- Startups - David H. Hansson, Partner at 37signals -TWiST #E337

People, please watch these few videos to genuinely understand what 37Signal guys (David and Jason) stand for before having a say. link ▶ this video and link and yea, don't forget link

It's not that they can get away with wearing jeans so much as they can't get away with wearing other things. There's still an egalitarian and meritocratic notion in technology that rank shouldn't matter. Ask yourself why NSA director and General Keith Alexander showed up at DEFCON in jeans and a t-shirt with an EFF logo on it. Most of these guys telling you what to do, where to live and which technologies or schools that matter are Ivy League alumni multimillionaires. Many from a time before a widespread Internet and grants for poor students. When was the last time you saw any of them sit down with someone who were really challenging their views? Edit: For somewhat of an example of the last thing there are two episodes of This Week In Startups with DHH. link ▶ this video

Check these two ideas out: 1) Bezos said: "Percentage margins are not one of the things we are seeking to optimize. It's the absolute dollar-free cash flow per share that you want to maximize, and if you can do that by lowering margins, we would do that. So if you could take the free cash flow, that's something that investors can spend. Investors can't spend percentage margins" ( link ) 2) Listen to Ruby on Rails' DHH break it all down here @ 44min30sec (he also knocks salesforce) quoting Bezos' line "your margin is my opportunity": ▶ this video

Yeah, that 1.40 to 1.00 ratio is eerily similar to the points dhh made on this interview about another infamous tech ipo : ▶ this video