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On Starting a Software Business

stephaniehurlburt.com

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Re: On Starting a Software Business

#131

Post by rlayton2 »

tootie wrote: post #74
rompic wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you might like https://www.planradar.com/ disclaimer: I met the founder once at a party.

You shouldn't let the existence of a competitor stop you. The business model of Lyft/Gett/Juno is basically to carbon copy Uber and get piece of their pie. Just being a deliberate copycat isn't a terrible strategy. Trying to one-up something that already exists is also plausible, if not easier because their is already a trailblazer that has made the market and you can just piggyback. Facebook succeeded because of MyS…

You could argue Uber copied Lyft (although it might be more convergence than anything), which I suppose just highlights your point even further.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#132

Post by cheez »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #113
theparanoid wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specialize. It doesn't have to be an esoteric domain. Something like Go server apps or Docker is enough.

With an industry that moves so ridiculously fast, how do you know what'll be in use in the few years it'll take to become good at something? I feel like if I'd learned web development five years ago I wouldn't know anything about it today.

You answered your own question: keep learning. There isn't enough time for mastery of any particular technology, but mastery of the flow of technical change.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#133

Post by samsonradu »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #113
theparanoid wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specialize. It doesn't have to be an esoteric domain. Something like Go server apps or Docker is enough.

With an industry that moves so ridiculously fast, how do you know what'll be in use in the few years it'll take to become good at something? I feel like if I'd learned web development five years ago I wouldn't know anything about it today.

> I feel like if I'd learned web development five years ago I wouldn't know anything about it today.

This is a wrong assumption. Web development just gives the feeling of moving fast, it's not really the case. The foundation of web development is roughly the same as 5y ago. Most things from the http protocol, web servers, data storage, authentication, websockets etc. still works the same. Give or take a few UX and state-management tools and we're not that far into the future.

Also due to the huge investments in the web during the past decade(s) things should get slower because of legacy issues. Think fe. how long it's taking browser vendors to dump Flash or to adopt WebRTC.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#134

Post by beager »

semperdark wrote: post #81
chubot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this before, but part of the appeal of the spreadsheet is that Patty from accounting or Joe from HR can modify it without having to ask any IT staff, including you. So I don't think it's a foolproof scheme, unless your solution is also programmable/customizable, which is a lot of work.

This is actually largely what we're trying to do at Sonadier.com. The basic idea is that you can build most enterprise CRUD applications with drag-and-drop forms. While we realized it before starting, we didn't fully grasp how much you need people with "computer literacy" to build these things, for lack of a better term. Just thinking about the schema of the application you need is something a lot of people can't rea…

It sounds like you may have an opportunity to offload some of that power-user/consultant content to contractors who just integrate your platform in their gigs. Or, operate a linearly-scaling in-house consultancy and have your platform be a means to optimize revenue per employee.

The CRUD application is definitely not the hard part, but it can be the long part.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#135

Post by croon »

nightski wrote: post #76
bryanh wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Basically it's saying for every extra dollar you want to earn in consulting you must hire more engineers. For traditional software you can continue to sell the same bits over and over and not hire an extra engineer for the Nth sale.

I mean there is some level of growth in the sales/marketing/accounting and non-engineering departments right? Engineering isn't the only thing in a business, sometimes it's not even the most important (as much as we might hate to hear that). I've been in extremely successful software companies that had a crap product but an amazing sales team (although I didn't stick around long).

Couldn't agree more.

I've noticed this pattern in both business and in individual engineers.

You either have a spectacular product that theoretically could sell itself with initial exposure, or you have the best marketing and a product that might as well be vapor.

Usually it's the mediocre product that's somewhere in between that wins.

In engineers I've noticed that some of the brightest I've worked with are unsociable, or have no self esteem, and get stuck in the same place for 20 years, and on the other side of the spectrum are talentless hacks that are great at selling themselves and moving around enough to increase their salary.

Meanwhile I feel like a fraud because I'm not the best, but good enough to recognize my worth and sociable enough to put myself out there.

I leverage the shit out of that and feel somewhat guilty about hoping that the really talented local engineers don't catch on to the idea.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#136

Post by rjegundo »

tertius wrote: post #56
scandox wrote: post #51

This is a person who obviously has a lot of talent and a lot of specialised knowledge. I doubt most people can get properly paid consulting work or get to product stage as fast as she clearly could.

I'd like to see some responses to this from some gurus. I have the same problem. I have a bunch of generalized skill but I feel not enough to make large $ with consulting. I don't attribute this to impostor syndrome.

Specialize is possible as someone mentioned, but I think the essential is segment.

You can still be a generalist as long as you put those skills to the service of a specific community. This could be region, vertical, domain, etc. The important part is to be clear who are you aiming at, so you can hustle and leverage the network/reference effect in there.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#137

Post by fao_ »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #89
chubot wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard this before, but part of the appeal of the spreadsheet is that Patty from accounting or Joe from HR can modify it without having to ask any IT staff, including you. So I don't think it's a foolproof scheme, unless your solution is also programmable/customizable, which is a lot of work.

>So I don't think it's a foolproof scheme, unless your solution is also programmable/customizable, which is a lot of work. Yep, almost everyone you casually talk to about a problem domain is only casually talking about it. They'll dream, but won't let you know about the pitfalls. After you build something, the next questions are usually, "Can you change this just for us?", which is a fun task if you have 9 other cust…

So you have "advanced options", add a switch, and then change all of that. And if you do it right it's still nice and modular.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#138

Post by jroseattle »

siliconc0w wrote: post #41

Consulting doesn't scale, software does. One pragmatic strategy to find product/customers: 1) Pick an industry 2) Ask someone in that industry what they use spreadsheets for 3) Build something better There is a lot of 'cybernetic' processes that are a mix of humans with domain knowledge and machines with spreadsheets for schemaless storage and querying. Generally the move is to encode the domain knowledge into code a…

Consulting pays the bills when software can't. It's all about the mix and getting to what you want -- not everyone is destined to be a product owner.

Your advice is spot-on, although I would likely CAPITALIZE the words "build something better". Not so easy a proposition.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#139

Post by agentultra »

chii wrote: post #11
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…

This is pretty much our bread and butter where I work. Our system lets you design the forms using rich widgets that let you take photos, sketch on them, record tolerance measurements, etc and we generate rich data dashboards and reports from it. The clients all work on mobile devices over poor, intermittent connections. Our users love it.

We work with a lot of clients in manufacturing and construction. Our system has a way to build and schedule regular inspections, notifications, etc. We're working on business process management and moving into regulated industries.

A friend of mine works in sewers for a big construction contractor. I want this company using our stuff so that his job is more safe. Right now they take readings from his sniffer and write them out onto a sheet in a log book and throw that data in the back of the van. It might be three months or so before someone enters that data into a spreadsheet. If there was an incident and my friend happens to not make it out of the hole that day -- he's just another statistic. I hope that by taking a reading with our software we can at least anticipate the environment he's diving into. His co-workers won't be able to scribble some non-sense on paper and throw it in the back of the van before he dives in -- they'll be accountable and people will be notified if they don't.

It's amazing how much our customers still use paper and spreadsheets despite having SAP, Oracle, SAS etc servicing them with solutions for that last couple of decades. Turns out having a small team that can move fast and listen to users on the ground floor is still a good strategy.

Re: On Starting a Software Business

#140

Post by amdavidson »

pikachuaintcool wrote: post #119
jboggan wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please expound, I feel like I understand some of the risks but am curious to hear your objections. I personally would prefer bootstrapping but I think there are times when a market is growing quickly and you don't want to be left on the sidelines.

Honestly I wouldn't take my opinion seriously, I have very little experience in industry and my opinion might be misinformed. But if you really care, I'm talking from an ethical perspective. Imagine if Facebook or Google or Twitter were successfully bootstrapped, think about how much better off everyone would be. If all you care about is making money then VC money probably would work I guess. But it makes me sad.

In what way would everyone be better off?

Do you think that the VC money is what drove them to behave in a way that you don't agree with? If so, how do you square that with the fact that they are now publicly traded and not subject to VC whims?

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