CHAPTER 7
What Happens Next?

Some things have to be believed to be seen.

—Ralph Hodgson, author and poet1

Most worthwhile endeavors, be it mastering a new programming language, writing a book, or starting a successful micro-ISV, have at least two mandatory components: a great deal of work and the belief you can do it. In Chapters 1 through 6 I covered just about all the tasks you need to master in order to make your micro-ISV a success; in this chapter, I want to get at the other component—believing you can do it.

Now, I could have you chant "I can do it! I will do it! I am doing it!" a couple hundred times each morning. That works—except your co-workers might talk. Or I could send you off on a "Discover Your Inner Strength" seminar and charge you up that way. That would also work.

Being an old "just the facts" type of ex-reporter, I decided the best way to show you that you can build a successful micro-ISV was to go out and interview 25 micro-ISVers who are making money—sometimes a lot of money. Seeing is believing.

I conducted the following interviews in September 2005, so by the time you're reading this, things may have changed for each of the micro-ISVers who were kind enough to let me interview them via email. I've organized the interviews into three groups:

  • Micro-ISVers who are just starting out and have not yet seen big bushels of money come their way.
  • Micro-ISVers who are humming right along making money and growing.
  • Micro-ISVers who are either doing extremely well as micro-ISVs or have recently "graduated" to full-blown companies.

Most of these interviews started with the same set of questions and then spun out from there, so the juicy bits tend to be toward the end of each interview. Please excuse the length of this chapter; in some ways this is the most important chapter in this book. Each of these micro-ISVs has useful lessons to pass on, but here's the most important take-away: if they can do it, so can you!

__________

Emerging Micro-ISVs

The first group of interviewees is on the first furlong of the micro-ISV race and is just starting to see, or will soon see, revenue. As you read these nine interviews, you'll see a couple of common themes emerge:

  • It takes more time and effort to get a micro-ISV started than you might have predicted.
  • If you're hoping for instant riches, you're better off playing the lottery. Building revenue is a multimonth, sometimes multiyear, process.
  • Doing everything yourself might not be the best solution, unless of course it's the only solution you can afford.

Of all these interviews, I have to confess to being most impressed with Ian Landsman's studied, careful, and meticulous approach. Since I conducted that interview in September 2005, Ian's product HelpSpot has gone live and by all accounts is doing very well.









Successful Micro-ISVs

The next group of eleven interviewees are showing solid success and revenue, sometimes because they've put the time and effort into building, nurturing, and growing their customer base and their products and sometimes because they've found a well-defined need and have worked tirelessly to meet it.

Again, certain commonalities come to mind as you read these interviews with successful micro-ISVs:

  • Building a successful business is the work of years, not weeks.
  • Reputation matters, and reputation is something that needs time to grow.
  • Google AdWords, and similar forms of advertising, can work if you have a well-defined market.

Of these interviews, you may be most surprised by two. Yes, Clay Nichols does talk like he's channeling Rodney Dangerfield, but Mr. Analogy, as he's known on the Joel on Software forum, knows how to run a business too. Speaking of business, ever hear of a micro-ISV successfully selling to the biggest of the big banks when it opened for business? Neither had I, which makes Mike Schoeffler's Profitdesk something of a phenomenon and his insights into selling to large enterprises very interesting reading.











Very Successful Micro-ISVs

The final group of five micro-ISVs have achieved a level of success that is definitely not micro. Some have grown out of what you could call micro; some have realized their hard-won equity and been sold.

At this level, it's harder to make generalizations about what works and what doesn't. One clear fact from all these interviews is, as Joel Spolsky puts it, you have to find a little bit of magic to make it to this level.






You've Reached the Bottom Line

My editor, Jonathan Hassell, rightfully pointed out the first time I submitted this chapter that I had neglected to come to a conclusion in this book. He's absolutely right. As a micro-ISV myself in the "emerging" category, I don't know how the story ends.

But I do know, thanks to all the people who kindly gave of their time for this chapter and all of the other people interviewed for this book, that most likely, the ending is going to be a pretty good one.

Micro-ISVs aren't a business fad that will run its course in a year and disappear. Micro-ISVs are a real alternative to the venture capital companies that come and often go. About one billion people are sharing the same connection called the Internet now, and if you can find a problem just a tiny part of that one billion have, and solve it, you too can succeed.

But you have to try.

Walt Disney, a man who knew a considerable amount about making something out of nothing with some imagination and a lot of hard work, is cited as the person who first said, "Better to have tried and failed than never tried at all."2

Maybe so: of course, it's best not to believe everything you read on the Internet! But one thing is for sure: if you've got the drive and the need and the perseverance, you too can go from vision to reality.

I wish you the best of luck; drop me a line at [email protected], and let me know how things have worked out for you.

-30-

(That's old reporter-speak for "You've come to the end of the story; now get out there, and do something!")

..................Content has been hidden....................

You can't read the all page of ebook, please click here login for view all page.
Reset
3.145.184.117