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Eric Sink on Starting Your Own Software Company
prostoalex writes "The topic of starting your own software company was recently brought up on Ask Slashdot as a way to fight current employment trends. Eric Sink from SourceGear, who shared his software company-building experience before has written a new article published on MSDN. Getting started with your own software company suggests several simple steps to evaluate your abilities, count your estimated expenses and then start the software company, if the idea still seems feasible."
...on starting a company is right here.
Lots of similar ideas there, including a few rants against VCs and incubators.
The Army reading list
Advice on starting a software company from the MicroSoft Developer's Network? I have to say I'm just a tad leery of this generosity.
Enough about Erik Sink's efforts. What about the companies started by Jon Fail and Trevor Bankrupt?
Ahhh, finally step 2...
1) Start small software company with flagship product
2) Get bought out my Microsoft
3) Profit!
I know tht;s a bit flippant .... but if you use a PO Box for your company's registration and correspondance and no one ever is going to come to your house you're not going to piss anyone off .... and they probably wont care
Anti-slash: In sacred jihad against slashdot
The advice seems very balanced and well-thought out. I RTFA and enjoyed it a lot. I want to encorporate these ideas as I start to look for a new job as I recently burned out at my support job and quit for sanity's sake. This is good stuff.
"What we do in life echoes in eternity." Maximus Decimus Meridius
Microsoft reads these forums.
One day you are trying to figure out why your product won't install properly under Windows(R) "Longhorn."
Is he from the future?
To minimize labor costs of your small business, outsource yourself to India.
He's either from the future, or from Thailand.
1: Get a good patent attorney.
2: Don't write any software
3: Sue
4: Profit?
What?
If you believe in Nomenative determinism, you really shouldn't be taking business advise from somebody named Eric Sink.
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
One way to increase your self-awareness is to take a standard personality test. There are several such tests, but my favorite is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).
Determine your personality here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp
I'm an ENTJ (coincidentally, the same as the author of the article).
How could I say to men: "Speak louder, shout! For I am deaf!"? -Ludwig van Beethoven
Microsoft and its ilk don't do developer tools because the potential revenue is so exciting. Rather, they play in these markets because doing so is strategic support for their platform.
Which is why I've always found Win32 example code, docs, and the like mediocre at best. In contast, Apple always has incredible and astoundly impressive dev docs, support, and communication. Whenever I'm trying to find stuff on msdn, it feels like the days when your searching for something using Hotbot. At Apple, I'm reading the right resources typically within 20 secs of arriving at the site. I'd comment about other dev communities, but I have little to no xp and/or exposure there.
G-Force music visualization
I did. I outsourced myself to India, and then returned on an H1-B visa.
The best way to make a small fortune .. is to start with a large one.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
...for people who are unlucky at finding jobs. Generate it!
A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in an election.
The Association of Shareware Professionals has some great resources for writing, marketing, and selling software for the author on a tight (read almost no) budget. While some companies probably get VC help, I think this a great start for research if you are interested in trying out some capitalism with your software. There is a lot of competition due to the low barrier of entry, but a motivated individual with talent could end up quitting their day job. WinZip is a good example of a success.
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
1: Get a good patent attorney. 2: Don't write any software 3: Sue 4: Profit?
Hey, you've just infringed my patented business model! Pay up!
Finally, I can be the one outsourcing to off shore development centers, and getting richer.
Yes, this is a joke.
Even for a troll, this is about the stupidest thing I've ever seen posted here.
Hell, there are no rules here. We're trying to accomplish something. - Thomas Edison
wait... I work for that prostitution ring. Bob?
I do programming work for my company of course but I also do consulting work on the side using PayPal. I have done work for customers all over the world as C++ Architect using simply PayPal and email. However if you want start a software company I would say that most important is to have guards. In Tirupathi we must ensure that no one breaks in to steal the computers or the cables and other things. Also it is important to enforce discipline among coders because my company is very strict on discipline.
Go on, you know you want to!
Most writers regard truth as their most valuable possession, and therefore are most economical in its use - Mark Twain
Yeah I'm for the GNAA too.
after reading the article i only had 2 questions... why is he trying to install an application on Longhorn that isn't out? damn pirate!(hehe) and why does a MSDN article link to a google search instead of a MSN search?
editors over at M$ slipping up, i guess.
other then that good article, got alot of good ideas actually from it.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
"One day you are trying to figure out why your product won't install properly under Windows(R) "Longhorn." The next day you have to get the payroll taxes paid."
Man, I tried for hours to get my small software firm's software to install properly on Windows. I mean to tell you, I tried everything up to editing the registry manually and reciting ancient incantations over various dead woodland creatures... all to no avail.
I guess those damn KDE3 apps will just have to stay on Mandrake instead. What a bummer.
That way if someone unleashes a similiar program into the market , you could at least stop them. That's one way to avoid failure!
Jax
just past the 1 year marker, having started my own business. he forgot the one thing that i think is the most important. make contacts before you take the leap. sadly, who you know is more important that what you know. if it weren't for the contacts i've made in advance of starting my business, i wouldn't have lasted two months.
TODO: come up with a clever sig
A sourceforge person publsihed on MSDN? Did hell freeze over? I dont know about you guys but as far as taking advice about starting a profitable software company MSDN does seem like the proper place to go. I was expecially intrested in the paragraphs sub-titled "Paying off the Government to avoid getting broken up." and "Exploiting your users stupidity"
Everyday You see me is the worst day of my life -Office Space
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I started my own company developing new ways to access the internet that is cheaper and more reliab}=20 ]} } } }&..}=3Dr}'}"}[NO CARRIER]
- Ideas are worthless
- Know Yourself
- Understand the business
- Seed capital
A startup can be rewarding, but risky, difficult, and challenging. If you're going this route, be prepared for the difficulties and determined to make it succeed.It's all about execution. The idea by itself is worth nothing.
Are you really prepared to do what it takes to force this company to succeed?
You may not need a business plan, but you need to understand your product, competitors, and where your cash will be going during the first several quarters.
Initial financing is difficult to acquire for a risky new startup and, even if you do find it, you'll end up working with little or no salary for the first several months.
Starting your own software company is easy, but you'll probably go under. The key is coming up with something that people really like so much that they're willing to pay for it. Obviously you have to conciously avoid geek tendencies to go Linux-only or to use Emacs for a GUI and so on. But that aside, it is still tough to come up with a real niche where you have _the_ product that people want to buy. You can't just jump into an existing niche with a text editor or password manager or anything else there are fifty of already. You also can't compete with high-end applications like Maya and Photoshop. Finding the right niche, and filling it correctly, is most of the battle.
In my experience the software companies that make it do because of one guy's good idea, whether it be a new software product or simply a new business model on old software/services.
;). Sometimes you'll get burned.
I've moved around a lot and have worked for 10-12(? not lookin at the resume right now) different successful software companies.
Every single one of them was started by some guy in his garage. He had the idea and drive to actually make it work first. You need to do that before you sell it.
If you simply want to charge for software consulting instead of sale of software, just put in your contract you aren't libel. You don't even need a company then, just marketing.
Here we go, bottom-feeder company:
Go to fry's electronics (outpost.com) and buy every item that has a mail in rebate the same price as the store price, i.e. marked as "free". This happens sometimes at fry's. After the rebates, all you pay is taxes, it just requires the overhead funds to do the purchase in the first place. Make SURE to read that you CAN send in more than one rebate
Then, resale the items on ebay as some "bargan buys warehouse" and make buyer pay shipping. As long as you made more money than you paid in taxes it's a profit. How much profit then only depends on volume.
It's a simple small business that you could do from home and an occasional browsing of fry's for the free deals.
It's bottom feeding but you could probably do $200,000/yr if you have a nice website...
The right answer for 99% of programmers is to become a contractor. People have been becoming contractors since time began yet for whatever reason this is now a big deal. In 1999, most of the programmers out there were contractors.
As a contractor you're satisfying all the reasons the authors give for starting their own "businesses" and it's a lot less of an initial risk.
Holy fucking shit, the profanity on this damned message board confounds the fuckity-fuck-fudge-crap out of me. I'm telling Mommy Taco on all of you.
Hmmm...do you know that software programs are protected mostly by copyright? Also, do you know you must register the copyright with the Library of Congress to protect your creation to the level of getting lost profits from an infringer. Most importantly, software is covered by Title 17 of the US Code. There are certainly more copyrights than patents on software. Next time you want to challenge me, get your facts right! With Charity, Jax (a girl, not a "he")
Jax
Direct quote from the article:
"You cannot compete with large companies."
Yeah, sure. Asswipe.
Compare with Joel's advice to, if at all possible, get into a design war with a large company. You'll always win.
Laugh at my Lisp and I keeell you.
There is a lot of competition due to the low barrier of entry, but a motivated individual with talent could end up quitting their day job. WinZip is a good example of a success.
Sorry, don't think so. How many WinZip registration keys are floating around the internet? How much lost profit $$ does that represent for them?
To me, it seems like a better example of how writing shareware earns you no money because it's that much easier to pirate/crack.
There was a famous military dispatch regarding a bomber pilot named Sink in the WWII Pacific Theatre -
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
"Very few truly versatile people have the determination to finish a Ph.D."
There is a difference between being versatile and unable to focus! One could argue that having the ability for focus myopically on one detail FOR A NECESSARY WHILE should be included in versatility. Versatility is not the opposite of being able to focus. By his definition that author seems to have confused ADHD with versatility.
Truly versatile people tend to score very inconsistently on MBTI. The are far to busy switching between all the different hats to spend time being in one of 16 pigeon holes. I went to a "team building" type of seminar where groupings were made to sort out "big picture people", "detail oriented people" etc based on a similar test. By scores I fit evenly in all the groups -- so I was pushed into the smallest one. (BTW, I am versatile, and I have a Ph.D.)
And his cousin "Screamed-Like-Dean-and-Blew-Election". And uncle "Like-David-Caruso-Film-Career"
I noticed that the consulting firm that I work for now is essentially a software company, and that such a software company is incredibly easy to start, assuming that one already works at said consulting firm. The thing that takes the most time is winning the contracts in the first place. If you can get the customers (and therefore $) easily, you're home free.
stuff |
...Because if you read his dribble, it's clear, he thinks Open Source doesn't work and closed source does! I call it dribble because Open Source helps make us profitable, every single day.
Besides, Open Source vs closed source is not really my beef with Microsoft. What I hate them for is the way they behave as if no other fish should have the right to live in the ocean. They kill other companies by either cutting of the oxygen supply or by gobbling them up, whole.
Why can't they at least be more like Cisco? Cisco tends to buy companies and then let them simply exist, intact -- most of the time. Makes for a much healthier ecosystem if you nurture instead of vanquish.
To me, that's really where Open Source helps. I have to hope Open Source can beat the crap out of Microsoft to help level the playing field, once and for all. When the vast majority of the market accepted open hardware standards, it made it difficult for IBM -- the big bully of hardware, at the time -- to wrest the market back (remember the PS2?). Hopefully, Open Source will have the same effect on the big bully of software.
I'm sorry, but the MBTI is severely outdated. Here is a much better series of personality tests
Most important, in no order is this, this, and this
# Selling and marketing are more important than product.
# Are you full of energy, optimism, health, and have access to other resources?
# Expect to fail more than once before you succeed in the end - can you survive until then?
# Contain your risks. Don't go without insurance. Don't be cheap about lawyers.
Troll!
I made this great product to fix space probe flash memory problems. The problem is that I don't know how to get it to Mars.
I disagree with his statement about a business plan, he concentrates on the one thing most people write then for, getting venture capital or a bank loan. While it is true that a VC or a bank would require this there is a very good reason to write one. It is focus yourself on what your are trying to accomplish.
What is your product, who are your customers, how do you do business, what are your expectations. Do decide to write customized software for dentist offices or are you just desperately doing anything for cash? How are your customers going to know who you are and what you do if you are not willing to define what you do to yourself!
Also starting your own business does require alot of focus, you have alot of things to do and you have to be timely about accomplishing them. Paying employees, the bills, contacting customers, while you are very scattered in what you working on, you cannot hop from one to the other just because you cannot focus one thing. The IRS will have your butt in a sling you don't do payroll properly, your customers will have your butt in a sling if you don't deliver what you promise, the list goes on and on.
The other thing about small business is he ignores that you don't have to do everything yourself. There are alot of companies that cater to small business to do the time consuming but boring things that have to get done, like payroll. Always look around for help in this area because for $50/month(or whatever) is cheaper than you spending 8 or 10 hours a month trying to figure all the forms and making sure that they all get done in time.
http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/~bob/clarisworks.php
It's a bit out of date (we started in '89), but even so, we were told it was too late to get into the software startup game. We had no business plan. Yet we managed to beat our Microsoft competition (MS Works), with no venture capital, in fact without even incorporating... of course, getting bought by Claris helped. But I think keeping everything ultra-low overhead was essential - *all* of our time was spent designing and developing, and none on coming up with a business plan, a "failure plan", etc., as described on the MSDN article. YMMV...
There are still plenty of great ideas out there, waiting to see the light of day.
You mean you're extremely slow to make decisions, but once you've decided, you're unstoppable?
First, thanks for the free advice. Most of us technical folks are completely non-informed as to the legalities of our inventions -- this severely includes me.
Second, would you please distill your experience wrt this scenario: I have a new way of viewing data, be it file system information, database information, or actual program code. The visual representation as well as the underlying data structures are key to what I believe is a powerful new way of organizing data. Any half-competant programmer who sees my software will be able to reverse engineer it as the concepts are relatively simple. So, the question is: how does one protect such a "new representation of data (both internally and visually)"? Is it a patent issue, copyright issue, or some combo?
I appreciate any comments you may have on the subject.
Peace & Blessings,
bmac
For true peace & happiness: www.mihr.com
Borrow from friends and family.
Have a working spouse.
Borrow from your credit cards."
Obtain money from a potentially major customer
This one is often overlooked. If a company has a problem they need solving and is willing to fund some of your development effort to solve it, this is a golden opportunity. Depending upon what problem you are solving, the company may not be interested either in owning any of the IP you create or supporting the product if/when it takes off.
This is how the company I'm with now started and their sales are $500MUSD per year. It all started from a $500K investment from a major industry leader, who remains the company's biggest and most valued customer.
If you have Opera identify as Opera then you don't get the article, you get some sort of table of contents page. If you change it to identify as MSIE 6.0 then you get the article.
value is determined by risk/reward ratio? so the more you risk for no reward the better? I don't understand how anyone who doesn't understand fractions can program.
admittedly "determined" does not necessarily mean = to. However the rest of the argument:
val= risk/reward
idea alon has no "risk".
So it can't have any value.
seems to show a seriously warped view of mathematics, and business reality.
That said, his over arching point- that an idea is valuable only if implemented well is certainly true.
I posted this a little late when this was discussed a couple of days ago, so here it is again so that it can hopefully help out some people.
:)
;) My research led me to these guys who created a corporation for us in Delaware for about $100. We also bought a corporate kit from them (for ~$50) which included a corporate seal and all the necessary legal documents. On a side note, a lot of the informati
You can't just throw clever programming at the problem and get money out the other end. For one, it takes a hell of a lot of marketing knowhow, something that most geeks should have known they were crappy at when the prettiest girls went to the fast-talking football players. There is much more to making a company than clever tech. Tech ability is becoming a cheap commodity.
Amen. This gets right to the heart of what most people here don't seem to realize, much less mention. Starting a software company requires great coding AND marketing skills, not to mention a good sense of what would even be a good product to make. I'm speaking from experience here; I've succeeded in my own startup.
Most geeks either don't have what it takes or aren't willing to put forth the effort required to make a software company succesful. Aside from the coding, there's the packaging and the selling. After the packaging and the selling, there's the support and maintenance. And by maintenance, I don't just mean maintenance regarding your product...but your company. Because once you get to the point where you've got a nicely packaged product that needs to be supported and maintained (assuming you've done it right), you've also got a nice little beast on your hands called a corporation.
Now I imagine that most of this stuff would be a breeze for the average slashdotter, except for the part about packaging and selling (i.e. marketing). This is the most difficult area for geeks to master. The head of the evil empire is where he is today because of his mastery in this area. But Bill Gates isn't the only geeks with those skills, so if you want to succeed, find yourself a partner with (very important) BOTH marketing AND technical skills. Let him do all the talking. Let him handle user iterface, software packaging (installers, icons, etc...) and you can concentrate completely on coding while he puts a pretty face on it and handles the customers.
Of course, this is all easier said than done. So I'll tell you what I've done and how I've succeeded. Hopefully this information will help you succeed as well
A couple of years ago I was running out of contract work and I didn't want to go get a "regular" job because I don't like being a cog in the man's machine. So I decided to start looking for opportunities.
Step 1: Look for an opportunity
I figured it would be easier to start in a niche market with little competition. I also knew that small businesses are a ripe market for IT services. It just so happened that one of the companies I was doing part time consulting for was a small business in a niche market. The owner of this business had excellent contacts in his industry as well; I don't mention the industry because I don't want to invite competition
I knew I possessed the marketing and people skills necessary, but I didn't quite have some of the coding skills to pull it all off. So I talked to a friend who is a top notch coder working for a large web hosting company who was interested in starting a business. I told him about my contact in this small, nich market and about the need for certain types of software. We both had similar outlooks on life and our personalities were a good match for a business partnership, so we agreed to start a company.
Step 2: Incorporate
I then did a little bit of research to learn how to actually create a company. Whichever of you is the smartest one should handle this. I just happen to have a 156 IQ, so it was a breeze.
Accounting software. Yes, much bookkeeping software already exists, but one company noticed that there was no package available that was 1) in Dutch, 2) Easy to use for lack of (unnecessary) features, and 3) able to get non-accountants going quickly. They targetted home and small office users, with success
Gym software An older example, but one of the best known ones, and one of the earliest small business niches to be recognised. Many companies discovered (independantly) that there was software to do accounting, software to work out training regimens, and software to track client training progress, but nothing that integrated all of these functions. Someone discovered this niche, and now there are quite a few packages that fulfill all of the IT needs of gyms.
Power plant maintenance and safety management software With power plants being the domain of big, wealthy firms, you'd think they would already have decent software to coverall aspects of this. Not so, apparently. One student wrote a package to do data mining and efficiency improvements for a nuclear power plant, as his graduation project. He turned it into a business,, and now he is talking to many large European energy suppliers to sell his software. You can find profitable niches even in heavy industry, apparently.
Pattern generation for embroidery machines I kid you not. Years ago I found out that patterns for embroidery machines were all made by the machines' manufacturers using record-playback... I asked to have a custom one made, and was quoted a price of about $500 for a simple pattern.
I thought of starting a business, and sell software able to create patterns from scans to shops with such machines. Shops would be able to embroider custom designs onto jackets and such for $15 rather than $500. I never actually did it, but I know that the manufacturers of embroidery machines have only recently started to offer such software.
This last example also illustrates the point against having too strong a competition. I could have been successful selling this software, but I could never have competed against the manufacturers, once they got into the action. I suppose being first to market wil allow you to outdo the larger competitors, but it will not last. Don't let such products be your only products. Or hey, you could get lucky and be bought by the larger competitor.
Niches for software and IT services abound. Look around you, especially at areas where IT services seems 'too expensive', like small businesses, bakeries, mom&pop stores and such. Look for businesses with particular needs, and think about how IT can fill those needs.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
1) A domain that sounds like MyCrowSofft.com 2) Wait for the cease-and-desist letter. 3) Tell sender to get bent. 4) Hold out for highest offer. 5) Accept offer. 5) You don't need to run a company now.
boycott slashdot February 10th - 17th check out: altSlashdot.org
That's because all us smart people realize that corporate serfdom is where it's at.
I would think seriously before starting a "software" company. As an experienced software company executive, the current legal and economic climate minimize the viability of any software firm.
First -- unless you are well funded, the errors and omissions insurance is either unavailable or so costly as to not be economically viable. Starting a software company today, considering the patent portfolios of most companies and the litigious environment, is simply negligence.
Second -- if I had a micro-payment for every person who thought that he or she could "do better on their own," I would make Microsoft look like the corner grocery store. Frankly,it is not that there are no good ideas nor that there are no goiod people. The current legal environment practically limits any innovation. Until software "patents" are struck down, this issue will not change. If you think you have a "hot idea," you would be best served, and probably save yourself a lot of litigation costs, by keeping it to yourself.
Third, many people starting a company naively think "gee, I earn $60,000 per year" so I can just charge that to the customer myself and make a killing. However, to "earn" $60,000 in salary, you would need to bill, on average with very low overhead, $150,000 to $180,000 of work. Are you prepared to do that (including working three times your current work week)? Most new entrepeneurs fail because they underprice services. Undercutting rarely works unless you have a true commodity. And even then, you better have reserves to survive when your competitor undercuts you simply to make a point.
Frankly, I would councel people to make use of there time for something worthwhile and not waste time on software. The patent environment makes it almost impossible to innovate without paying license fees. It simply is not worth it.
I agree with you entirely. Recently, however, I've been using 7-zip which is an excellent open-source alternative.
I suspect open-source is the real competitor / threat to shareware (and all commercial software for that matter) and not piracy, since open-source provides huge advantages to the user. It's interesting to note that the 7-zip people are offering various tiers of technical support to make money.
Waning are the Microsoftian days where a fixed-time programming effort can reap fairly unbound profit (cf. Bill Gates). With the ubiquity of general software and programmers (and perhaps the public's emerging realization of zero cost duplication and the intent and nature of copyrights), programming is becoming more of a service.
This is probably best for humanity in the long run, though an obvious hinderence to (particularly lone) programmers in their attempts to become independently wealthy by starting their own software companies based upon their own ideas.
Please do yourself a huge favor and follow this link S.C.O.R.E.
Get a free ipod.
The reason is that value is generated only in the presence of a risk/reward ratio. An idea involves no risk. Therefore, the numerator of the risk/reward ratio is zero, and its business value is zero. In contrast, execution involves risk, which is why it leads to reward.
This would seem to imply that is the reward increases, the value decreases. Or maybe I'm missing something...
At my age I find coming up with a witty signature too exhausting.
I wouldn't trust someone with that name to keep a company a float... ;-)
So, you want to start a software company, and nobody is going to talk you out of it.
...
Here is what you do:
1) Come up with a solid idea for a software program that you know is marketable.
2) File your tax return
3) Take said tax return and hire 5 programmers in India for one full year.
4)
5) PROFIT!
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
You don't get much profit after being bought out by Microsoft. After all, Bill Gates didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks! :-)
1>Call you company mikerowesoft
2>sell it to microsoft
3> Sell Microsoft's letters to you on ebay
(Current bid: US $3,751.00)
4>profit!!!
My company is staying afloat because I immediately outsourced to the Russians. They were way cheaper and better than the Indians. Plus, I love Dostoesky.
Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join em.
You got to start with outsourcing just to stay competitive.
If you want to make money do NOT start a software business. Start a service business built around software or start a consulting business that involves programming as part of a systems integration service.
Or if you really want to make the big bucks, take a good look at basic developments in new technology and figure out how to make some type of device. You will still end up doing a lot of software development but you will end up with a useful device as well. Do some research on FPGAs, PICs, embedded Linux, LCD screens like the 640x480 used on the pocket Zaurus SL-C860. Check out the camera servers from Axis or the flash-based webservers from Intrinsyc, i.e. CerfCube. Read through some of the mini-ITX projects at http://www.mini-itx.com and check out the wireless mesh ideas at http://www.locustworld.com.
Use your heads and don't just reinvent the wheel over and over again. There is no future in software as a product but there is a big future in software as part of a product.
I was contacted by a company that has a GPL'ed/Commercial product. I was contacted to see if I was interested in helping them with a "big push." I answered that I was and I looked forward to discussing the opportunity further . I said working with a company providing the [deleted] industry with a solution both GPL'ed and commercially available was attractive, as I liked the idea of making a living but also being able to contribute to the [deleted] industry.
Needless to say I never received anything back from them.
Too many times companies want to start a "GPL" project and think that the programmers doing the work would also be free. GPL programmers either are paid to program, have a personal interest and are making their own contributions, or are naive. I'm not naive, and they weren't interested in paying. So, if I do the work (once my NDA/NCA expires next year) it will be on my own as long as I can itch and scratch.
Hopefully I haven't described your efforts.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
I hear this rhetoric so often that it seems true, but it is not. It is easier to be sucessful having a unique product that is also in high demand. But where are the ones willing to work hard to make something better than the existing, professional, mature programs?
Where have the real programmers gone? The ones confident enough to take on the powerhouses and make a better product rather than merely finding the little niche no one is addressing so they can get started without competition?
Friend of mine started a project 1 year ago and is going up against the biggest names in his highly saturated target market. His approach: make a vastly superior product, gather a team of top technical, customer service, marketing talent; leverage contacts through previous successful development projects and to be bold.
Why not be bold? Why not do what it takes to be the best? Of course, you need to think that you can be the best to take that path. And you need to be able to be the best to be successful.
My friend? His project is making serious waves in his industry and he has won some major customers from the biggest players in a very public way. He's targeting a saturated market with the strategy of besting everyone else.
Boldly going where many others have gone before.
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
Quite coincidentally, I just started my own software dev company today, well... the paperwork was done today, I actually started when I signed the contracts for my 3 clients last week.
After much research and many discussions with family and friends, I pretty much came to all the same conclusions as to how to get started as Eric did. So I found this article to be a nice confirmation that I am basically on the right path.
Since I already have several clients signed and more work then I can handle, I skipped the business plan and initial financing part of the startup process and was able to get right to work.
I know this sounds backwards, but if you can find a few companies (with money) who say they will hire your services BEFORE starting your company, once you do the paperwork to make your company legit, you will be huge steps ahead, and you don't really have to spend much if any money until you have clients. I know this may sound some what silly and backwards, but that is exactly what I did and now my little one person company is profitable from the day I got my business license (today). If you have a day job with another company and are thinking of starting your own, don't jump ship until you have either a few clients or enough capitol to support yourself for at least 6 months with zero income. Its easy to start the business, i.e.... do the paperwork, come up with business plans etc... it's not so easy to find clients with money who knows that they need to spend more then $10 an hour to get a good developer and who has at least 8 hours worth of work to do. Don't put off the paperwork too long or your city/county government may fine you. For instance, the city of San Diego fines you if you get your business license 15 days or more after you started your business. So once you have those clients, do the paperwork immediately!!!
Also beware of the people who try to use you for free advice. I had two people play that game with me so far and they can become a major waste of time, which translates to a waste of money too. So it's important to learn how to tell when someone is just window shopping to steal some ideas and when they are serious about buying and when to draw the line. Its also important to learn how to draw that line, so you don't accidentally piss off the wrong person and loose someone you think may be window shopping but was actually serious.
One other thing I would like to point out, if anyone actually reads all this. Be prepared for it to take a while to get a company to sign/write a contract for you and try not to get frustrated with it. It took me two months to get one of my clients to finally sign a contract, but it was worth it because they will be providing a good deal of work to me over the next year or more.
Basically, there are a lot of subtle little details you will end up contenting with, so be prepared, but with hard work and smart planning it can be worth it. To make sure I don't completely discourage anyone from starting their own business, here is one final thing to think about. I will be almost doubling my income AFTER taxes by starting my own business. It's not easy, but it sure makes all that paperwork and extra hassle worthwhile.
Hey dude, I'm Chaotic Good! Wow! That means I fight for good and freedom at the same time. I totally kick ass man! Oh and I'm playing a ranger called "Strider" BTW...
That is a well established strategy used by corporations to grow and increase profitability. Business courses, the business press, and others will mention it. The strategy is called Mergers & Acquisitions. Companies like Microsoft, Cisco, and others became what they are due to it.
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
The article goes into Myers-Briggs personality theory, on which my dating site is based. Nice.
[Oops, I hit submit instead of preview, here's the proper version:]
:-) would be what if someone uses the program then adds a couple of small pieces of functionality to the visual paradigm. Does this now constitute a "new machine"? And to what extent do they have to innovate/extend my idea for their work to become "new" in the legal sense? [My guess here is that this is a very thorny issue that would probably have to be determined in court, as there are probably not a lot of precedence in this realm.]
Thanks, but a couple of questions:
What exactly does "new machine" refer to? My idea revolves around a somewhat simple (yet powerful) visual data structure. It will (God Willing) have a very rich functionality that, because of the relatively simple geometry of the visual structure, will be very directly (and obviously) related to the visual organization of the data. In other words, anyone who chooses to re-engineer the app will *have* to implement the same kinds of functions (/menu choices) due to their being very natural offshoots of the visual nature of the data itself. I have not seen such a data organization in my years of programming, though I know that Charles Simonyl (formerly MS's chief software architect) and James Gosling are both pursuing similar approaches to data management (where the data is program code itself).
Essentially, the crux and (IMO) beauty of my idea resides in exactly how the data is organized visually; the nature of how this is done (as mentioned above) makes certain functionality extremely intuitive. So, are you saying that if I can prove that no one has organized their data as such, I can patent it and then all the functions that occur as a logical result of how the data is presented to the user will be unable to be re-engineered (and sold) by other software engineers? Or, would you reckon that the combination of data presentation *and* functionality *together* is what is required for defining the "new machine"?
As a comparison, consider the relational database paradigm. Could E. F. Dodd (if I remember correctly) have patented his relational model of data and then have been able to "own" rdbms software for 17 years? The notion of tables of fields linked by keys was brilliant, yet could he have protected himself legally? And, of course, we all know the fate of the Visicalc creator who *didn't* patent the spreadsheet (a *very* visual data paradigm with obvious functionality). How would you have advised him (or Dodd) to protect their ideas (ideas whose brilliance is proven by their being integral to computing to this day)?
Now, as far as copyright goes, if I understand you correctly, if a competing engineer can achive the same functionality with different code, copyright offers *no* protection whatsoever. Neh?
And then the last question (for now
And one last favor, if you could, please: what book(s) would you recommend for a pure engineer (like myself) to background me on the status quo? Lessig? Which ones? And I hear that there is an excellent female software patent lawyer professor (in N. Cali?) who is quite quiet but very much at the vanguard of software ip theory.
Your help is very much appreciated, and, as I may be needing to actually hire an attorney such as yourself someday, what state do you practice in? You never know when "good samaritan" advice will lead to interesting (and even *paying*) connections. Regardless of the future, tho, I do *really* appreciate your time and expertise.
Peace & Blessings,
bmac
If only the world religions knew that there is only one *purpose* to religion, tho many paths to achieve it; and that when that one purpose is truly sought, the effects on human development and behavior are *always*exactly* the same, regardless of practice.
Bill Source ?
FWIW...
Hi. We should talk more about this in confidence. You can im me. My aol screenname is alppy. Thanks, Jax
Jax
And I am (now) bmac4unity.
I don't know if I actually sent you a message, cause I'm a total n00b (never even used irc). Anyhow, you've got my screen name now, so until then...
Peace & Blessings,
bmac
What an odd post, Sivaram... I think you should stop posting so much (unless you really have something interesting to add, of course), get off the computer, and go outside a bit. Bring some breadcrumbs to feed the birds. Watch the clouds go by for a while.
When you do get back to your computer, stay focussed, work on your highest priorities only, and go to bed early.
When the brain gets overstressed it starts to babble, and I think you might be getting this. No offence taken, I hope.