A public prediction for the next move by the five-person company that is taking the development world by storm: you will see 37signals launch a guild/certification within the next few months whereby developers pay $x to get "37sigified" and receive a plaque and a snippet of javascript that let’s them display a badge on their blog substantiating that they know how to "Get Real." This is the move that makes the most strategic sense. This post on O’Reilly Radar says it best:

37signals is taking “vertical integration” to new heights — now they not only make the software everyone is using, write the books everyone is reading to know how to use the software, sell the PDFs everyone is reading to know how to sell the software they’re writing, and design the interfaces everyone is copying, they’re also putting the butts of the developers they’ve trained into seats at the startups they’ve inspired with their new job network

The next logical play for them will be to capitalize on all the street cred and developer loyalty they have amassed thus far, or at least that should be their next play. Kimbro says, "those guys are just printing money" and that is the true mark of an important company when they can manifest dollars at will from the value they represent. The developer certification program would not only allow them to print another batch of dinero for cashflow but the nature of the program would also extend their reach and blow up their already disgustingly good Pagerank and visibility by having developers display a small 37s logo on their blogs and link back to them. Those guys are positioned for world domination in 2007 and they have to know it.

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