It's great fun. 37signals issued a fake "press release" on the company's influential and freewheeling blog yesterday mocking Twitter's reportedly imminent $1 billion valuation by way of a $100 million investment. "37SIGNALS VALUATION TOPS $100 BILLION AFTER BOLD VC INVESTMENT," read the headline. The post began:

37signals is now a $100 billion dollar company, according to a group of investors who have agreed to purchase 0.000000001% of the company in exchange for $1.

It later declared that 37signals would cease taking in actual money, so investors could fantasize about the company's potential instead of thinking about reality. It's a salient point, and one we've made ourselves. The satire also nails how the adulation and money lavished on Twitter invite disturbing comparisons to the 2000 dot-com bubble.

But as much as we enjoy and heartily encourage this sort of bitchery, we'd be remiss not to point out that Fried seems to have a chip on shoulder. Just look at the context: a series of high-profile public pronouncements in which Fried and his tight-knight crew at 37signals have set themselves up as the marked antithesis of Twitter.

To hear Fried's people tell it, Silicon Valley is filled with flaky startup dreams like Twitter; 37Signals is the level-headed Midwestern outfit. Valley companies conjure imaginary business models; 37signals actually sells things. The message 37signals pushes most energetically is that it charges users for its product, while companies like San Francisco-based Twitter give them away and hope for the best.

"The days of the traditional San Francisco startup approach are numbered," wrote 37signals' David Heinemeier Hansson, in an essay in which he relished the thought that Valley startups who fail to "charge for stuff" would be "flushed down the drain." Hansson cited earlier comments by Fried, who has said "free is not the future of business" and that the idea of dropping "an advertisement into the conversation every once in a while" is "toxic."

Fried also this month lacerated the founders of Mint.com, saying they "bent over" in selling their company to Intuit for $170 million. Presumably they should have stayed in the notoriously breakneck, personal-life-destroying world of tech startups until they reached Fried's serene plateau of self-evident emotional tranquility and nirvana. Oh, and did we mention that Twitter CEO Evan Williams himself sold a series of startups before co-founding Twitter, which is widely expected to be likewise flipped someday? Just like those sumissive Mint.com guys, hmmm.

We'll readily concede that Twitter is a 37signals customer, and Hansson to his credit wrote a post called "Hail to Twitter" a year and a half ago, albeit to make up, we presume, for the one he did a week earlier, "Bitching is the killer app for Twitter." But we still detect in Fried something of a grudging obsession with Twitter which, crazy talk aside, has accumulated an impressive 40 million or so estimated users, a massive ecosystem of related startups and the highest profile roster of users the tech world has ever known. Hey, look, we know from grudging obsessions with the microblogging service and its founders. But even a jaded observer like Valleywag can see that Twitter wasn't valued at $1 billion in a throwaway $1 investment. It took $100 million from serious-as-hell investors who very much expect to get that money back, and then some. Deep down, we bet Fried knows the difference too — even if he can't admit it.

(Pic by Sean O'Shaughnessy)

It feels good to get someone a job. And in tech, where everyone's on their way in, their way out, or their way up, it's no wonder that every tech blog launched its own job board to capitalize on its Valley audience. So far, there are job boards at 37signals, GigaOM, TechCrunch, and paidContent, four of leading tech-pundit sites, each led by a big ego.

While happy-go-lucky papers like the Red Herring like to present this as a happy cottage industry, we hear it's a lot more rough-and-tumble behind the scenes.

TechCrunch owner Michael Arrington (pictured standing) invited both 37signals and GigaOM to join his "CrunchBoard" jobs board, but he's said that both turned him down. But word is, GigaOM's Om Malik (pictured genuflecting) was willing to talk — he just had to consult his investors.

But Mike's been telling folks that Om just can't say no, so all this investor talk was just stalling while Om launched his own thing.

Meanwhile, Jason "Let's Get Small" Fried, owner of 37signals, seems loath to hook up with Mike at all. He feels like Mike's offers of partnership are really attempts to take over the whole tech-job-posting scene.

Of course, even if these guys realize that each of them may die off unless they team up, none of them will admit the real way to fill a job in the Valley: hang out at all the monthly meetups and parties and casually ask who's looking. (For example, Mike Arrington, rather than hire through his own job board, chats up journalists and bloggers at his parties and hints that they should join him.)

Blogs start job boards [Red Herring via CrunchNotes]
37signals Jobs [37s]
GigaOM Jobs [GigaOM]
CrunchBoard [TechCrunch]
paidContent Jobs [pC]
Photo by Laughing Squid's Scott Beale [Flickr, CC]

In which he says that many service-oriented businesses like his should fund themselves...

Then why did his company, 37signals, pick this moment to take funding from Amazon's founder?

Seriously. Jason says in the magazine: "I don't have anything against big business. It's just not for me."

On his blog, days later: "We hope this boost of ambition, and Jeff's personal vote of confidence, will help us achieve our big plans."

[Update: link removed; it was obtained by inadvertantly using private information] My Business Magazine: The Next Small Thing [PDF]
Bezos Expeditions invests in 37signals [37signals]

Join the fight! Chime in with a comment on the saddest kitten pic. Let's see if we can get this onto Cute Overload.

Photos: Sarah Hatter's photos [Flickr]

37 Signals software zen mastah Jason Fried is shutting down a blog thread somewhere. Last spotted turning this comment thread into a ghost town. Last comment before the thread got wiped: "I am betting that in 10 minutes this post will be closed to comments." Just keepin' it real.

Chris Messina is packing up and shipping out of Flock. The designer will leave the social-browser startup as soon as he's done making flight metaphors. From Chris's "I'm heading out" entry:

I ve been in constant motion, bouncing along in the cockpit, weathering turbulent times

And:

The past nine months have been getting us down the runway, and now that we ve taken to flight

And he's:

ready...to surface the next horizon

Bon voyage, dude.

Mega-tech-blogger Doc Searls (a man who wants to stay atop a Technorati list, please Technorati, please) is chilling at home in Santa Barbara. As Paul Boutin (left) says, "Look, he's not working —- right now now now! Take the picture quick honey!"

Ben Brown: i just got an email from Jason Fried
saying that his book
is "a book of ideas"
Wow!
he's right.
simplicity is golden.
who should read it?
EVERYONE!
do you like ideas?
this book has them!

Ben Brown: "Visit the Getting Real site to get more info on who should read the book"
SERIOUSLY?
jesus.
oh wait
it's not a REAL book
its like, vanity publishing gone digital
I am going to write my "Book" today

Valleywag: so, ok, his 1 real success story is Ruby on Rails, right?

Ben Brown: it's not a success story, nick
it's a way of life.

Valleywag: "Over 400,000 people around the world use these applications to get things done."

Ben Brown: Almost ONE HALF OF ONE MILLION
that pretty much gives him license to REVOLUTIONIZE the web
37SIGNALUTIONIZE

"Getting Real" by 37signals [37signals]