Ontiveros @ Textdriven

Ok. I am not quite finished with the MBA just yet, but I couldn’t resist putting out the list now.
Anyhow…without further adieu…The top ten reasons I want to work at Joyent.

10. I want to be the twentieth person on this list: (*)

* I know that there are 20 employees at Joyent, but only 19 are listed on the site.

9. I want a Textdrive.com email address.

8. I enjoy working for smaller companies where you can make a difference.

7. Joyent is helping to shape what profitable web service companies will become.

6. Family is important

5. I feel at home working virtually

4. I am planning on relocating out west, why not to the Bay?

3. I like beer

2. My career as a blogger didn’t take off

And the number one reason why I want to work for Joyent is….

1. I already have mailroom experience!

37signals most prominent write up to date probably has to be as inclusion in the Business Week cover story entitled “Speed Demons”. I’ll attempt to elaborate on a few points made in the write up. All of their product offerings utilize open source software, including Ruby, as a platform so it is a given that 37signals doesn’t have the “not created here” syndrome. The framework, which was developed in house by Hansson, in order to cut down on repetitive code would become known as “Rails”.

My interpretation of the framework was that it was created as a process improvement method during the developing of their first web application entitled “Basecamp”. The framework was itself released as Open Source software by Hansson and 37signals for the world to use and improve. By doing so, Ruby on Rails itself became a product. The feedback from Basecamp is from consumers, while the feedback for Rails is from other developers.

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Looking back at previous write ups, I noticed that I oftentimes begin with a disclaimer. I’ll not do that this time. What I will do is discuss what appears to be exploding demand for the Mixed Grill product offering.

Those of you who are active on any of the Strongspace, Joyent, and even Textdrive forums to a lesser extent, know that there are voices in the community who can’t wait for the release of the Mixed Grill offering.
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I love the concept behind online storage. As noted in the “Online Storage Gang” blog entry by Michael Armstrong at Techcrunch, this is an idea who’s time has come.

Please keep in mind that I’m attempting to make a point, and not criticize. Web 2.0 companies do need to launch if they are going to compete with the majors (Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.) What’s the point of being small and nimble, if you can’t get out in front? 37signals have some ideas about how to stay nimble and are having tremendous success.
What Nik’s writeup entitled the “Economics of online storage” fails to capture is the opportunity cost of not being first or early to market in terms of cash flow and market share. Without doing comprehensive research, this is a very difficult figure to hammer down.

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What does it take to run a successful web-application business during the Web 2.0 growth era? Can you just build it? Will they come? As we know, the barriers to starting web based businesses are at an all time low, due to hyper competition in the hosting industry among other factors. As such, web-applications are being introduced at a very rapid rate. While these “new” services are very exciting, the economics of web 2.0 have not been tested yet. Many have tried to quantify the economic validity of some of the more popular on-line picture and web storage providers.

What they don’t understand is that none of these new business “start-ups” will matter, let alone succeed, if they cannot manage the value chain. Ah yes! Sound management techniques and practices have their place with Web 2.0. Why write about 37signals? Because they have a deep interest in solid management techniques as is evident on their “Signal vs. Noise” blog.
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