Comments on: A Rebels Answer to “VC or Bootstrap?”

By: Jevon

Jevon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:32:34 +0000

Everyone likes to simplify things to a point where it is blog-friendly. 37signals is definitely no exception.

The idea of a lifestyle business makes a lot of sense for certain people. What I don’t understand is why a 20-something team of a few developer would be at all happy with a 200k or $1million idea.

When you are in your 20s, 30s, single or at least don’t have kids and are oozing with raw talent, you are worth way more than just a few bucks a month.

Like anything, you have to stay open to all options. If you hit on an idea that is big, then it can be a lot of fun trying to hit that homerun.

Didn’t 37s take money from Bezos? They never mention that.

By: Engago Team

Engago Team — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:56:42 +0000

Before addressing to a VC, get the business running, get the first customers.
In web services this is more feasible than in the ‘real’ hardware world, as developing a web service doesn’t require inventory of products.

The consulting business has also a low entry hurdle. However the problem with consulting is recurring revenue and finding the next customer. Whereas in web services the revenue is recurring during several months at least.

By: dave

dave — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 23:59:45 +0000

I’m glad someone said this. I made a post on YC’s thread about the 37s blog entry, and it appeared directly underneath your post linking to this blog entry. You bring up a valuable point that I think people are missing: 37s can put out some good information but a lot of the time it’s very generalized and they do a poor job of making applications to targeted individuals. It’s a shotgun approach and if some eager enthusiast ready to get their thing going jumps in, takes the advice and has no financial cushion to their idea, they’re finished if there’s no way to extinguish the flames.

Great post.