The Untold Millions
37signals.com
37signals.com
DHH: The whole point and problem with this is that
these private successes prefer to be private.
So I’m certainly not going to out and name the people
who confined in me personally about how well they are doing.
Little what i understand about publicity, if you have a reasonable story (of an online success) and are willing to push it, you have a fair chance of getting it covered a fair bit. Obviously, to reach Google & Facebook news levels, you have to become as big as them.
p.s. This could be an opportunity for some 'website' (not a startup) to cover successful online businesses and their stories. Or may be there already is a one ..
Because it's the news media's job to tell us about interesting and important things that are happening in the world, regardless of whether the people directly involved want us to know. If you get your facts from the news, you get a distorted picture of how money is being made, and that means that the news has failed you.
They are closer to being a "no ruckus" businesses than the others.
Both are valid strategies, but the latter has far more potential upside (With way more risk). That's probably why it gets more press.
Who wants to read about another software company that sells products and makes a few million?
Sure there is something you might call a 'type' that can be built on your latter. But it's not the only type.
Bingo Card Creator is strictly superior to about half of their bingo products (can't do pictures), costs less at the quantities my teachers use, and has such an astoundingly better cost structure (what, you mean I don't leak 50% of the MSRP to the retailer?) that I'm essentially guaranteed to make money on sales.
After that, it is only a matter of marketing. (He says with a twinkle in his eye.)
Incidentally, I found a niche because someone came up to me and said "Oh bugger I would pay if this problem would go away." When is the last time you talked to someone who wasn't a techy but had money and problems?
This should be bold, highlighted and underscored - talk, talk, talk to non tech people with problems and money - problems are everywhere.
I think a bigger problem is not hearing about massive successes that fall outside the tech elite's interest. For instance WebKinz the virtual world/stuffed animal hybrid probably generates 9 figures of revenue per year, given Club Penguin was doing ~$75MM when it got acquired. How many TechCrunch stories have they had? A quick search yields 0 dedicated results. Thats huge revenue for what amounts to a startup within a toy company and no coverage in the publication of record. However we hear about every stupid ad based socialgraphwidgetfacebookappgcasualgame startup that raises $500K.
Also, it seems a little silly to say "We want to stay small!" and then to say "Why doesn't the press want to write about us!" Rails is awesome, but the rest of their offering has been eclipsed by Google Docs. They have done a great job attracting press compared to the value their products create. Same goes for other small companies where there isn't a lot of "there" there.
TechCrunch isn't aimed at successful, profitable businesses.
TechCrunch is essentially a brothel; Arrington fancies himself a pimp. So it is populated by whores, and patronized mainly by people who want to pay for sex.
TechCrunch is about VC, it's about the dream of the big cashout, it's about perpetuating the startup mythos.
Those other businesses simply don't fit that agenda.
"In fact Yunus' story is actually actively counter-productive to the interests of systems like the venture capital system, since that is a system which maintains class division around concentrations of wealth, and this story demonstrates that eroding or circumventing those systems can be more profitable than co-operating with them.
The real reason you won't find this stuff on TechCrunch is because TechCrunch is about power, not money; because this story is too capitalist for the world of venture capital; and because TechCrunch embodies extremely unpleasant class politics." -- http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2008/05/never-hate-only-eve...
But it is essentially a meat market. And just like the biggest meat market in the US, Los Angeles, the meat's synthetic.
On HN, you have a slew of TC-style masturbatory stories about funding and then you've got a handful of less exciting "hard luck" cases that touch people because they're like orphans who sing and dance.
Like that post about the plumber -- it's Puritan Work Ethic pr0n.
Most HN readers seem to think they're going to end up with the funding (the former), but at the same time they want to hear from those heartwarming orphans (the latter).
Companies that have a well defined niche, on the other hand, don't need to spend much time or money on PR. And many of them are more successful than 37S.
"We’ve advertised here and there, but all things considered the number would round down to zero. We’re currently advertising Highrise on The Deck, for example.
I don’t have anything against advertising, but we’ve found better ways to get our message out than spending money on advertisements.
I like what Amazon.com does: Instead of advertising they give their ad budget back to their customers in the form of free shipping."
While the point of the article seems to be this: "In the mean time, many of the real stories are never told. The quiet successes by small teams who stand little if anything to gain by sharing their numbers and telling about their success."
Did I miss something?
I think the first sentence is supposed to be "The media is biased in favor of stories that want to be told." As in, somebody intends that calling Kevin Rose a boy billionaire becomes a media coup. It's intentional.
The rest of the essay supports that point.
In the investment industry the most bullish articles on a sector/asset class appear exactly near the top of the market. Often these articles are pushed by fund managers who have taken positions earlier and now need enthusiastic public to 'buy them out'.
High growth high risk high potential upside is exciting... Disruptive technologies tearing away the old industires. That's news worthy. That's why it gets the coverage.
I know it's not their core competency, but why couldn't 37s write about them once a month? Or perhaps sponsor such an endeavor ...