Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, July 11, 2007:
Another One Bites the Dust
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Looks like we lost Alex Williams, he’s off to get a ..... job. You may remember I was wondering what he was up to a few months back. We never found out :-(
For some reason this news has me a bit reflective. A few years ago when I was starting UserScape there were a bunch of other MicroISV’s starting up. There were blogs all over about it, so many people getting into it. The fact is that I don’t think any of them are still around at least not the ones I followed. Can I really be the last man standing? Where the heck is everyone?
I guess this goes to show you that starting a MicroISV is still starting a business. It still takes incredible persistence. The barrier to entry may be lower, but only a small percentage actually make it the entire way.
I’m not sure how I missed everyone falling off, but as I look at my RSS reader I realize there’s almost nobody in there from back in the beginning. Now that I think about it, this may be part of the reason blogging isn’t as fun for me as it used to be. There was more of an almost team effort feel to it back then. Everyone posting and trying to build up something together, commenting on each others work.
I’d love to get some of that back. Maybe I’m just not hanging out in the right circles?
Discussion
Alex had to quit because he wasn't making any money. Look at those figures. A guy can't live on that. It's a shame he didn't make it, but perhaps after recharging his batteries at a W2 job he'll be back at it.
I'm sorry to hear that you've lost the feeling of camaraderie in the ISV blogosphere. I promise that if I ever manage to resist the temptation of these fat consulting dollars and start on product dev instead, I'll be sure to keep you posted of my weekly progress. 
Created by Christopher Hawkins on 07.11.2007 5:29 pm
Yeah, those numbers were pretty sad. However, he didn't even get to the part where he makes a product. Amazing how many seem to not make it that far. Hey, weren't you working on a product 
Created by Ian on 07.11.2007 5:37 pm
Hey, we at Gurock Software are still alive and kicking. 
Jon (viemu), Andrey (Antair) and Gavin (Micro ISV Digest etc), too as it looks like.
Created by Dennis on 07.11.2007 6:24 pm
Alex's situation is a good example of why I think you should work on a product before quitting your job (or just save up, quit, and work only on your product idea). Consulting/Freelance at first glance may seem like a closer step to "being your own boss", but I think it's worse then a normal job in a lot of ways (your "boss" is usually not as nice, and doesn't care about you), and you feel more burned out then doing a 9-5.
I'm not sure if I'm one of the mISV blogs you are talking about or not, since I recently announced the death of ChimSoft, but I don't think there are any less people trying to start mISV's these days, it's just that blogging about your experience was more of a fad a few years ago. To me, there are so many new fly by night business ideas with blogs out there now that it's hard to gain any insight or find anything interesting there. That lack of viewership probably results in less blogs.
Also it's really hard to tell who is actually doing well or not. The blogs that are really honest and share the fact they are not making a lot of money (or share the figures when they are) are a lot more interesting to me then those that make it sound like they are doing great, but don't give us any realistic indication of what great means.
Created by Phil on 07.11.2007 7:01 pm
"Hey, weren't you working on a product"
Yes, I was. But one of my new year's resolutions was to STOP working on product, as it was cutting into billable consulting time too much.
I have to admit, I am not driven to create product just for the creative challenge, like some folks are. If I am to be completely honest with myself, I'm not sure I really WANT to create a product at all. I am driven to create product because of the profit motive.
However, I have so much bespoke work going on, and the margins are so incredible, that for now I am loathe to do anything that interrupts the flow of consulting dollars into my pocket. Plus, all I ever really wanted was to build one of those big huge consulting firms.
I'm sure my priorities will change as soon as I get sick of consulting and feel like scaling back to create time for a product. But for now, it's full steam ahead on the custom gravy train.
Created by Christopher Hawkins on 07.11.2007 7:28 pm
I started around the same time as yourself and am still going strong.
I don't tend to make many comments on the BoS forum and so I am sure you never noticed I started at the same time. I have now increased revenue to the point of making as much as a day job. Unlike a day job there is still potential to increase revenue much higher!
I find that following one man shops like yourself helps to keep my motivation high and inspire me to work those extra few hours each week that make all the difference over the long run. Keep up the good work and remember to keep posting about the microISV side of things!
Phil Wright
http://www.ComponentFactory.com
Created by Phil Wright on 07.11.2007 8:44 pm
Thanks guys, perhaps my post was done in a moment of despair!
I actually read all of your blogs so I'm not totally off the grid. Maybe it's just that we're all growing up sort to speak. Everyone who's posted here is past the "struggling to figure out how to do this" phase. Maybe I'm just reminiscing about the old days (2 years ago ).
Will do Phil, I have to get back on that horse. Once the v2 beta is out I'm hoping to have some more time to write some real posts.
Created by Ian on 07.11.2007 9:36 pm
"Will do Phil, I have to get back on that horse. Once the v2 beta is out I'm hoping to have some more time to write some real posts."
I wasn't criticizing your blogging Ian! Really I was saying that many of the newbie ISV blogs out there are hard to get into these days.
Created by Phil on 07.11.2007 10:27 pm
Ah thanks. Well I am criticizing my blogging . I really need to get some meaty stuff up here. Hopefully I'll have time for that soon.
Created by Ian on 07.11.2007 10:30 pm
Thanks for sending all this extra traffic to my blog, Ian
Reality is what it is.
You guys all seem to have much more experience than I do so I appreciate your comments.
Created by Alex Williams on 07.12.2007 1:08 am
Sorry to hear about Alex. Is he no longer going to work on his product?
I think there are a couple of additional lessons here.
First, I think it's important to point out that although consulting can surely pay some bills, it's still too much like a day job, and, as Phil points out, is usually worse than having a day job. As far as I know, there is still no pay back like a good software product. Consulting clients are very fickle and will walk across the street for a nickel.
Second, when a person decides to start a company, they have to decide whether they are a product with a company behind it or if they are a software company that produces products. I find the first very risky. If the product doesn't work what then? The latter means that you can keep introducing products until something takes off.
Third, persistence is the true key. Staying at your product until it crosses the adoption threshold is critical. Sometimes it just takes longer than others and it's not critically important that you release under 30 days. As long as you are making progress of some kind every week.
Finally, if a person is fortunate enough to be able to save six months worth of salary (or more?), quit their day job and get a product to adoption within that six months then I would say that person is very special (the good kind of special). Most Joes have to develop their product after they get done with their day jobs.
Created by Roger Farley on 07.12.2007 7:54 am
How do, I'm still around!
CaseDetective is still out there, being worked on, and selling the occaisional copy, but I did have to go back to consulting to be able to pay the mortgage etc.
I still keep tabs on various blogs, even though I purged out many once I hit 273+ feeds. You just can't get anything done if you spend 2 hours a day reading blogs!
Hopefully people like you Ian will keep me in touch with what's going on in the MicroISV and BoS world.
Created by Ian M. Jones on 07.12.2007 8:44 am
So Alex what was the product? I still want to know.
Good points Roger. I was one of those lucky folks who was able to save up and work full time for 6 months on building my product. It does indeed make it much easier, though I think it also makes it much more stressful.
Yes, I know you're still around Ian . Looking forward to seeing how CD2 comes out, sounds interesting, though doing a total rewrite sounds painful
Created by Ian on 07.12.2007 9:12 am
Hi Ian,
I'm still around and pushing hard. It's just like you said, it's easy to get in but it's hard to stay in. It takes a lot of perseverance to make it. You really have to want it!
Regards,
Steph
Created by Stephane Grenier on 07.12.2007 10:01 am
Hi Ian,
I also miss the microISV explosion/excitement of 2005. I think there were 3 things that happened since then that has soured it for me.
1) The JOS BoS forum got so crowded that I could no longer particpiate (every post got 10 replies within 1 minute - kind hard to keep up!), so I stopped meeting people who were getting started. I eventually just stopped visiting the forum.
2) Startups starting getting funding again. All the blog posts I see about small software companies these days are about funded companies. There is a community out there, but they all live in Cali and have 10 million dollars to get themselves started.
3) Lack of success stories. Of all the microISV blogs I followed (1 guy, no funding), UserScape and Gliffy are the only company that can support it's founders! (The Gliffy guys don't blog too much.)
I'm still kicking and screaming. Maybe one day we'll be able to add Ataraxis Software to the list of "supporting their founder".
Created by Michael Sica on 07.15.2007 4:38 pm
Hey, some of us are still around.
Of course, I went down the consulting path almost exclusively for a while and let one product languish while the rest were on the drawing board. In the last 90 days, I've refocused and have one product launching in two weeks and another pretty quickly after. There's a third on the drawing board but that will take quite a bit more time.
Created by Keith Casey on 07.16.2007 8:21 am
And I dropped out of BoS (mostly) due to the sheer number of "Plz look at my site!" posts... too much noise, not enough signal and my work has been flying.
Created by Keith Casey on 07.16.2007 8:22 am
Yeah BoS is dead. I wouldn't mind having an invite only forum for "the crew", but I don't know if we could get critical mass.
Looking forward to seeing this product Keith. I'm always impressed with how well you seem to be doing with dotproject. I never thought it had that big a base, guess I was wrong!
Created by Ian on 07.16.2007 11:06 am