Most acquisitions fail. Most founders end up leaving the bigger company once their golden handcuffs are off. There's a reason for that. The company they loved working at changed to be undesirable once consumed by the incumbent.

A huge part of what I love about working at 37signals is freedom. Freedom to say what I want and swear when I will. Freedom to pick any course I see fit. Freedom to try crazy things. Invariably, those freedoms would be curbed if we were owned by some big company.

If the whole goal is to just sell the thing I already have and love to start exactly the same thing again, then it doesn't make any sense to me. Why not just earn my way to prosperity rather than depending on a single golden benefactor to anoint me wealth?

Jason and I are already at the point where we don't have to work, we choose to work. The joy I derive from working at 37signals much surpass the expected joy of being able to afford a private jet or any other 10-digit luxury.

Candidly I think you have mis-assessed.

  o Code is 10% of the business
  o Wall Clock Time vs. Calendar Time
  o Avoid Events, Plan for Processes

all seem broadly applicable and non-obvious

Eh... this sort of double-speak annoys me, please forgive me for nit-picking but nature's laws are never broken. By definition. It is some human model of nature's laws that is broken.