Comments on: Should You Build or Buy Your Micro-ISV?

By: One of the Most Time Consuming Startup Roadblocks | Software by Rob

One of the Most Time Consuming Startup Roadblocks | Software by Rob — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 12:06:41 +0000

[...] ties back into a topic I’ve spoken about previously: when it comes to your product should you build it, buy it or hire it out?. While you don’t have to (and should not) hire out every aspect of your product, I cannot imagine [...]

By: Invalid Argument » Should You Build or Buy Your Micro-ISV?

Invalid Argument » Should You Build or Buy Your Micro-ISV? — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 11:08:43 +0000

[...] via Should You Build or Buy Your Micro-ISV? | Software by Rob. [...]

By: MicroISVs, Software Products and Startups: Software by Rob’s Most Popular Posts from 2008 | Software by Rob

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:04:17 +0000

[...] Should You Build or Buy Your Micro-ISV? “None of the products I’ve built or bought required skills beyond that of a mid-level developer. Let’s be honest, building an invoicing system does not involve insanely complex algorithms and coding chops. Most successful Micro-ISV products (and a lot of not-so-Micro-ISV products) could have been built by a few solid mid-level developers.” [...]

By: 8 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Programming Career | Software by Rob

8 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Programming Career | Software by Rob — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 21:42:52 +0000

[...] Start a MicroISV Build it or buy it, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you begin generating recurring income that [...]

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:50:22 +0000

I just found this blog through some other links. Man, You write great!

I hope to have a start up soon in my life. I one of those guys that has a 9-5 day and a 2 hour night coding… sucks… I have to learn to say no to consulting and just focus on my product…

By: The Software Product Myth | Software by Rob

The Software Product Myth | Software by Rob — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:32:11 +0000

[...] developers who make the leap to develop a product are another story. Building a product involves a large up-front time investment, and as a result is far riskier than becoming a consultant because you have to wait months to find [...]

By: Jeff Widman

Jeff Widman — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 06:44:48 +0000

Great post Rob!

Thanks also for the Sitepoint recommendation!

By: jb

jb — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:39:29 +0000

As someone who has (for a long time) contemplated starting a Micro-ISV, I must admit that buying an existing product has never occurred to me. I appreciate your putting the thought into my head. Much to consider…

By: 47 Hats - MicroISV Digest

47 Hats - MicroISV Digest — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:24:58 +0000

[...] Walling makes a good argument for buying, not building your Micro ISV: Should You Build or Buy Your Micro-ISV? Definitely worth [...]

By: Rob Bazinet

Rob Bazinet — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 03:13:48 +0000

@Rob and @Greg, all great points. I know there is value in Sitepoint and it is the ONLY real place to find anything of value. As Rob says, it takes a lot of time to weed through the junk, which is what I meant. The 0.5% is were you will find your next uISV, it just take diligence.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:24:31 +0000

Good points. There was a site that listed the best sites and apps for sale as determined by a human moderator (I can’t remember the URL), but it disappeared a few months ago. Although everything on it was a good find, it missed quite a few, so I never relied on it exclusively.

There are a fewother places I look for apps & sites for sale, but none have ever lead to a deal. Sitepoint is the place to be, and the reason you can find deals is that it takes a good bit of time to sort the wheat from the chaff so few people do it.

After about a month of visiting several times a day you’ll be able to run through the new listing pretty quickly and pick out the ones that have potential.

By: Greg C.

Greg C. — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:10:53 +0000

@Rob B. I agree, after looking a bit at sitepoint, that most of what you see is junk as it seems anyone can post anything without much regard for standards of authenticity or verification. That being said, if one had a systematic way of identifying the few good opportunities from all the flak, you could potentially stand to make quite a good ROI and anyone that wanted to buy post-filter would certainly have to pay a premium for that. I could see potential for a Buffet-esque type company where a few partners who can identify the few gems to come up now and then pool their resources and snap up these companies on the cheap with the intention of unlocking the hidden value in them. It certainly sounds like there are some people able to do this – as Rob W. says the good deals are usually gone fairly quickly.

By: Rob Bazinet

Rob Bazinet — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:06:24 +0000

Hi Rob,

Really good and practical post, makes tons of sense and couldn’t agree more.

Sitepoint seems to be the best place to find sites to buy but there is 99+% junk to every site “maybe” worth something. I really wish there was a real filtered marketplace for sites/products like this which are checked out by human eyes to determine if it is of real value or not.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:39:19 +0000

The grandaddy of sites for this is http://marketplace.sitepoint.com. Subscribe to the feeds and watch them closely. Good deals will be gone within hours of being posted.

Once or twice a week a software product will come through. More often though, you’ll see SaaS applications for sale which IMO are a better way to go due to the recurring revenue.

By: Greg C.

Greg C. — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 17:22:33 +0000

Very good post. Do you have any suggestions on how to go about finding a product to buy?