Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Open Blueprint Companies

Author:Joel Spolsky
Posted:8/31/2000; 7:07:38 AM
Topic:Open Blueprint Companies
Msg #:20570 (In response to 20565)
Prev/Next:20569 / 20571

Josh is absolutely right. I didn't mention this before, but Open Blueprint Companies only work in certain areas. If you have a top-secret process that's easy to implement, then keeping it secret is a great idea. If you are in a winner-take-all category where you need 90% market share, you probably shouldn't give away the whole formula.

In my area (building web software), there are so many players, and so many potential clients, that there's room for a thousand flowers. Frankly, if a million other startups copy my business model down to the last detail, I'll still clobber them in the long run, 'cause I'm smart. And if I fail to be smart, that's OK too, because I'd love to work for any company that copied my business model -- part of the business model is to make a great place for programmers to work.

Fog Creek has 6 weeks vacation and believes that programmers should get their own offices with doors (remember doors?). None of my competitors in NYC or Silicon Valley match that. If I "drag the whole market down", establishing a new benchmark for the kind of work environment that programmers expect, thus losing my competitive "advantage" hiring programmers, I'll still be overjoyed.




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