How I Created a $350M Software Company Knowing Nothing About Software

Post by scottlocklin » Mon, Dec 28, 2015, 8:50 PM UTC

cubano wrote: post #29

6stringmerc wrote: post #4

Interesting article and impressive to see that kind of tenacity. Truly that's a take-away from the full perspective. The other take aways, for me, aren't nearly as complimentary. 1. Want to make a lot of money? Find an out-dated system where grunt labor is worth a lot less than the technology the grunt labor uses, and target this gap mercilessly (call centers) 2. Act like every other shady, fly-by-night, asshole sale…

> ...or, you can study up on something called "survivorship bias" and realize most of the "wisdom" in the article is utterly useless. So true...I was thinking more along the lines of "How I Created A $200 Million Retirement Account By Buying the Right Powerball Lottery Ticket" but I like yours as well.

Post by martin-adams » Mon, Dec 28, 2015, 8:56 PM UTC

iolothebard wrote: post #13

I live in a world full of people that love talking about doing things, but very few of them actually do anything. This is how I moved to SF. Talked about doing a startup with friends. Move out there and they'd all rather smoke weed and get drunk than work on our project. Happens in every facet of life as well. People talk about going to Europe, but never go. Talk about getting in shape, but never exercise, etc. Dream…

Post by doom2 » Mon, Dec 28, 2015, 8:58 PM UTC

dalacv wrote: post #20

For those reading this article and wondering about a niche area that is in need of innovators: LIMS - Laboratory Information Management Systems. Here's the deal. Most manufacturing companies (think Big Pharma, Petrochemical, Chemical, Widget manufacturing, anything really) measure quality. Those quality measurements are probably done in a laboratory. Every laboratory generates data. All that data needs to be managed…

Post by danieltillett » Mon, Dec 28, 2015, 9:07 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #30

6stringmerc wrote: post #4

Interesting article and impressive to see that kind of tenacity. Truly that's a take-away from the full perspective. The other take aways, for me, aren't nearly as complimentary. 1. Want to make a lot of money? Find an out-dated system where grunt labor is worth a lot less than the technology the grunt labor uses, and target this gap mercilessly (call centers) 2. Act like every other shady, fly-by-night, asshole sale…

No, he made a significant observation - the industry was operating at a high price point which was no longer justified due to advances in technology. That's a classic opportunity. The incumbents in the field won't want to drop their prices by an order of magnitude, even if the technology allows it. Especially if they have an expensive in-house sales force. This is a huge advantage for a startup. This happened to copi…

Post by mvc » Mon, Dec 28, 2015, 9:11 PM UTC

tiagomartins wrote: post #21

6stringmerc wrote: post #4

Interesting article and impressive to see that kind of tenacity. Truly that's a take-away from the full perspective. The other take aways, for me, aren't nearly as complimentary. 1. Want to make a lot of money? Find an out-dated system where grunt labor is worth a lot less than the technology the grunt labor uses, and target this gap mercilessly (call centers) 2. Act like every other shady, fly-by-night, asshole sale…

1. Want to make a lot of money? Find an out-dated system where grunt labor is worth a lot less than the technology the grunt labor uses, and target this gap mercilessly (call centers) Finding such a system would require you to have some experience with it, knowing the current problems, and then build a solution for it. This is the case in the article. Which is not easy I'm guessing, at least as a developer.