company that purchased his. He left as soon as he could. It seems many underestimate what it will really be like going from owner to basically an employee.
Babu Puthethu 16 Jul 11
The best part I like in it is the write up:
“We had a growing wait-list of people that wanted to give us money but couldn’t.”
It is really humorous, sarcastic, but laser sharp! I will remember this for long time…
The next part is the way you presented the points!!
Emil 17 Jul 11
Great interview. Interesting to see their ustream right after the acquisition: http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/881465
8 Gram Gorilla 17 Jul 11
Fabulous. As someone who’s just gone out on a limb and started his own business, this is a truly inspiring video. It’s not often that you get to hear candid thoughts and emotions about everything that’s involved in growing a company. I really have a lot of respect for the guys at Slicehost and seeing them talk about it has increased my own resolve.
More interviews like this please! :)
Anonymous Coward 18 Jul 11
Wahoo
highrisehq.com got a new web site design.
pell 18 Jul 11
I like it a lot. The style of the interview, the filming, the few questions, just letting both speak for themselves. And the site looks quite nice, too. :)
Yosep 18 Jul 11
Wow… I kinda gave up on my dreams, but it put them back onto my hands…. Thanks for the great post!
Sean Wood 19 Jul 11
More please. This was really great. I love the comment at the end – “There are no shortcuts”.
matt kocaj 19 Jul 11
Great.
Also loved the “no shortcuts” line.
Hywel Mallett 19 Jul 11
Insightful, interesting, clear, and easy to watch.
Is it a coincidence that DHH has a slight halo?
Jason Seats 19 Jul 11
Babu – This is a pain point for any boot-strapped company that has hockey stick success, but particularly for capital intensive businesses like hosting.
Emil – Thanks for posting that ustream vid, total blast from the past. If you look at that and also our Scoble interview the day of the acquisition announcement, you can definitely hear the optimism, the anxiety and all the things we covered with DHH . Interesting to watch it all with hindsight for sure – http://www.fastcompany.com/video/rackspace-acquires-slicehost-to-engage-cloud-based-businesses
Hywel – No coincidence. The halo was there in real life ;)
Steve Phillips 19 Jul 11
Always nice to heard about a success story in an easy to watch format. So many people making money on the internet, the next big thing seems to be around the corner constantly. Steve
Michael Smith 21 Jul 11
Excellent info. Always enjoy “profile” stories like this.
This discussion is closed.