Last week 37signals launched Haystack, a directory for finding web designers. I don’t have a strong opinion about the site itself one way or the other, but upon it’s launch I couldn’t get this thought out of my mind: 37signals could start selling boxes of sh*t and people would buy them.
(By the way, if you’re in the market for that kind of thing, a service for you already exists).
I’m not saying that 37signals products aren’t great in their own right — I’ve used, purchased and recommended many of their products and services — I’m saying that they’ve built up an incredible platform that increases their odds for success hundredfold, almost regardless of the product. And that’s what I admire the most about them.
Basecamp was making $5k/mo just six weeks after it’s launch, something few startups will come anywhere close to replicating (considering it was their first product and probably had an average customer spend of about $30/mo). Subsequent product launches did even better, and they appear to see similar success with their book and job board.
Hundreds of companies launch better products and do “all the right things”, yet hardly get off the ground, much less thrive. There’s just an incredible advantage when you launch products targeted at the very people that are already listening to you, especially when there are hundreds of thousands of thousands of said people.
I believe they’ve had to work incredibly hard to build that audience — nobody’s just given that kind of attention and respect. And they’ve also done a tremendous job of not disappointing their audience (as some have done).
So what does this mean for us mere mortals — those of us who measure our FeedBurner stats in units of tens or hundreds? Once you realize that you’re not 37signals, it’s important to emulate the right things. Recognizing what makes companies like 37signals successful means that you don’t emulate things they do that might be wrong for you. You might need to offer phone support for your customers, accept checks, or focus on just one project instead of 7.
The corollary of this is that you shouldn’t believe what 37signals tells you to do. Listen to them frequently, but put what they say into context. Much of what they say is probably good advice, but there’s no good way to differentiate what works to make them successful from what works because they’re successful.
Of course, this certainly holds true for anyone you’re listening to. Listen to me least of all.
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I completely agree … even coming from someone (me) who considers 37signals a mentor company.
So often people look at what works for brands (personal & corporate) with huge audiences and think those exact tactics will work for them. And it’s easy for us entrepreneurs to forget about “luck”.
In Hollywood terms, 37Signals is an element, a high-powered name attached to a project that gives them instant credibility regardless of actual results. Becoming a popular name seems to be the strategy of everyone from Joel Spolsky to Joel Osteen, two Joels who have never before been compared.
I’d suggest that company founders read about the Rich or King concept, and I’ve hit my link allowance for this comment.
@robbyslaughter
Building an audience takes time. It took us 10 years to get to where we are today. Back in 2004 when we launched Basecamp we were virtual unknowns outside of the small web design world in which we lived. Constant writing, sharing, speaking, and a focus on building quality products slowly built our reputation, audience, and customer base.
It takes time. Stick with it, produce quality, care about the details, stay focused on the basics, be outspoken about the things you believe in, and share share share. In time you’ll have a great audience too.
@Jason Thanks for the advice — all things that we’d be wise to emulate.
And I agree about time being an incredibly key part of the equation. It’s easy for us to look at where someone is today and not fully understand the time and sweat that brought them to that point. (This reminds me of a post I wrote over 3 years ago describing my impatience, and I happened to mention 37signals there as well).
Great post Ade!
I followed the link to Haystack and set up an account for Small Box. Looks like another good service from 37 Signals.
We use Basecamp exclusively to manage our projects and I have been really happy with the results. We tried Highrise (the CRM) for a while and it just didn’t fit our needs.
This is their, 37 Signals, strength and weakness. In creating rigid platforms they succeed in getting it mostly right for a majority of users but don’t allow customization to get everyone to 100% of what they want. I understand this since extreme flexibility equals minimal usability in my experience and they are very much user centered. But when you hit a wall with functionality and features it can really frustrate and lead to abandonment of the platform as it did with Highrise. It wasn’t enough of what we needed and other solutions were too much.
Not to say I don’t have incredible admiration for what they have accomplished so far. They may end up being the next big thing as web apps are finally being taken seriously by businesses.
Whether your audience of followers is 1, 10, or 10 million it’s essential that you pay attention and serve them to the best of your ability. I believe this is one of the many factors which allowed them to become wildly successful, and it’s what I glean from their success as well.
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