How to Build a Small Software Enterprise from Zero

2. How to Build a Small Software Enterprise from Zero Joseph Albahari ARC205

3. Joseph Albahari C# MVP www.albahari.com

4. Get Rich Working From Home Earn loads of cash! $$$ • Fire your boss! • Work your own hours! Without baringyour midriff!

5. No, it’s not a Scam! November 2008 Pay Version Released August 2008 50,000 downloads September 2009 > 130,000 downloads > 2000 sales August 2007 Free Version Released

7. Overview

8. Prerequisites • Strong technical skills • Broad skill set • Can you design a UI? Database? Middle Tier? • Think about changing roles in your current job(or getting a new job!) Take an interest in marketing! Then decide what kind of business you want

9. ActiveorPassive? You need to decide up-front! • Simple product • Utilities / Web Sites • Minimal Support • Can do other things • Easy to sell business • No Commitment Mistress • Complex product • Vertical Market, components • Support/Management Intensive • Obligations to customers • Expand and employ • Can be hard to sell business • CommitmentRather like Marriage (with kids)

10. How to go Active... By Accident! • Sell Vapourware • Write Support-Intensive Features • Go Vertical • Write Components for Developers

11. Vertical Market • Don’t do it on your own • Sales + Business expertise • Find premises on the cheap • Turnkey solutions offer special opportunities • Recession good for R&D phase

12. Rule #1Good ideas come when you least want them.

13. Idea incubation • Keep a constant watch for pain points • A state of mind • Multiple projects • Beware of good but unmarketable ideas • Let people know that you want to start a business People will then approach you

14. The Businessman “I have business acumen and marketing expertise... You’re just a code monkey!” If you need such a person, make sure he/she is richer than you!

15. The Salesman Does your product need someone on the road? Good salespeople want payment by commission. You write it... I’ll sell it!

16. The Domain Expert “I have domain expertise, the connections and the vision” Their help can be invaluable But don’t let them design your program And never rely on a single domain expert!

17. How can you compete withbig companies?Big companies have big resourcesAnd big overheads!

18. Rebranding Seminar ISO 9000 Compliance Meeting Equal Opportunities Presentation Personal Agendas Architects’ Meeting Office Politics Backstabbing Fire Drill Quality Council Meeting

19. Big companies are creative at finding ways to inefficient! Follow different rules. The micro-ISV rules don't scale.They're not supposed to!

20. The Most Important StepMarketing

21. Winner VHS

23. $19.00

24. Which sells more? $27.00$19.00 Special Price – Limited Time

25. $27.00

26. $39.00$27.00 Special Price – Limited Time Experiment and Measure

27. Marketing • Perceive it as fun – not a duty! • Start right from the outset • If you can’t think of how to market your product, • what does that tell you about your product?

28. Free Version as Marketing Tool Usefulness Free Version Pay Version

29. Free Version as Marketing Tool Usefulness No Viral Marketing Free Version Pay Version

30. Free Version as Marketing Tool Usefulness Poor Sales! Free Version Pay Version

31. Monetization Strategies Rich Client Web Advertising High volume Bootstrapping strategy is essential Subscription Example: UserVoice.com • Free + Premium Version • One of the best • Time trial • Good when you can’t separate premium features What about a donation model? Does it work?

32. Get Involved in the Community • Find out where the influential people • Start contributing to forums NOW • You’ll get useful information (e.g., timing) • Be helpful and harmless • Establish a reputation • A blog from a respected person can be worth a million ads This is the best form of marketing & advertising. And it’s free!

33. More ways to Market • Establish business relationships • Can you offer anything to anyone else? • Freebies for influential people or User Groups • If your audience is developers, target MVPs • Try lots of things • Test; don’t speculate

34. Advertising • Know your audience • Don’t be afraid to haggle

35. Advertising • Experiment • Google AdWords is almost free to test • But it might be ineffective • What sites will your audience visit? • Test CTRs • Change one thing at a time

36. Influential People

39. .31% .30% .08% .06% Actual Click-Through Rates

40. .45%

41. Where are we?

42. What equipment do you need?

43. The Single-Responsibility Principle(But not as you know it) • Release V1 within a few months • Don’t aim for perfection • Discard “best practices” that slow you down • Wait until V1 succeeds – then retrofit DI / TDD / 235 layer architecture Be first to market with the minimumfeature set that defines your product

44. Don’t Overengineer! Development Cost (Long Term) Underengineering Overengineering Design Complexity

45. Keep your Code Reasonably Clean Development Cost Code Cleanliness

46. Design Essentials • Keep the UI simple & clean • What are the traps? • Focus the UI around your main use cases • People will give your product only a brief audition • Make your program self-updating from Day 1

47. Deployment How much harm can it do?

48. Quite a lot! Hijack file associations Muck with your registry Slow down Windows startup Install a Service to check for updates Install an annoying tray icon Update “shared” components Pop up reminders to register Install drivers, codecs, browser plug-ins, weird fonts Demand a restart Your machine will never be quite the same again...

49. Offer a Standalone Executable! Standalone executable downloads favoured2:1

50. What if users don’t trust you? There’s a simple solution