The Human Side of Software Development

“Obviously, there’s no magic bullet. First, Google is investing in brains. Every company has a bell curve, right? It’s different here. The odds are pretty good that if you bump into someone in the cafeteria, they are world-class at something.”

- Google Engineering Director David Glazer in a recent Fast Company article

Lately I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about internet startups and entrepreneurial software developers (or as I like to call them, “developer entrepreneurs”).

And lo and behold, no sooner did I sit down to write about it than I received an email with my “prompt” for this post. It went something like this:

For several years I have been refining a business idea to be conceived as an Internet startup. I have met with numerous developers over time and even after they express support for the business concept, my challenge has been in persuading web developers in partnering in the opportunity as entrepreneurial venture.

Could you suggest to me an approach I could take to persuade Developers, to see such opportunities as business ventures instead of a project/job?

How should I go about selling the business concept enough to have development of the application without initial funds?

If you’re a non-technical founder looking for a developer entrepreneur, these are questions you should ask yourself. Having been on the developer side of the coin a number of times, here is my take.

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If you apply for these jobs tell them Rob sent you!

(Palo Alto) Social Gaming at Hive7
The first 3 openings are for a startup social gaming company (they are funded) called Hive7 in Palo Alto. They have over a million users, run on .NET, and are in need of a lead web designer, a lead DBA and a web games developer. Check out the job postings for more details, but their main selling points are:

• Massive amounts of creative freedom
• Insanely flexible working environment
• Great team of mad technologists, elitist designers and prima-donna artists with healthy bent on world domination

(Greater D.C. Area) Counter-terrorism Software at Abraxas Applications
The other opening is for a startup technology company in the Greater D.C. Area called Abraxas Application (3 developers and growing). They are a .NET (C#) / SQL 2005 shop developing a counter-terrorism application. Relocation assistance is possible for the right candidate.

You have to love the job title: Do Stuff That Matters (Software Engineer).

This is a fantastic idea.

I’ve heard of full disk encryption before - when I worked for a credit card company all of our database servers had full disk encryption and it was very expensive and required a massive deployment effort by our IT staff. But Data Guard Systems’ AlertBoot is a managed service that’s trying to bring this enterprise idea to the masses. At least, those technically savvy masses who care to protect the information they carry on their laptops and PCs.

Targeted at IT departments and marketed at $12.95/month I think this product has a real chance of success - having worked in the financial sector for 3 years this would have been a no-brainer option for securing the laptops we all carted home. We were never supposed to have critical information on our laptops, but I’m sure it happened more often than it should.

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Many a moon ago (nearly two years), I had a funny and somewhat sad email exchange with a co-worker named Matt. We had a lot of exchanges along these lines, and in a fashion atypical of this blog I wanted to share this one.

The situation: I made a mistake on a set of Release Notes and he let me know he’d corrected it.

Me: Aaaargh. Sorry about that. Getting sloppy in my old age.

Matt: Don’t sweat it. I’ll send corrections when I come across them. If this was the only thing wrong with any release notes I get, I’d be a happy man.

Me: Thanks…but wait, you forgot the protocol:

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I received this email the other day:

I’m looking for a software developer to build a simulator program.

Payment would be made from revenues after the product is available and producing revenues. The estimated market for this product is 100 million users with a target price of $50 per unit. After all your development costs have been covered from revenues, we would then share the proprietary rights to the product and net revenues on a 50/50 basis.

Are you interested in continuing?

My reply:

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Bob Walsh has released his eBook MicroISV Sites that Sell! - Creating and Marketing your Unique Selling Proposition. I read an early review copy and it’s filled with information that will save you gobs of time.

Definitely worth $19 if you are thinking of launching your own software product.

A Career Path in Pictures - Very clever. Several of these pictures hit close to home.

Tiger Woods: “The greatest thing about tomorrow is, I will be better than I am today. And that’s how I look at my life. I will be better as a golfer, I will be better as a person, I will be better as a father, I will be a better husband, I will be better as a friend. That’s the beauty of tomorrow. There is no such thing as a setback. The lessons I learn today I will apply tomorrow, and I will be better.”

And finally, a reply from a colleague when asked how he felt about the upcoming launch of a large application that his team has spent the last year building: “The only thing worse than having users is not having users.“

I started my .NET consulting firm with a $35 check for a business license and a drive to city hall. I didn’t worry about anything but writing code and meeting deadlines. I can’t say it was a bad way to go.

Until you have someone willing to pay money for your services, the tasks below are a waste of time. My advice is to be prepared to get the process started, but don’t rush out and spend hours researching and implementing these steps until you’re sure you have a viable business. And by a viable business I mean you have sales.

This advice is intended for someone looking to become a freelance software developer or web designer (or looking to start a small web design/development/consulting firm). If you intend to seek venture capital then move along…these aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

Disclaimer: I’m neither a lawyer nor an accountant. I have opinions on starting a business only because I’ve been through it once or twice. Please seek the help of a trained professional for help with starting your business. Also, the advice about business structure and DBAs applies only in the U.S.

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The Bootstrapper’s Bible Free in PDF
My favorite Seth Godin work. Solid, real advice about what being an entrepreneur is and what it isn’t. I thought I’d heard most of what there is to say about starting companies, but this 10 year old manuscript is filled with brilliance. Highly recommended reading for Micro-ISVs.

The Great Big Leaky Micro-ISV Sales Funnel
How 1,000,000 people turn into 500 customers.

Project Euler
Suggested by one of my clients (thanks, Noah!), Project Euler is “a series of challenging mathematical/computer programming problems that will require more than just mathematical insights to solve. Although mathematics will help you arrive at elegant and efficient methods, the use of a computer and programming skills will be required to solve most problems.”

Have you ever read Steve Pavlina’s story of graduating college in three semesters?
Unbelievable. I can only hope to one day be so cool.

Coding Horror: Are Features the Enemy?
Another insightful post from Jeff Atwood. If you’re not reading his blog you are missing out.

IT Conversations
Really cool IT Podcast. Am I the last person to find this?