One sells a collaborative business contact manager, a project tracker, and a personal information manager based on a popular web framework they created. They have a small number of employees, strong revenues, no funding, and apparently consistent operating profits. Their customer base is early-adopter small/medium business.

The other operates an extraordinarily popular social micro-publishing platform featured heavily in the mainstream media, which by capturing the attention of tens of millions of people has demonstrated enough potential long-term value to attract tens of millions of dollars of venture funding. It is staffed accordingly, and is pre-revenue.

One might succeed with a high-8-figures acquisition, or by operating for 10 more years and distributing 6-7 figure bonuses to key employees. The other might succeed with an 8-9 figure acquisition, or an IPO. Either strategy will make the company's key employees and their offspring financially secure.

Both have better-than-average chances at long-term success. Neither is a sure thing. One is more conservative than the other. The other has a higher upside.

Or, I'm sorry, were we talking about blogging personalities?