Comments on: The Software Product Myth

By: Links w#4 - Liens

Links w#4 - Liens — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:05:50 +0000

[...] The software product myth. A lire *avant* de se lancer dans un projet J’ai vécu ça (et bien pire) pendant 7 ans avec LesImpatientes (initialement les Essentielles.net) [...]

By: David Daniels

David Daniels — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:01:50 +0000

Excellent summary. We love stories about guys who made it big by building something and selling a gazillion copies over the Internet with no sales and marketing overhead. In my career in the software industry I’d always expect my development resources to spend at least 50% of their time in a support/bug fix mode after a release, and I’d throttle back expectations on the next release (or product).

As a former software engineer I hate to admit that sometimes the easiest thing to do is build the software. Like you point out, the worst situation isn’t that you didn’t sell any, it’s that you sold one. Then the real resource sink kicks in and your costs far exceed any revenue you earned.

By: Jim Foxworthy

Jim Foxworthy — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 20:52:11 +0000

Great piece! Thanks for writing it. Towards the end, you wrote, “There is a dip before you get to this place of exponential leverage and proverbial cash. A big dip. And if you can get through it once, it’s more likely that you’ll be able to get through it with your next product. And the one after that.”

The key to getting through the first and all subsequent “dips” is to get tuned in to your market and their problems. In high-tech we are notorious for building stuff because we CAN, not because we SHOULD.

Do your homework up front and identify market problems that are pervasive, urgent, and people are will to pay to solve. This will reduce your, er, “dippage” (smile).

By: links for 2009-01-09 « Brent Sordyl’s Blog

links for 2009-01-09 « Brent Sordyl’s Blog — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:00:45 +0000

[...] The Software Product Myth | Software by Rob The next step is to figure out, between the 5-10 hours per week you’re spending on support, and the 40-50 hours per week you spend at work, how you’re going to find time to add new features. And the kicker is that support burden actually worsens with time because your customer base grows. After 1 month you have 100 customers with potential problems, after a year, 1,200. (tags: startups) [...]

By: Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 14:31:17 +0000

Ouch… My life story.

By: Expenses You Don’t Think of When Starting a Business | Software by Rob

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:21:27 +0000

[...] ruffled a few feathers with my recent post The Software Product Myth. The unrest surrounded my statement that making $2500/month from your software product [...]

By: Start Now: 6 Reasons Why This Economy Is Good For Startups | The Daily Anchor | Media tips and tools

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:34:14 +0000

[...] is getting through the first fifty sales, the ones well before the chasm, when you’re sick of tech support and wondering when the real money is going to show up. The hardest is firing [...]

By: Selbständigkeit… warum es jetzt Sinn macht, sein eigenes Ding zu machen « Nicholas Lam-Thien

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:51:04 +0000

[...] is getting through the first fifty sales, the ones well before the chasm, when you’re sick of tech support and wondering when the real money is going to show up. The hardest is firing [...]

By: 2009, l’année de l’auto-entrepreunariat ?

2009, l’année de l’auto-entrepreunariat ? — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:21:18 +0000

[...] vous avez l’idée de la killer-app du siècle, foncez lire ce billet sur le Software Product Myth. Après les phases exaltantes de développement, de réussite sur la commercialisation et de [...]

By: Revue de presse | Simple Entrepreneur

Revue de presse | Simple Entrepreneur — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 05:51:50 +0000

[...] The software product myth Les ingénieurs ou développeurs qui choisissent de créer un logiciel pour s’affranchir de leur job devenu routinier doivent s’attendre à rencontrer de nombreuses difficultés avant d’espérer en vivre. [...]

By: The downside of a u-ISV | Pete Ware

The downside of a u-ISV | Pete Ware — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 01:23:28 +0000

[...] The Software Product Myth In our completely un-contrived scenario you’re now making $2500/month from your product, which doesn’t allow you to quit your day job. So you work 8-10 hours during the day writing code for someone else, and come home each night to a slow but steady stream of support emails. And the worst part is that if you’ve built your software right the majority of the issues will not be problems with your product, but degraded OS installations, crazy configurations, a customer who doesn’t know how to double-click, etc& Share and Enjoy: [...]

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

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:02:54 +0000

[...] The Software Product Myth “A certain percentage of developers become unhappy with salaried development over time (typically it’s shortly after they’re asked to manage people, or maintain legacy code), and they dream of breaking out of the cube walls and running their own show. Some choose consulting, but many more inevitably decide to build a software product. [...]

By: Intelligent Office of King of Prussia » 6 Reasons Why This Economy Is Good For Startups

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:57:15 +0000

[...] is getting through the first fifty sales, the ones well before the chasm, when you’re sick of tech support and wondering when the real money is going to show up. The hardest is firing [...]

By: Go with Reasons 2 and 6 | nPost Blog

Go with Reasons 2 and 6 | nPost Blog — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:49:51 +0000

[...] is getting through the first fifty sales, the ones well before the chasm, when you’re sick of tech support and wondering when the real money is going to show up. The hardest is firing [...]

By: Andy Brice

Andy Brice — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:02:37 +0000

It isn’t easy to create a profitable software company. I got there by:
-using my savings to go full time from the start – I am not sure I could have succeeded with a day job
-getting the first version out quickly and listening to feedback
-relentlessly engineering the software and website to cut down on support calls
-charging >$25 for my product
-working very hard!

By: 47 Hats - MicroISV Digest

47 Hats - MicroISV Digest — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:09:44 +0000

[...] Kelley was kind enough to point out this post at Software by Rob: The Software Product Myth (vial [...]

By: Chandan

Chandan — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:54:07 +0000

Great post – as a developer-turned-consultant who works on a multiple projects simultaneously (read ‘fixed price’), I’m not too sure about the “doesn’t have a ton of risk.” That being said, I do toy with the idea of having a microISV as well, and you definitely touched upon the very same issues that cross my mind every time I start to think about it.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:42:04 +0000

$2500? – funny. There are lots of expenses you have to cover if you work for yourself. You loose health insurance ($950 for self, wife, 2 little kids), disability insurance ($350), life insurance, 401K matches, bonuses. You get to pay both halves of FICA and medicare taxes.

And there are the business expenses you have too. Lawyers, accountants, software, hosting, other services, marketing. Make sure you setup a budget and cost everything out for the business and for yourself.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:26:33 +0000

@soup – Good point.

Although $2500 may go further in some cities, I would venture to say that even in Dallas you wouldn’t opt to survive on $30k with a wife and child when you can make 2x-3x that working a day job. No spouse I’ve met would put up with that

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:47:17 +0000

$2500 is enough to live on for most people, but it doesn’t even replace half of a decent software developer’s salary.

It might be worth quitting the dayjob if you thought you could grow the business and start selling twice as much a month eventually.