Is 37 Signals business advice applicable only to those with a captivated audience already eg courtesy of Ruby On Rails?

Question

I think that most of the advice that comes from 37 Signals is fascinating. I ask this question as i can't help also thinking that the some of the principals will only pull in customers if you have a fan base to call on such as the Ruby On Rails evangilists?

Answer 1

37 Signals existed before Ruby on Rails was a hit. It may be true that the world looks different from the top. But I think they still throw out a lot of good perspectives on software development processes.

Answer 2

Is there really very much overlap between Rails evangelists and 37signals' customers?

There are a lot of people out there who need simple web-based collaboration tools but couldn't care less what technology those tools are created with.

Answer 3

I think that is there a value in selling simple, but 37s is getting annoyingly arrogant with the attitude: "Your feature request means nothing to us, we know better than you"

Answer 4

I see no causal relationship between creating Ruby on Rails and being able to appeal to paying customers with consciously simple Web sites — particularly because they were successful before Rails was. Rails was a byproduct of their main business, not vice versa.

I would say there is very little logical support for the idea that 37Signals' advice is only applicable if you have created Rails. Whether their advice is good in general is a different question, but this particular objection doesn't seem to have a strong argument behind it.