Business Lessons from 37 Signals $1000 Master Class

[iamelgringo]

Holy Crap! Jason and DHH got 40 people to pay $1000 to hear them talk for a day about starting a company.

Wow... Just... Wow...

Dudes, really. Save your money for ramen noodles and start hanging out at other Hacker News meetups[1].

Or, better yet, move to Silicon Valley, start attending meetups[2] and startup events[3]. Make a point of handing out business cards and asking people out for coffee. I can guarantee that within a year you'll become friends with any number of entrepreneurs who will give you similar or better advice for the price of a beer.

Hell, if you move out here, come to a Hackers and Founders event, I'll buy you a beer.

By the way, we're probably going to be turning Hackers and Founders into a non profit, because I feel like it's wrong to try make a quick buck off of hackers who are eating ramen noodles and trying to get a startup off the ground. YMMV

</rant>

ref:

[1] https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmQExXr67OcTdDBZZl9...

[2] http://www.hackersandfounders.com

[3] http://startupdigest.com/

[maukdaddy]

FYI the startup community is far more than poor hackers starting a website. $1000 is CHEAP for valuable business knowledge. I'm paying a shit load more for my MBA, and would probably learn just as much in their class ;)

[dazzla]

Meetups are great if you are lucky enough to live near one of them. Moving to Silicon Valley is not really a cheaper option.

[cuchoperl]

Well, most of the advice was in their (free) book Getting Real and in its ($11.89) book Rework. From the tweets I see nothing new except that 37s logo is a guy saying hi.

[dazzla]

I found the day a lot deeper than can be summarized into some twitter posts. If you want the text/ramen edition of their advice most of it is in their books. What you get from attending the master class is the same advice but demonstrated through examples of their own projects in the morning and attendees projects in the afternoon. It all adds up to a much richer experience. There is nothing like getting ideas and advice in person. But of course you may not agree with everything and it may not all apply to you. It's up to you to apply it as you see fit.

[linkfrek]

would you mind sharing one valuable insight that came from the "master" class, that you will be applying to your current/next project, please.

[Jabbles]

These need fleshing out. By shortening them to fit in tweets you've made some of them ambiguous, and others lack any context to apply them. For example, We judge a lot about how good a design is by how long it takes to implement. could go either way, on KISS principle, or persistent A/B testing.

[Jabbles]

By the way, may I ask which way people think the above quote was intended?

[avk]

25) Use a thick marker during design since you can only focus on the key things.

More info: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/466-sketching-with-a-sharpie

[dzlobin]

I hope I'm wrong, but it sounds like you paid $1000 to have DHH read rework to you.

I literally knew almost, if not every item on the list from reading their books/blogs. I'm sure the experience was more beneficial then just reading the books, but was it worth $1000?

I'm generally a very big fan of the 37signals gang and their products and philosophy, but lately it really seems more and more that they are getting a bit greedy. Starting from publishing blog content as books to the $10 paint app, it's uncomfortably reminiscent of the tony robbins shtik.

[avk]

Maybe these bits are "out of context" or "need fleshing out" because you can't always summarize learning in a series of tweets or a blog post. Maybe that's why the event is $1,000 - you're paying for a learning experience, not just content.

[revorad]

38) The 37signals logo is a guy saying hi.!!!!!

[yosho]

i still don't quite see it, but that was one of the biggest takeaways!

[axod]

Half of these are just wrong. The other half are just irritating.

[Timothee]

How so?

For example, how are these wrong or irritating?

"Ask a person to draw the screen from memory and only the most important things will be remembered"

"Users always come with feedback in the form of solutions, not problems. Try to understand root issues."

"Try it and look at the data for decisions. Don't be attached to your decision"

Is it irritating because you find these obvious? I could see that. But the same way I know I should exercise more, eat better and sleep more, while still not doing it, it's always good to hear/read good advice again and again.

[mikegreenberg]

Please oh please tell us which is which!! (And be sure that your answer is just as obtuse as your reply above! THX!)

[d2viant]

Would you be more specific?

[noahkagan]

It's less about them being right or wrong and more about the way they choose to run their business. It works for them, may not work for everyone.

For me the most valuable thing was really writing out the story of the site & simple mocks before you start building.

Trying to do more of that now.

[clyfe]

They built a solid business on these principles...