Software Moguls
Discussion
Right then fellas,
I am in career flux, currently reading 'What color [sic] is your parachute?' in the vain hope that there is life after this place.
Of those of you who have started software companies (of which I imagine there are a few on here!) from what background did you come?
Were you in software sales and bought in technical staff to fulfill your selling ability or were you a technical person who saw a gap and honed your selling skills or something completely different?
Its an area I quite fancy but dont know if I could pull the entire concept of self employment off you see.
I am in career flux, currently reading 'What color [sic] is your parachute?' in the vain hope that there is life after this place.
Of those of you who have started software companies (of which I imagine there are a few on here!) from what background did you come?
Were you in software sales and bought in technical staff to fulfill your selling ability or were you a technical person who saw a gap and honed your selling skills or something completely different?
Its an area I quite fancy but dont know if I could pull the entire concept of self employment off you see.
OK...
Background of Comp Sci at university. Worked for 3 years for a startup run by one of the senior staff at the university, who had also been at CalTech for a few years, trying to do a Scottish version of an early-80s silicon valley company (silicon in those days, not software). Work was in Silicon Compilers and mask prep software, in a high level C-like language.
Good learning experience of startup mentality (and of not getting paid occasionally). Development and trade show support work.
Moved to another European startup trying to do the same thing on a bigger scale. Wonderful learning experience of how not to do it. Lots of money, hire lots of good people, put them in a room with no requirements or management and expect a product to come out
. All Unix/C work.
Went and worked for Sun for 18 months in a pre-sales role. Great experience for anyone in an engineering role to get out in front of customers and get involved in sales. Learned a lot more Unix/admin stuff too.
Moved to a Sun clone startup in the UK. Another learning experience of how not to do it. MD and FD were on bonuses for profit, when the startup should have been driving lots of units out, even at a loss, to secure some market share and credibility. Result: almost no sales, but good margins!
Joined another startup as sole tech with 3 others. Did everything from design/architecture/coding/testing/shipping/sales support/marketing support. Managed to get myself off the main dveelopment side and looking at future architectures and technology. Company grew from 4 people to 250+ before it was sold in 2000.
Worked for a dot-com-crash company for four years before it finally went under too. Win some, lose some.
In all that I have never been for an interview; every move has been through existing contacts, and I have to say a bit of luck; right place, right people at the right time.
Now part of a small (2 people) company doing consulting and fixed-price contracts. We'd like to start doing some product work and build some value, but don't have the right ideas/funding at the moment.
The only constant in all of those was that there was a financial risk to those who eventually made the benefit, so having a nest egg to fall back on if it all goes tits up, or even just to keep going through the slow times, is a necessity.
Biggest problem with every startup I've been in has been sales - people, strategies, numbers, etc. Unless you have reasonable startup capital, very low overheads or a very short sales cycle you're in trouble.
Don't know if this is useful - feel free to PM me if you want.
Background of Comp Sci at university. Worked for 3 years for a startup run by one of the senior staff at the university, who had also been at CalTech for a few years, trying to do a Scottish version of an early-80s silicon valley company (silicon in those days, not software). Work was in Silicon Compilers and mask prep software, in a high level C-like language.
Good learning experience of startup mentality (and of not getting paid occasionally). Development and trade show support work.
Moved to another European startup trying to do the same thing on a bigger scale. Wonderful learning experience of how not to do it. Lots of money, hire lots of good people, put them in a room with no requirements or management and expect a product to come out
. All Unix/C work. Went and worked for Sun for 18 months in a pre-sales role. Great experience for anyone in an engineering role to get out in front of customers and get involved in sales. Learned a lot more Unix/admin stuff too.
Moved to a Sun clone startup in the UK. Another learning experience of how not to do it. MD and FD were on bonuses for profit, when the startup should have been driving lots of units out, even at a loss, to secure some market share and credibility. Result: almost no sales, but good margins!
Joined another startup as sole tech with 3 others. Did everything from design/architecture/coding/testing/shipping/sales support/marketing support. Managed to get myself off the main dveelopment side and looking at future architectures and technology. Company grew from 4 people to 250+ before it was sold in 2000.
Worked for a dot-com-crash company for four years before it finally went under too. Win some, lose some.
In all that I have never been for an interview; every move has been through existing contacts, and I have to say a bit of luck; right place, right people at the right time.
Now part of a small (2 people) company doing consulting and fixed-price contracts. We'd like to start doing some product work and build some value, but don't have the right ideas/funding at the moment.
The only constant in all of those was that there was a financial risk to those who eventually made the benefit, so having a nest egg to fall back on if it all goes tits up, or even just to keep going through the slow times, is a necessity.
Biggest problem with every startup I've been in has been sales - people, strategies, numbers, etc. Unless you have reasonable startup capital, very low overheads or a very short sales cycle you're in trouble.
Don't know if this is useful - feel free to PM me if you want.
Plotloss said:
Right then fellas,
I am in career flux, currently reading 'What color [sic] is your parachute?' in the vain hope that there is life after this place.
Of those of you who have started software companies (of which I imagine there are a few on here!) from what background did you come?
Were you in software sales and bought in technical staff to fulfill your selling ability or were you a technical person who saw a gap and honed your selling skills or something completely different?
Its an area I quite fancy but dont know if I could pull the entire concept of self employment off you see.
How difficult it is to sell software will depend on the type, as supplying software that a business would depend on must be more difficult than small / utility software due to getting the customers confidence. I say this from the point of view of a one man band.
If the first, then to be honest I think it is down to knowing people in the first place in order to get established in the market. Of course it must be possible to start from nothing, just more difficult. If reputation can be built up by doing hardware / software support and then extended into bespoke software - always another route?
There is a local company that create "timesheet" software, large installations for councils. I'm guessing that the founder had a contact in the local council and that was how it was initially created and later allowing routes to other councils, on the "it works for them so it must be ok for us" line of thought.
PS : If you can sell bespoke databases I can create them
I originally trained as a solicitor. Tried looking for a legal training contract after all my exams but got rejected. Only when I changed my name on my CV from an Asian sounding one to an English name did I start getting interviews.
So around 1998 I thought I'd start selling educational products and software online, even though I hardly knew anything about computers. Went to a trade show up North where one of the exhibitors was having a prize draw on their stand. Handed over my business card and entered the draw.
Guess what! I won £000's of microsoft software.
I then learnt how to use it and got involved in the Dot.com industry. Still doing it now.
Moneys crap in the short term, but if you create the right product you could have a company that's worth a lot of money.
So around 1998 I thought I'd start selling educational products and software online, even though I hardly knew anything about computers. Went to a trade show up North where one of the exhibitors was having a prize draw on their stand. Handed over my business card and entered the draw.
Guess what! I won £000's of microsoft software.
I then learnt how to use it and got involved in the Dot.com industry. Still doing it now.
Moneys crap in the short term, but if you create the right product you could have a company that's worth a lot of money.
I'm in Marketing & Sales for a small software company and I have to agree with the importance of having existing contacts. The company I'm with was founded by one large contract which the MD got through an ex colleague. The company would have fallen on its arse within 6 months if this contract wasn't secured as it brought in enough revenue to pay for development and helped gain a foothold in the marketplace as a reputable firm.
What line of software/market are you aiming for?
What line of software/market are you aiming for?
Absolutely no plans at the moment, just feel like I am slowly dying and achieving nothing at all here.
I've architected solutions in just about every vertical market the largest being a 60,000 concurrent worldwide user audience timber production ERP system. Sort of like a bespoke SAP for the company it was being written for.
I can create just about anything from spec in just about any native language on any platform the USP being time to market. The tool I am skilled in allows massive ROI gains over traditional coding methods.
Was looking to leverage this primarily.
I've architected solutions in just about every vertical market the largest being a 60,000 concurrent worldwide user audience timber production ERP system. Sort of like a bespoke SAP for the company it was being written for.
I can create just about anything from spec in just about any native language on any platform the USP being time to market. The tool I am skilled in allows massive ROI gains over traditional coding methods.
Was looking to leverage this primarily.
RichardD said:
There is a local company that create "timesheet" software, large installations for councils. I'm guessing that the founder had a contact in the local council and that was how it was initially created and later allowing routes to other councils, on the "it works for them so it must be ok for us" line of thought.
Selling in to local authorities is a complete nightmare, as they're only allowed to buy from an "approved" list of companies.
One way in is to go into partnership with another company that's already on the list - that's what we've had to do before now. Stings a bit, as the partner company is basically making money for nothing on the back of your product. All you need them for is the "in" to the council...
Luck..right place, right time, good team and did I mention a lot of luck?
There are a couple of traditional ways to do this..
1) Use consultancy to pay for product development, we did this in the 90's with some of us on good contracts to pay for a development team. Once the development side took off we all stoped contracting and came into the business proper.
2) Use contacts to get a small bit of work, do it well, get more, do it well get more, etc, etc
Get networking
D
There are a couple of traditional ways to do this..
1) Use consultancy to pay for product development, we did this in the 90's with some of us on good contracts to pay for a development team. Once the development side took off we all stoped contracting and came into the business proper.
2) Use contacts to get a small bit of work, do it well, get more, do it well get more, etc, etc
Get networking
D
davidd said:
Of course you could always..
Have a decent idea
Develop a protype
Write a stunning business plan
Get a shed load of investment
Piss it up the wall
D
Now thats more like it
Cheers for the responses chaps.
So its find a customer and the product will take care of itself it seems?
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