[erikpukinskis]

I don't think it's necessarily a bad run. It seems like Basecamp is pretty stable these days, and well staffed, so they're looking for the Next Big Thing for the company. In order do do that, you have to do a lot of little experiments with things that seem trivial but have some potential to become big. There are going to be a bunch of things that work OK but aren't that perfect fit for the next tent pole for 37signals. That's a normal, expected part of the experimentation process.

What's noteworthy is that most companies just shutter their failed experiments, and most startups fail. The fact that they've spun out two of their projects into sustainable businesses is kind of amazing really.