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Ian Landsman's Weblog v2.0

Starting from Scratch

Blog Blazers Book Giveaway!Yesterday

HelpSpot customer and fellow MicroISV Stephane Grenier just released his work of love, Blog Blazers. The book is a series of interviews Stephane conducted with 40 popular bloggers. I’m honored to be one of the bloggers, though there’s a lot more talented bloggers than myself in the book including the likes of Seth Godin, Eric Sink, Jeff Atwood, etc.

One of the keys to my success if not the primary key has been this blog. While I don’t write as much as I used to, the early years of UserScape and it’s success were almost completely dependent on this blog and the traffic it generated. Without this blog I’d almost certainly be working “For the Man”, filed away in some cubical farm.

While blogs are no longer “new” as they were when I started, I still think they’re a key component to any startups business, especially a MicroISV. Now, one problem with blogs is that it’s often hard to find concise advice on how to blog well. Even just figuring out where to start looking for advice is difficult. Sure there’s lots of “how to blog” links in Google, but few get into the subtle details that make a truly successful blogger. Blog Blazers does just that. If you’re starting out in blogging or want to grow your blogging presence this book is where to start.

Now, Stephane has been kind enough to

Advice for PeldiNovember 14

One of the few blogs I create time to read regularly these days is the Balsamiq Blog by Peldi Guilizzoni. He’s a MicroISV, his first product is the really cool Balsamiq Mockups application which lets you build software mockups quick, easy, and in a fanciful fashion that keeps the focus on UI. So instead of deciding between Aquamarine and Bondi Blue for that button you can figure out if the button should be there at all.

Today Peldi had a post every MicroISV dreams of, reaching $100,000 in sales. It’s a good read and I suggest you read it before you read the rest of my post.

So in his post he has a few questions and observations. Since his experience seems to mirror mine very very closely (leaving his job, revenue growth, B2B, fantastic wife that’s a key part of the company) I thought I’d post my perspective on some of his questions/comments being 3 years farther down the road than him. So Peldi here’s some notes, they may or may not be very helpful

Congrats on the success!

Product Versions
I think you’ve made a great move having the Jira and Confluence versions. I bet they pay off handsomely over time as those customers are likely to upgrade at a high percentage in the fu

Are you Hiring? I’ve Got Your ManOctober 29

My friend Kevin Dangoor recently lost his position at a technology company in Michigan. He’s looking for new opportunities that can make use of both his project management and development skills. If you’re in the Python community you might already know Kevin from the popular TurboGears framework he created. If you or someone you know is hiring please look him up. You can get more details on his background and his contact information here:

http://www.blueskyonmars.com/2008/10/29/in-the-market-for-a-job/

Another Way Your Product May Benefit in a DownturnOctober 23

Nightly news is mostly doom and gloom these days, but it doesn’t have to be this way for some of us ISV’s. If you’ve been smart (lucky?) enough to position your product mid market these could turn out to be boom times for you.

Fear and/or true financial need is almost certainly going to affect business and consumer software spending. However, there are some bits of software that companies (and to a lesser extent consumers) can’t or won’t do without. If you sell a product like that you may have just hit the lottery. Your product is now “right priced”, “the cost effect solution”.

This is not about being cheapest. In fact I think the cheapest software could be hurt. Junk is junk. However, many people purchasing software are going to take a closer look at mid tier when they may have previously only been interested in premium.

Why Now is a Great Time to Start a Software CompanySeptember 29

Is a depression a good time to start a software business? Of course I hope things in the financial system don’t get to that level, but even if things stabilize it’s obvious that there’s going to be a serious financial impact for some time.

As I’ve been thinking about this it’s struck me that this could be a great time to start a business, especially a MicroISV or small partnership. Here’s why:

1. The large or medium software companies are likely to feel an impact from the downturn. They have the most money out in advertising, payroll, etc. Some may not make it at all, others will certainly be cutting back to try to limit expenses. They’re likely to cut in places MicroISV’s can excel such as customer service.

2. #1 gives you a chance to get into an existing strong niche where the other competitors may have their guard down and generally be more focused on staying in business than providing great service and products. However, the niche itself still has the upside of these companies prior advertising and marketing. So customers are out there still needing this service which is the type of need that MicroISV’s can never create on their own.

3. Yes, customers will still need software. We’ll, certain types of software anyway. I wouldn’t go near consumer software with a 10 foot pole. Businesses, however, still need to run. And if anything they’ll be looking to run more efficiently than ever. If you can create a produc