Make More Mistakes
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."
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 .