Amidst the unprecedentedly horrible news in the auto industry today (GM down 49% in January), Subaru announced its U.S. sales were up for a second month in a row, up 8% in January.

I am hearing similar stories from my peers in SaaS and Office 2.0 who are "Subaru-like".  A number of them have had record Q4s and strong Januarys.   At EchoSign digital signature, were were up 250% YoY in January, for example.

No business is immune to the recession, but certain Office 2.0 players will outperform due to the "Subaru-effect":

* Unique functionality that people want to buy even now (for Subaru, the hot new Forester which doubled, more than making up for the old models, which withered)

* Instantly cost-effective with no need for ROI calculators (for Subaru, maintaining affordable financing options, for Office 2.0, cheap pay-as-you-go)

* Growing a small base in a large market (Subaru isn't Toyota - it hasn't maxxed out its market share, nor have almost any Office 2.0 start-ups).

To be clear, Office 2.0 isn't immune to this dramatic downturn.  But services (such as our own EchoSign digital signature solution) that provide clear ROI, minimal risk, and which play in large markets can continue to grow and thrive.