The Business of Software
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How hard is it to start a software business? This industry is full of so many rags to riches stories. From the famous Hewlett-Packard garage to the humble start of Marc Andreessen at the University of Illinois to Steve Wozniak quitting his job at Hewlett-Packard. From shareware, a fundamental source of programs for so many of us, to freeware and open source to even the various forums, bulletin boards, and libraries like SQLServerCentral.com, many of us have used these resources when writing programs.
And I'd bet that most of us have often thought that we could write a piece of software and sell it, better than many vendors. After all, our time + our amazing solution on some problem = profit!
However it's not that easy. As many people have learned, software can be a tough business. Support calls, bugs, patches, widespread deployments, all are a drop in the bucket compared to the effort of marketing. I know I've talked about these topics with friends a number of times and they've always scared me away from the software business.
However I still think about software, especially when I get an idea for some niche product. It's always interesting to think about selling a utility for $99 and then having it hit big. And so when I heard about The Business of Software Conference, with Joel Spolsky and Eric Sink speaking, I wanted to go and promptly emailed Dan at Red Gate to ask if I could go.
You can imagine my surprise when they emailed that Neil Davidson, one of the founders of Red Gate, was putting on the conference. I hadn't read the front page far enough to realize that, but it certainly helped with me getting a press pass. Or I hope so, no confirmation yet.
There's a pretty impressive lineup of speakers and I think this should be a very interesting event for anyone that wants to start a software company or even has a small software company. It's a quick, 2-day event this October 29th in San Jose, the heard of Silicon Valley.
Right now you can register for $1195, 33% off the full price. Or go for one day for $995. I'm tempted for the one-day, first day, Joel and Eric with Guy Kawasaki, and me flying out and back in one day. A long day, but I get to sleep in my bed :). I'm not as much of a long term thinker, so the second day might be lost on me, but maybe not those of you that want to build a software business.
Yes, I'm plugging this at the request of Neil and because I want to go :). Shameless plug aside, I think this is a pretty cool event for the audience of software people and it has the potential to be a great, great source of information on people that have built their own companies.
So kind of a critical thinking editorial break for me (sorry), and definitely an advertorial plug, but it is a topic and a conference I think is interesting. At the very least, you can register for updates, consider the conference, and get a free e-copy of Eric Sink's "Eric Sink on the Business of Software". He's the guy that started Source-Gear, and has written extensively for MSDN on software.
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For those unable to make the trip to the USA, there is a smaller scale European version: the European shareware conference http://www.euroconference.org/ This covers the same subject matter, eg starting and running a small software business (ISV).
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Steve - maybe they will have a section on "Getting ahead with anti-competitive business practices" or "Controlling access to customers by purchasing media outlets and kicking off competitors". Aren't these key components of Red-Gate business practices?
Ok let me try it - I think I've learned a lot from Red-Gate without even having to pay to attend this conference ... here is *my* attempt at a shameless plug.
*Anyone* with any Red-Gate tool (*any* version) - we can trade you straight up for FREE click here http://www.apexsql.com/upgrades.asp.
for those of you late to the game about the true nature of this site/Red-Gate's involvement and their history of anti-competitive practices - it's fully chronicled on my blog. Get ur read on!
Brian Lockwood
President
ApexSQL - SQL Developer Essentials -
My post is not a shameless plug. I'll leave that to the shameless among us.
I'd say go for both days. In fact, fly out on the 26th with your family and stay at a hotel in Santa Cruz (about 40 miles from San Jose) along the coast for the weekend. Winter rates but book now.
Call it a field trip for the kids. You will enjoy it. Stop and see the redwoods on the way.
I grew up there and while I could not live there now its okay to visit.
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No kids! I've traveled enough this year. This is an in and out of CA trip.
My wife worked for a company in San Jose for like 9 years, so all the kids have been to the area, from Monterey to Napa to Muir Woods and the trolleys in Frisco a few times.
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