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A biz monkey is a replaceable, Powerpoint toting, suit wearing, acronym-spewing middle manager business dude drone. They are quick to comment and sneer, slow to actually ship.
People who understand technology and are willing to bend it to their will, on the other hand, are scarce. They can’t be found with a classified ad on Craigslist or in a blind project ad on eLance.
At 37signals, however, we have a different position on ambition. We’re not big fans of what I consider “vertical” ambition—that is, the usual career-path trajectory, in which a newbie moves up the ladder from associate to manager to vice president over a number of years of service. On the other hand, we revere “horizontal” ambition—in which employees who love what they do are encouraged to dig deeper, expand their knowledge, and become better at it. We always try to hire people who yearn to be master craftspeople, that is, designers who want to be great designers, not managers of designers; developers who want to master the art of programming, not management.
That is what was said to me after about 30 seconds of me explaining why I was bringing my 8 month old Magic Trackpad back in. It was that easy and the customer (me) was happy.
I purchased the Magic Trackpad back in July 2010 when they were released and from the get go, it was having weird issues where it would randomly get a mind of its own and start moving around erratically and even clicking on things. It finally reached a point where it closed windows that I was working in and I lost information. At that point I threw it aside and went back to a Magic Mouse.
Months later I came across it again and realized I had forgot to take it back. I figured they didn’t have any reason to help me with it now because it had been so long but since Apple has taken good care of me many times before I thought I would give it a shot.
I took it in its original box back to the Apple Store in Greenville, SC and explained my story. No half truths or trying to get around the fact I just waited a long time to bring it back. Sarah helped me out and gave me a new one. No questions asked. No stupid forms to fill out. The simplicity of her solution was great. “I’ll just give you a new one.” This is why I buy and recommend Apple products to others. Not just because their products are great, but because they care about their customers and making them happy.
By the way, the new Magic Trackpad works great. No issues at all.
The idea of building a company to flip it has always annoyed me. There is a fundamental flaw in that plan. When you are faced with the tough decisions, you tend to take the quick and easy road. That is not going to be the best choice for the long term health of the company or product. It takes time to develop a good company or product.
It’s not only good software that takes a decade to develop, good companies do too. If you agree that’s true, it follows that you wouldn’t want promising entrepreneurs to go chasing waterfalls before they know how to paddle in the pond. Or something like that.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I want to see evolution get a chance to work its magic, but if great products and companies keep getting abandoned or bought after 3-5 years, there’ll be less of that. And that’s a damn shame.
I’ve always thought you should build a company to own it. This leaves you with good options for the long term. If you decide to keep it, you have done things the right way without cutting corners. And if you decide to sell it, you have made it much more valuable. After all, if you built something that you want to own, someone else is likely to feel the same way and even pay more for it.
The tech world is obsessed with what’s next. It has become so used to the constant flow of new products and new companies that newness itself has been placed on a pedestal. But outside of a few breakthroughs here and there, most things that are good are good because they got there slowly. …