37heads
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.Obviously the guys over at 37 signals know what they're doing, but I can't help but think they've gotten a little off track lately. I mean I'm all for making a buck but perhaps they're taking it a bit too far?
Today they released a new job board service for designers. You can find the details here:
SVN Job Board
So as far as I can tell they now have this wide variety of products:
1. Job board
2. eBooks
3. Blog ad network
4. Basecamp
5. Backpack
6. Writeboard
7. TaDa List
8. Campfire
Perhaps this is the first web 2.0 conglomerate?
Discussion
It seems they're failing to heed their own advice/guidance (i.e. stay focused).
Its likely that this new job network thing will make them some near-term cash (even I posted, as I'm in the need of talent), but it doesn't seem like a cohesive strategy in the long-term.
Only time will tell...
Created by Dharmesh Shah on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
Great, make it free then. If this is such a niche then allow those small companies unwilling to pay $250 for a job posting. Seems a bit steep to me.
Created by Rob Bazinet on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
What the jobs board does is reinforce and help grow the Rails 'brand' which they see as key PR/advertising. Right now, Ruby and Rails is a small niche in the development world, albeit with a great buzz. With a job board, you help Rails programmers be successful and thus more satisfied and more evangelical and you help potential Rails programmers see that there is a market for those skills. You also help sell the corporate types (who are risk averse - "everyone else is coding in .Net or Java, why should we risk our site on Rails?") that it is a viable option. The money they make pays for this 'marketing' and maybe is a little bonus if really popular.
Created by Jerry Glover on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I'm telling you, it probably took them a day or so to create that thing.
Not to mention, it could also help keep their "community" interested in them. I'll take a guess and say Signal Vs. Noise is primarily read by people who work with designer, programming, or on the business side of programming.
It could also get them yet-another mention in some magazine or press outlet. We're talking about them and linking to their stuff. That's eyeballs and interest.
It looks like a real cheap venture, that could make them some extra measurable money, and as I said probably has some ancillary effects that flat out, don't hurt!
Created by Michael Sica on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I don't know. Are they really that desperate to make an extra 5 grand? I don't think you should think about it from a personal perspective. They're a company with 7 or 8 employees and office, etc. Creating a new thing to support and deal with for an extra 20K probably isn't worth it. Why deal with the extra support, etc. Maybe it's just me. Just seems that there's better things to work on but maybe not.
Created by Ian on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I think Rob hit the nail on the head.
They've already got a CC charging infrastructure, servers that run code, an active community, and tons of press (read a copy of Business 2.0, Wired, or Fast Company - they pop up all the time). With Rails, that "Job Board App", probably took them an entire day to program.
Mix all that together and like Rob said, $5000+ at launch.
Not bad...
Created by Michael Sica on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I don't think it's such a big deal, really. I think they took a look at a lot of the emails they get, and someone said "hey we should charge for this!" and rather than just laughing and getting back to work, they laughed and churned out a quick app to do just that.
I don't see it being terribly distracting from their major products. Right now there are 21 postings, x 250 that's $5250, far more than the expense of spending a day churning it out.
Created by Rob Drimmie on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I agree. It is pretty nice to develop a product such as Rails and then leverage the success of it by charging companies to help find people who know it so they can come work for you.
They seem to be spreading themselves a bit too thin here.
Created by Rob Bazinet on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
Hey nice research guys. Geez they never tell you that having a blog is like having you're own research department 
Yeah, I think they do good stuff but if I was their customer I'd be a little worried that they're not as focused on my products as they could be.
I thought of Google too Jesse, but I figure having billions of dollars in revenue gives you a little more slack. I don't think 37 is to the billion dollar point yet
Created by Ian on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
Nah, Google was the first (though Google gave themselves such a wide bailiwick - "organize the world's information" - that they can still claim to be focused).
Maybe it will lead to high-quality job postings, who knows? Sort of like the promise of the JoS job board that sadly never really materialized.
Created by Jesse Smith on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I think they make up a lot of their philosophys on the fly. My favorite part is all the sycophants that comment "OMG A JOB BOARD YOU GUYS ARE BRILLIANT!!". Its just a plain HTML page, no search, no way of narrowing down. Another prime example of how marketing and popularity are more important then the quality, features, or customer service of a product.
Created by Phil on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
Hmmm... It doesn't look good with their own manifesto either, http://37signals.com/37signals.html. Especially with item number 4, http://37signals.com/04.html.
Created by kahfei on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm
I understand the PR upside. I still think it's distracting from their core, but at least it's closer than the ad network.
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Created by Ian on 04.25.2006 10:04 pm