Out-Teach Instead of Outspend: The Original 37signals Growth Playbook

The tactic is straightforward: if you never raised VC and never had more money than anyone else, you cannot buy ads and awareness. You have to earn it. The way to earn it is to be interesting. Not interesting as an objective, but interesting as a byproduct of being ruthlessly honest and forthright about everything you learn.

DHH explains why this works. Most business advice comes from two sources: people who are observing but not doing, or entrepreneurs who are active but constrained by investors, public listings, or board obligations. 37signals had neither constraint. They were in the thick of running their own business, making more money than they spent, and nobody could tell them no.

Execute this by capturing observations and lessons from your actual work and distributing them broadly. 37signals has been doing this since their 1999 manifesto, through Getting Real, Rework, and daily blog posts. Lead with philosophy rather than features. Their website reads like a book of beliefs, not a product page.

The risk DHH now identifies: this tactic may not convert as well as it once did. Social media algorithms have broken the trickle-down effect. You can share interesting content that goes viral, but when you occasionally ask people to check out your product, that post gets suppressed. The jab-jab-right-hook model, as Gary Vee described it, still works for the jabs but the right hook does not travel anymore. DHH would still recommend sharing for your own learning, but cautions against relying on it as your sole growth strategy today.