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The author does a good job of identifying who will find the business model advice from 37 signals unhelpful. The title certainly is sensationalist.

A short summary: 37 signals is a B2B. The economics of the B2B model do not translate to a B2C model.

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A better short summary: because 37signals is B2B, and because they sell productivity tools, companies are more likely to view their 37signals product purchase as an investment. What this means is that people believe the purchase will help their company's productivity (and therefore increase revenue). This is the real reason behind the high 'willingness to pay' that we see in 37signals's business model.

Investments are typically done in capital goods, say a machine shop buying a new lathe or a real estate company deciding to put up a new building.

This is just cost/benefit, investment does not really enter in to it.

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