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Make More Mistakes

Posted by michael on from the easy-enough dept.

prostoalex writes "Eric Sink from SourceGear, well-known in the open-source world for AbiWord Suite, shares his thoughts on starting and running a software business. One of the keys to a successful business, as Thomas J. Watson once said, was to double the rate of failures. Eric Sink tells the story of what mistakes he personally made, what could be avoided, and what's important for geeks to know when starting a software company."

5 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. Quick summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    • Be careful about fixed-bid projects.
    • Be careful about using bleeding-edge technologies.
    • Small ISVs should do software and stay out of real estate.
    • Investors don't like low-margin business models.
    • A market with no competition ain't.
    • The negative connotations of the word "middleman" are often deserved.
    • All contracts must be reviewed by an attorney. No exceptions.
    • Cash is supposed to flow from your customers to you, never the other way around.
    • Small ISVs should build apps, not platforms.
  2. For another perspective by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    Many folks are a little earlier in their careers and are simply wondering how to develop as programmers in the context of existing companies.

    Check out Robert Read's How to be a Programmer for some very concise insights to that effect.

    Then re-read Sink's article in about 6 years.

  3. Best Lesson: True Geeks Shouldn't Start Businesses by serutan · · Score: 4, Informative

    The overriding lesson I got out of this is that a techno-geek starting a business is like a person who loves to cook starting a restaurant. To succeed at figuring out your business model, market research, pitching to financiers, managing employees, buildings, etc, etc, etc, requires a true business geek, not a tech geek. The people who should start tech businesses are the ones who truly love business as well as technology, or those who can find a trustworthy business-genius partner. Incidentally, the pitfalls of the latter approach are showcased in the documentary film Startup.Com .

  4. Re:Use .NET? by grungeKid · · Score: 2, Informative

    Eric Sink is well known for liking the .NET platform. Since he has actual experience developing fairly complex products with both .NET and Java, I don't think anyone should be quick to dismiss him as a Microsoft fanboy.

  5. Let's be serious here by Bytal · · Score: 3, Informative

    This article isn't for a startup, it's for an established company. Saying that a $28k project was serious underbidding would be a dream come true for some startups out there. A real bootstrap startup doesn't exactly worry about whether they should buy their own building or not since they're too busy worrying about actually getting customers. And speaking from experience, trying to start a company in a high-tech company dense area like NYC or San Francisco is even harder. SourceGear being based in Illinois is in a very different position to bargain then a company which has to compete with hundreds of other bids on every single project. The most important thing that startups should realize is not that you shouldn't trust VCs or that you should mind your lease but that competition is tough and when you are surrounded by lots of technically savvy companies those marketing and networking(people not LANs :)) skills some so quickly dismiss basically make or break your firm.