37signals has hired a full time filmmaker to document its every move | Hacker News Reader

37signals has hired a full time filmmaker to document its every move

thenextweb.com

62 pointsbartjacobs28 comments

This story has taken on a life of its own.

Let me clarify: There's no reality show.

We're doing the same thing we've always done - we're just bringing it in house. We used to outsource the shooting, editing, and production. Now we hired someone in house to do this for us.

We've been making videos for years.

From trailers for our book REWORK: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2137-rework-trailer-1-staying...

To parodies of political ads: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2209-karl-roves-book-vs-rewor...

To interviews with founders: http://37signals.com/founderstories/slicehost

To customer stories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEoAN06Nllk

I hope this helps erase the sensationalism and wild speculation.

Thanks for clarifying this. I honestly love the style of videos you guys create, and I am glad you guys are putting more resources into creating more.

Best of luck!

How effective do you find these video productions?

Every time the 37signals topic ends up on the table, people talk about how they went against the flow, how they are not running on huge funding round and basically how they are an exception.

Let me get this straight. Huge funding rounds is the exception. Startup is the exception.

I work on OpenSource stuff everyday, get to play with the same technology as the next startup guy and I'm very proud of calling my company (ie. the one I work for) a Company. I'm proud and happy to have the chance to participate in growing this company and our technology and it's a battle of every contract.

There are millions of us.

I think there is some validity to the idea that 37Signals went against the flow, though I agree that bootstrapping and substantial founder ownership and only minor outside funding is not remarkable in the world of business.

What is somewhat against the flow is the degree to which 37signals pivoted and the degree to which its founders continue to influence the conversation regarding software via their writings and other public communications.

<I'm sorry> The first thing that crossed my mind when I read the headline was "The Office."

However, it isn't a bad approach to marketing. Considering that many of their users are captive - i.e. are required to use their product by their employer - showing the thought that goes into their product is likely to create buy-in among the worker bees of 37signals' customers.

It used to be a golden rule for investors that they should see signs of needless ostentation (e.g. a fountain in reception, limos for all executives) as a danger signal. Excuse the pun but making a film about yourself does not send out a good, signal about 37signals.

I would think that hiring a film maker falls under the PR umbrella. PR adds value. Needless ostentation doesn't.

Time will tell.

The PR industry say that PR adds value, but then they would, wouldn't they?

Given that 37signals don't have investors, why should they care?

(I know that Bezos has tossed some money their way, but the terms were apparently in exchange for his advice, rather than for an eventual exit.)

It does in fact have investors

Not in the traditional startup way. They took some money from Jeff Bezos (in exchange for a little equity) a while back but it was so they could cash out. They didn't need it, and I'm pretty sure Bezos doesn't give a single fuck that they're doing this.

They aren't going to sell out, so Bezos wasn't looking at an exit as a return on his investment (and he doesn't need it either).

This will reinforce the 37signal brand, just like Getting real, or Rework did before.

They are going to release 25 videos, and they can count me in to see them. I had recently seen the peepcode double episode with Ryan Singer (UX at 37signals) and was worth the time.

Have you seen the production quality of Apple's manufacturing videos? The ones that include Jony Ive and Bob Mansfield?

People like working with human-centered companies. Showcasing what goes on behind the scenes is yet another marketing/"brand management" opportunity. Actually, its a definitive advantage because most software companies are run by socially awkward people.

Lastly, sighting investor's "golden rules" is ridiculous. Remember, most investors, especially in the venture business, are wrong more than half the time in aggregate.

"citing". Some general principles, especially about human behaviour are ignored at your peril.

37Signals is mainly a company that engages in self promotion. Very little of what they do seems to be about products, it's mostly to do with PR.

Making a movie about themselves seems like exactly the sort of thing they would do, and I'm sure it'll be lapped up by their followers.

These guys sell 1.000.000-ish licenses of, say, $40 on average every month, with 25 employees (or something like that). Do the math on how much profit they're making. Now that they got bored of buying exclusive cars that match the Italy villa, they hired a filmmaker.

Why would they care what an investor thinks about that? The message to customers is, and will be, "so many people chose these products, they must be good". It'll take years for that trend to reverse, and by then they can just fire the filmmaker, hire one extra interaction designer and make another nice product that they can make everybody want.

I know this sounds over the top, but 500 Startups hires http://www.micro-documentaries.com/ to shoot for them all the time. I'm sure at some point it's cheaper to hire a full time person than constantly be hiring out to a shop.

I'm not sure if this is complete egotistical wankery, or awesome.

I'll get back to you after I watch the movie.

+1 reserving judgement, as to where they come on a scale of egotistical wankery -> just plain vanity.

My vote is for complete egotistical wankery... mostly because I like the sound of that. It fit's the fart-app/social generation very well I think.

I think this could fall mighty close to the category of jumping the shark.

Here is more detail about their goals w/ this move:

http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2980-were-looking-to-hire-a-f...

Joel did that with Aardvark'd. A single feature-length movie was fine, but I'm not sure if people who are (mostly) sitting at their desks are the best subject for an ongoing series...

This brings to mind the documentary "Startup.com", where the startup GovWorks.com brought in a film crew to document their success. Hopefully it goes better this time - GovWorks ended up going bankrupt in the 2000 tech bubble collapse, which makes for an interesting movie but wasn't the ending they were expecting.

I hope you do more like the Ryan Singer play by play peepcode videos.

Those were some of the best I've seen

  The plan? To release approximately 25 videos over the
  course of the next year sharing 37signals'
  stories inside the office and out.

Sounds like a reality tv show to me. Something like Pawn Stars or Orange County Choppers.

This is a brilliant PR move.

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