Jed Christiansen
blog.jedchristiansen.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2008
Jed Christiansen writes about startups, seed accelerators, and 37signals' finances, and hosts an archive of Marc Andreessen's old Pmarca blog.
What HN saysHN links it mostly for the archived Pmarca posts from 2007-2008 after the original blog was taken down, and for its estimate of 37signals' profits.
21HN people shared it
11linked it in comments
24stories submitted
160story points
10 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Copying Y Combinator - Why and How5 people · 52 points · first shared 2009 · 25 comments on HN
- 2A Marc Andreessen blog archive4 people · 43 points · first shared 2009 · 7 comments on HN
- 337signals is one hell of a profitable business ($8 million/year)4 people · 8 points · first shared 2008 · 3 comments on HN
- 4The Pmarca Guide to Startups, part 4: The only thing that matters3 people · 6 points · first shared 2013 · 1 comments on HN
- 5$20B raised by seed accelerator companies; 75% to just 4 programs2 people · 5 points · first shared 2016 · discussion on HN
- 6Estimating 37signals revenue and profit - $8million in 20082 people · 3 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 7Pmarca archive has moved - no longer on Posterous2 people · 2 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 8Looking back – 1.5 years since “Copying Y Combinator”2 people · 1 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 9Location-based apps: Flook, Gowalla, Foursquare - a review1 people · 14 points · first shared 2009 · 10 comments on HN
- 10Introducing Seed-DB: a database of seed accelerators and their companies1 people · 9 points · first shared 2012 · 8 comments on HN
- 11Startup accelerators in 20111 people · 4 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 12$10B – has been raised by seed accelerator graduates1 people · 4 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 13The Pmarca Guide to Career Planning, Part 1: Opportunity1 people · 2 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 14Star Trek, suicide and Bush voters1 people · 2 points · first shared 2008 · 1 comments on HN
- 15A knowledge base & newsletter for seed accelerators world-wide1 people · 2 points · first shared 2012 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
jedc · 2015-02-19
Completely agree. I wrote a blog post about it a while back [0], but to me the killer feature is being able to pin items as to-dos (or create new todo's unassociated with an email), and then flip the switch so that you ONLY see these pinned items.
I love it because I can only look at my pinned items and focus on knocking a few out at a time, and only occasionally flipping back to the regular inbox view. (Which I find distracting when I need to focus.)
[0] - http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2014/12/02/the-super-magic-productivit…
ahoyhere · 2009-09-23
I'd say they're more than "fairly" successful:
http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2008/02/25/37signals-is-one-hell-of-a-…
Especially since we all know that they've turned down lots of buy offers, and only accepted an investment from Amazon to have access to Bezos. How dreamy.
Not that that proves their assertions are universally applicable, however, they certainly prove that side projects CAN be a (much less treacherous) path to success.
For what it's worth, that's what we're doing with our time tracking service, Freckle (http://letsfreckle.com). Just last week, we passed revenue of $4k/mo and I estimate we'll be able to live off it by end of January 2010.
austenallred · 2015-06-12
2009: OK you're right, this is a bubble http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/pmarcaarchive/ok-youre-right-it-is-a-b…
mynegation · 2015-05-25
njohnw · 2014-01-21
Also really valuable are his blog posts from 2007/2008. He's since took his blog down but they're archived here: http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/pmarcaarchive/pmarca-archive-has-moved…
pclark · 2011-03-17
This reminds me of jedc and his MBA research about startup accelerators and how, and more importantly, when to clone.
His #1 point was:
> You need to be unique, where unique is not just a seed accelerator in a different city
Imagine K12 is unique in their knowledge and connections. What a fascinating proposition.
http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2011/02/23/looking-back-1-5-years-sinc…
jimminy · 2010-11-05
Here is a link to the spreadsheet, https://spreadsheets0.google.com/ccc?key=t_toYuVyy6fci0MAiIaZ30A&h… Also the original analysis post, http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2009/09/21/copying-y-combinator-why-an…
mlLK · 2010-10-17
http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2009/09/21/copying-y-combinator-why-an…
Looks like he wrote a thesis on "seed accelerators" using YC as a model.
whyleyc · 2010-09-14
"You won't get rich"
Says who ?
Some estimates peg 37Signals as being profitable to the tune of $6 million per year. Divided equally between the 12 employees that's $500k each. Not bad for a year's work.
For more see: http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2008/12/04/estimating-37signals-revenu…
petercooper · 2010-09-08
I don't think so, and I don't think they should share that information, but they've given some "clues" (potentially false) over the years with references to things like "over 1 million users." (Though "user" is a vague term considering how their system works.)
In response to a similar question in 2006, Jason Fried said:
We’re a private company so we don’t disclose this information.
A few years ago, someone tried to analyze it and came up with vague revenue estimations: http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2008/02/25/37signals-is-one-hell-of-a-…
dekiba · 2009-10-17
I had no idea who Marc Andreessen was until this post. I clicked through to http://blog.jedchristiansen.com/2009/10/15/a-marc-andreessen-blog-arch… and discovered a whole new universe of "how to get funding" He seemed to have written some posts in conjunction with Paul Graham