VC isn’t the only way. Ronnie Angerer writes in with a great example of a site that asked its community for small donations instead of seeking an investor:

My wife is a part of the online knitting and crochet community, Ravelry. She mentioned this weekend that they had asked their members for donations to support infrastructure growth and enhancements to the community. In the blog post about the “Ravelraiser” they write:

“In 3 weeks, 3,457 Ravelers gave donated a total of $71,000 to Ravelry. Not only did we receive an amazing financial boost, we also received a flood of love. About 800 people wrote up really wonderful and amazing notes in the 10 Lousy Bucks group’s “Why I gave” thread.

I really liked that they approached their happy user community for donations (and got them) rather than looking for VC or other funding. Thought you might be interested.

Thanks for sharing Ronnie. According to the post, Ravelry is using the money to pay off all their startup debt, buy an additional server, buy carbon offsets “so that we’re even (actually, a little ahead) with the Earth as well as our bank,” and throw more knitting/crochet/and fiber events.

Good news for the site and good news for its audience too. (There are lots of “this community is sooo worth every penny”-type comments at the post.) When you’re providing a service that people are that enthusiastic for, it’s ok to ask for something in return. That’s what makes something sustainable.

Plus, let’s remember that $70k can go a long way. You don’t need to ask for hundreds of thousands (or more) if you don’t actually need it. Especially if that means giving up equity in your company.

Related: Pyra asked customers for $5-10 donations back in 2001: “Within a few hours, 191 users had donated $3,200 to a special PayPal account.”

Starting right now The Deck, our advertising network targeting web, design and creative professionals, is bigger, smarter and better looking with the addition of Chip Kidd’s Good Is Dead, Dean Allen’s Textism, the various projects of Mr. Ze Frank and the new suite of rich internet applications geared for artists, Aviary.

As usual, Jeffrey has said it all, and perfectly. Thanks to Naz for permission to use the alley above.

Never have a limit on your income

“if you make a living only providing an in-person (hands-on) service, you are limiting your income. If you were in a ‘while you sleep’ business, there is no limit to how much you can make.”

Business vs. academia

“In business you learn at a faster rate, and there’s a lack of bureaucracy and better pay. I tell associates you don’t really know bureaucracy until you experience academic institutions.”

Architecture astronauts take over

“Between Microsoft and Google the starting salary for a smart CS grad is inching dangerously close to six figures and these smart kids, the cream of our universities, are working on hopeless and useless architecture astronomy because these companies are like cancers, driven to grow at all cost, even though they can’t think of a single useful thing to build for us, but they need another 3000-4000 comp sci grads next week. And dammit foosball doesn’t play itself.”

Gel 2008 recap

Notes, photos, blog posts, etc. Sample: “All in all I highly recommend Gel for anyone looking to expand your understanding and awareness of what makes a great user experience. Whether it’s visiting a website, making your own food, building a catapult or attending a conference it will open your eyes in a lot of new ways.”

After three decades, Tom Petty reassembles his old band

“At an age when most stars are content to cruise, he seemed thrilled to have a new challenge. ‘Really it makes no sense,’ said Warren Zanes, a musician and educator who edited the oral history companion to ‘Runnin’ Down a Dream.’ ‘It’s completely at odds with the self-mythologizing tendency you see in a lot of rock stars. But Tom Petty is a guy who likes to have fun playing music, and he continues to explore different ways to do that.’...Diarmuid Quinn, chief operating officer of Warner Brothers Records, compared Mr. Petty to unconventional musicians (and label mates) like Neil Young and Jack White. ‘With this kind of artist, you go with their instincts,’ Mr. Quinn said, ‘because they’re usually right.’”

National Small Business of the Year: SnagAJob.com

“A lawyer-turned-entrepreneur was the recipient of the title National Small Business of the Year…Shawn Boyer, the award recipient, started SnagAJob.com in 2000 after a friend asked for help finding a summer internship online. When Boyer noticed the absence of websites geared toward internships or hourly jobs, he researched the business, left his job as a lawyer, found venture capital and started the company. Eight years later, Boyer’s business has grown from just two employees to 110 full-time employees. The company grossed sales of $11 million in 2007.”

Soda can synchronization

Paint Chips tells the story of the Esquire, a Brooklyn apartment building that decided each floor would be allowed to choose the exterior colors of their doors, as well as each door’s jambs, lintel and sill.

The result? A classic tale of too many cooks in the kitchen. Years have passed and there’s still no agreement. Check out these quotes from different residents of the building:

“It really is a conflict of too many creative people.”

“It’s like the Bloods and the Crips—except it’s the Teals and the Dark Charcoals.”

“Most people on this floor are somehow involved in the visual arts, so everyone has a feeling about color, you know, one way or the other.”

“It was like the Civil War—brother against brother. I was in the charcoal camp, the side of righteousness.”

“Someone who shall remain nameless looked at me and said that I had to go along with whatever the majority votes, because it’s a democracy. I said, ‘No, I don’t think so. That’s tyranny of the majority.’”

One resident announced that the turquoise color another had selected for her trim made her nauseated leading to this comment: “That’s not nice. Say ‘It’s not to my taste,’ not ‘It makes me sick.’ That’s intolerance, which is the basis of oppression and bigotry.”

“Yeah, there’s been tension. But if more than four eyes roll at once, a community is forming. I think the root of the problem is resistance to change. As an earnest attempt at micro-democracy, the process was educational and entertaining. But at a point, I was ready for a benign dictatorship. If the board had just sent paint crews to do the job, people would have been thrilled with or gawked at the new coat of paint. I bet that’s how it works in the Gretsch building.”

“We live in a hyper design age, where we are all raging aesthetes.”

When it comes to designing something, a benevolent dictator is sometimes a welcome alternative to the chaos of democracy.

I love reading about little changes that make a big difference. The airline industry seems to be a great example.

This article talks about how American Airlines made some small changes to save a lot of fuel:

For instance, pilots were instructed to taxi around the airport with only one engine turned on, a measure that would save about $4 million a year…

And today I saw an article about how airlines are starting to fly slower to save fuel. JetBlue has been flying slower for two years (JetBlue adds an average of just under two minutes to each flight, and saves about $13.6 million a year in jet fuel). Southwest and Northwest are experimenting with it now:

Southwest Airlines started flying slower about two months ago, and projects it will save $42 million in fuel this year by extending each flight by one to three minutes… On one Northwest Airlines flight from Paris to Minneapolis earlier this week alone, flying slower saved 162 gallons of fuel, saving the airline $535. It added eight minutes to the flight, extending it to eight hours, 58 minutes.

It’s a good reminder that while big changes can have a big impact (like American Airlines grounding some of their Super 80 gas guzzlers), sometimes little tweaks (like flying slower) can have a big impact too. Always keep an eye out for the little things. There’s usually a lot of low hanging fruit.

My passwords are so confidential I’m going to write them down on this notepad that says TOP SECRET PASSWORDS. I mean it – these passwords need to be kept SECURE and PRIVATE, so I’m going to WRITE THEM DOWN and label them “My Passwords for all my things that are online.” That will be the best way to keep them safe.

Seriously, don’t buy this.

Forgoing sleep is like borrowing from a loan shark. Sure you get that extra hours right now to cover for your overly-optimistic estimation, but at what price? The shark will be back and if you can’t pay, he’ll break your creativity, morale, and good-mannered nature as virtue twigs.

Now we all borrow occasionally and that’s okay if you fully understand the consequences and don’t make it a habit. I did that the other night. We pushed an update to OpenBar, which had me working until 1:30 AM. That wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t because I got woken up at 5 AM to help deal with an issue that arose. But the costs the following day were typical, numerable, and expensive:

• Stubbornness: When I’m really tired, it always seems easier to plow down whatever bad path I happen to be on instead of reconsidering the route. The finish line is a constant mirage and I’ll be walking in the desert for much longer than was ever a good idea.
• Lack of creativity: What separates programmers who are 10x more effective than the norm is not that they write 10x as many lines of code. It’s that they use their creativity to solve the problem with 1/10th of the effort. The creativity to come up with those 1/10th solutions drops drastically when I’m tired.
• Diminished morale: When my brain isn’t firing on all cylinders, it loves to feed on less demanding tasks. Like reading my RSS feeds for the 5th time today or reading yet another article about stuff that doesn’t matter. My motivation to attack the problems of real importance is not nearly up to par.
• Irritability: If you encounter someone who’s acting like an ass, there’s a good chance they’re suffering from sleep deprivation. Your ability to remain patient and tolerant is severely impacted when you’re tired. I know I’m at my worst when sleep deprived.

These are just some of the costs you incur when not getting enough sleep. None of them are desirable. Yet somehow it seems that the tech industry has developed a masochistic sense of honor about sleep deprivation. At times it sounds like bragging rights. People trying to top each other. For what? To seem so important, so in need, so desired that humanity requires you to sacrifice? Chances are you’re not that special, not that needed, and the job at hand not that urgent.

Software development is rarely a sprint, it’s a marathon. It’s multiple marathons, actually. So trying to extract 110% performance from today when it means having only 70% performance available tomorrow is a bad deal. You end up with just 77% of your available peak. What a bad trade.

This is why I’ve always tried to get about 8 1/2 hours of sleep. That seems to be the best way for me to get access to peak mental performance. You might well require less (or more), but to think you can do with 6 hours or less is probably an illusion. Worse, it’s an illusion you’ll have a hard time bursting. Sleep-deprived people often vastly underestimate the impact on their abilities, studies have shown.

So get more sleep. Stop bragging about how little you got. Make your peak mental capacity accessible.

Urbandigs.com is a real estate strategy site that offers a “Buyers Tips and Tricks” area. Check out the advice they give about what to focus on when investing in a property:

The four permanent features that all buyers should focus on putting their money towards when deciding which product of the group to bid on continue to be:

a) views b) location c) natural sunlight d) raw space

...as these property features generally do not change! The only item that can be changed is natural sunlight and views if you happen to buy a property with a view of a lot that may ultimately be developed; and therefore eliminating or altering your view and natural sunlight. Other than that one risk, your pretty safe. These are the features I focus on when I do consulting for my buyer clients.

Focus on the permanent features. It’s good advice in real estate and in business too. In fact, it sounds a lot like business advice we’ve talked about here: Focus on what won’t change.

When you focus on permanent features, you focus on the things that truly matter over time. Things that won’t go out of style.

That’s why we prioritize on factors like simplicity, speed, and fair prices. People are always going to want these things. It’s why Japanese auto makers focus on reliability, affordability, and practicality. It’s why Amazon obsesses about customer service. It’s why Apple always offers friendly design. It’s why Zingerman’s only sells high quality ingredients.

These things are all constants. People wanted them yesterday, they want them today, and they’re going to want them tomorrow.

Don’t chase the latest technology, fad, trend, or competition. All of these are transitory. You can’t control them and they are likely to change over the next 5 years anyway. Emphasize the temporary and you risk getting stuck selling dial-up in a broadband world (or whatever the equivalent is for your business).

Instead, spend your time on the basics, the constants, the things that won’t change. Figure out the equivalent of views, location, sunlight, and space in your business. Then be an animal about those features.

Some recent posts at the 37signals Product Blog:

Case studies
Baltimore Sun uses Basecamp to manage “a million moving parts”
“My Department operates as a mini creative agency within the greater organization of The Baltimore Sun Media Group. We do design and development work for clients both internally and externally. This work spans most media and includes: web sites (big and small), banner ads, e-mail newsletters, admail, video production, logos, illustrations, print ads, tradeshow signage, etc. This keeps us pretty busy and we use Basecamp to manage all of our projects from start to finish.”

Entrepreneur Mom uses Basecamp to manage all her client “schtuff”
“I’m training all my clients to use Basecamp instead of sending me multiple emails so rather than sifting through Gmail to find the latest correspondence or searching my computer to resend a file that they don’t remember receiving, we can communicate through Basecamp and upload all the files related to a given project.”

Shaw Builders creates multimillion dollar homes with Basecamp
“The biggest problem we have is communication and avoiding the he said/she said syndrome. It seems that everyone has selective memory and most homeowners are overwhelmed with the number of decisions that have to be made when building a custom home of this caliber. Basecamp has saved the day numerous times by simply providing a document trail. I can easily use Basecamp’s search capability to isolate documents or massages that relate to a particular task. This has saved us a tremendous amount of aggravation and money. On a past project I had a homeowner who insisted that the railing of his 2nd floor deck wasn’t built correctly. When I pulled up the meeting notes and the AutoCAD drawing through Basecamp within 2 minutes of his ‘brain fade’ I was able to quickly put his argument to bed. That helped to enforce our credibility and saved us from having to rip the railing out at our cost.”

Author and conflict resolution consultant uses Backpack as “business home-base and sanity tool”
“Backpack is my business home-base and my sanity tool to manage it all. It’s set to load when I open my browser each day because I do almost all my administrative work from Backpack. I love that I can access my project files from any Internet-connected computer and from my iPhone. And I love that everything I need for a client or business project is in one place. When I’m busy or on the road, that helps keep me organized so I can give my full attention and energy to my clients.”

Human lamp
Check out how human the Lytegem Lamp seems.

Real time
Verbarius is “the first clock in the world that tells time the way people do.”

The clock spells out time differently every minute. It’s either forty-five minutes past four, or fifteen minutes to five, or four forty-five, or a quarter to five.

Ottoman to bed
Uber-ottoman: “t’s a stylish cubic ottoman + it’s a (hidden) guest bed.”

Mountain Tree House
Mountain Tree House was designed by architects Brian Bell and David Yocum. More photos at the site.

The Sun Jar
The sun jar, designed by Tobi Wong, stores sunlight. Have it sit in the sun during the day and it radiates at night.

This is a wonderful effect and the sandblasted glass makes it seem as if it truly emits warm sun light. It is a great little idea for an outdoor summer dinner, where you have the jars scattered around the table, or an evening at the beach where they will provide just the right amount of light, or as garden illumination, just position them at strategic points in your garden or rooftop terrace or balcony – they work equally well in either location.

More fun designs by Wong.