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On Starting a Software Business

stephaniehurlburt.com

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Re: On Starting a Software Business

#11

Post by chii »

shubhamjain wrote: post #6

There is a bit of detail missing that I would like to understand. How to just 'talk' and give help? Do you approach people/businesses and ask if they are having any problems? Or, your aim is to just get the conversation ball rolling, hoping that it leads to the problem part without deliberation?

i have a friend who is a construction contractor, and one of the tasks they needed to do is inspection of a property, and take pictures of problematic areas with notes.

Currently, this is a manual process, paper driven with digital photos, and after wards, somebody back in the office would transcribe the hand written notes into an excel spreadsheet along with pics.

This process could be made easier with an automated app on the phone. I had thought about making such an app, but haven't yet.

I guess when you talk to someone, you naturally gravitate towards issues they have.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#12

Post by thomk »

shubhamjain wrote: post #6

There is a bit of detail missing that I would like to understand. How to just 'talk' and give help? Do you approach people/businesses and ask if they are having any problems? Or, your aim is to just get the conversation ball rolling, hoping that it leads to the problem part without deliberation?

Strike up a conversation with anyone, casually mention you work with computers and they will tell you every problem they have from their horrible cellphone reception to the idiot IT guy at work to issues with Excel. Whatever the current 'computer' problem is, your'e about to hear it.

That's step 1. Step 2 is give them some solid advice in the form of a few things to try. Say "Well here's what I would do" and tell them what you'd do. If they keep asking questions, tell them something along the lines of "I did something like that for another guy and charged him $X/hour, you want me to stop by?"

Mentioning an hourly rate lets them know that even though this might be a hobby for them, its not a hobby for you. It also weeds out the tire kickers.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#13

Post by thomk »

skybrian wrote: post #3

I'm wondering about how they draw the line between "give first, take later" and "don't do work unless you're getting paid for it."

If you get free advice to someone, that is the giving part. It also is an area you know so you can speak with authority on the subject. The minute you are actively helping them (you are touching a computer or phone) that's when you should be getting paid.

I would also cut off the advice giving at a certain point and bring up money.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#14

Post by 300bps »

shubhamjain wrote: post #6

There is a bit of detail missing that I would like to understand. How to just 'talk' and give help? Do you approach people/businesses and ask if they are having any problems? Or, your aim is to just get the conversation ball rolling, hoping that it leads to the problem part without deliberation?

I met my largest side client while at a baseball clinic my son was attending. I was reading a very thick book studying for a certification when a local business owner approached me and said, "Are you in IT?"

Four years later of 15-20 hours per week side work and that chance encounter had an amazing impact on my life.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#17

Post by dahart »

westoque wrote: post #8

Interesting about the 50-50 split. If you talk to most people in the valley, they would probably tell you this is the worst thing you can do. That is, if you're looking from the perspective of a VC.

YCombinator advises equal splits. https://blog.ycombinator.com/splitting-equity-among-founders...

I've also read a bunch of articles that suggest unequal splits, and the reasons they cite seem to boil down to the idea that the split should reflect the proportional risk taken, and not much else. There are times when founders truly take the same amount of risk, and an even split is justified under the common VC thinking.

In my limited experience pitching to VCs, as someone in an even-split startup, I believe VCs do prefer to have a primary person responsible who is in the CEO seat and has authority to make unilateral decisions. I can imagine an uneven split makes it clear when that's the case. I'm certain many of them have seen cases where even split partnerships were made more difficult and ended up being unfair largely because of the even split. I'm also sure that there are cases where it's harder for them to communicate and negotiate with multiple founders rather than one.

Those reasons don't matter if you're not taking funding, so even split in a contracting partnership (even split effort), turned profitable product startup that doesn't deal with VCs makes a lot of sense.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#18

Post by katzgrau »

westoque wrote: post #8

Interesting about the 50-50 split. If you talk to most people in the valley, they would probably tell you this is the worst thing you can do. That is, if you're looking from the perspective of a VC.

VCs want to avoid the possibility of deadlocks when it comes to control - it's an easy box to check off when it comes to protecting the investment. But realistically, even at 51/49 or 60/40, if the disagreements are serious enough at an earlier stage the company is probably in a bad place anyway.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#19

Post by katzgrau »

westoque wrote: post #8

Interesting about the 50-50 split. If you talk to most people in the valley, they would probably tell you this is the worst thing you can do. That is, if you're looking from the perspective of a VC.

VCs want to avoid the possibility of deadlocks when it comes to control - it's an easy box to check off when it comes to protecting the investment. But realistically, even at 51/49 or 60/40, if the disagreements are serious enough at an earlier stage the company is probably in a bad place anyway.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#20

Post by _lbaq »

- "We can make a decent salary out of this" - 36 months - 48 months

I started and 10 years later made a successfully exit from my company, we never raised any money, the above figure is what it took us to go from financing our development our self (by having two jobs), to having enough customers to break even.

I think everyone should, bootstrap one company to get a feel for how it is, will make you a better entrepreneur.

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