Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, December 3, 2007:
Belated Three Year Blogiversary
If you're in the market for a powerful and user friendly Help Desk solution, please take a look at my company's flagship product HelpSpot.
I caught Keith’s post today on his blogs third anniversary and it made me realize that last October was my 3rd year anniversary. I actually had to go back and look to be sure it was 3 years because it didn’t seem possible that it’s been that long. It’s wild that I blogged for an entire year before HelpSpot was even launched.
Here’s hoping the new three are as good as the first three!
Discussion
You're one of the few people from that era that is still around and kicking. Lots of the regulars from the JoS forums are long-gone... which are also the core of the people that I talked with getting things online. Odd to see so many 404's out there.
And thanks for the mention.
Created by Keith Casey on 12.04.2007 9:18 am
Yeah, not many old timers around here any more. I guess it's survival of the fittest. Cheers!
Created by Ian on 12.04.2007 9:28 am
Maybe it's just not that easy to be successful, which is a compliment to those who've managed to survive.
I don't think there are that many products out there that businesses are willing to pay for, and for those that are, how much competition is there?
I'm a little short on product ideas right now. Do you guys have any? Execution is important, but without a viable product idea you're not going to attract much interest.
Everybody always thinks of the real estate industry, but it seems pretty saturated (and with the downturn spending should decrease).
Vertical project management solutions also seem to come up frequently, but this is also a limited market.
Created by Q on 12.04.2007 7:13 pm
Saying there's too much competition is just a cop out. Help desk software is as competitive as it gets. It's all a matter of controlling your expectations (I expect to make a living, not be Bill Gates) and executing.
Actually I sort of like real estate. Yes, on the consumer end you'll have the downturn, but on the agent end they'll be looking at everything which gives them an edge or saves them money.
Created by Ian on 12.04.2007 8:54 pm
But that's why your market choice was so perfect.
1) Despite all the competition, it's without a single, dominant player
2) It's a technical market so users are comfortable downloading and installing the software, and comfortable with the concept of software (seat) licensing and support agreements
3) Everyone needs this or equivalent software, because everyone in this market needs to track technical issues--it's almost an essential part of business infrastructure
4) It's general enough that everyone needs it, but not so general that it's been completely taken over by Microsoft, for example, or open source (basically point #1 again)
5) The users, being technical, are online and thus within reach of a small business (i.e., no need for huge offline advertising efforts)
It's perfect. And it's tough to think of other products and markets so perfectly suited to Web distribution by a small business. Everybody needs project management, but everybody's doing that, both commercial and open source. Everybody needs contact management, but it's the same as project management, and needs more integration with e-mail systems to be successful. MS does project management, that other company does it and got written up in a ton of magazines and offers it for free, etc.
Realtors aren't in our industry and can run their businesses without software, so they don't have the same compelling need that companies have for help desk software. Also, they must be immune to all the product pitches by now, because everybody always talks about selling to realtors (me included).
I think it's a harder sell to convince them to spend money to save money, versus the help desk market where everybody just needs it if they're going to solve technical problems of any kind (in other words, they already know they need help desk software, it just comes down to which software to purchase or download).
Just sort of stuck right now. I'm not worried about expectations, and would be happy to have a success like HelpSpot!
Created by Q on 12.04.2007 9:25 pm
Hey, you must have been reading some of my early blog posts 
I agree with you generally, but every market seems impossible until you jump in. Of course sometimes it really is!
You really can't jump in against a dominant player (MS in word processors, etc). However, I wouldn't be so easily dissuaded in other categories you mention. Sure 37sigs gets tons of press, they're still no where near dominant in any of their categories. In fact if you created a downloadable product in several of their categories you could play off them on a major weakness in their offering (that you have to host with them).
Even in help desk software most of my customers at this point have never heard of 37sigs. They're just busy people trying to run a help desk more efficiently. Unlike us they don't read blogs all day. In fact almost all the people I talk to don't know what RSS is. I thought it was a huge feature to add it in HelpSpot, but almost nobody uses it.
Your only concern needs to be a plan on how to get in front of customers. In HelpSpots case I blogged a ton and stayed focus on getting links from anyone and everyone so I could rank high for searches. That was pretty much the key. If you can get in front of customers you're going to win business.
There's a few markets I've researched heavily lately with only moderate success that I think could use better tools (of course you still have to get them in front of me for me to use them).
* Gallery software. It all sucks. Just tonight after over a month of searching I found smugmug which is pretty good. I'll probably pay the $150/year for it, but I would much rather have it on my own server. All the self hosted galleries are terrible though, very bloated, no nice ajax loading of images, etc.
* Bug tracking software. I know everyone builds it, but it's all still bad. I finally settled on FogBugz which is good, but I've never been able to get it to install on PHP so I had to use their hosted version. I don't like hosted software!! Also it's got way too much in it. I want a quick way to add bugs, release notes and that's about it. Oh and I want it to install easily unlike all the ones I tried. About half I never could get installed. Software by dorks for dorks, but even in bug trackers people want an easy to use experience.
Created by Ian on 12.04.2007 9:43 pm
Ian,
Thanks for turning all my pathetic whinery into something constructive.
You make some great points. I've been in technology for a while and often feel like I can't get the pulse of buyers and am frequently amazed by some of the success stories ("People are buying THAT?").
Bug tracker? Arg! You're probably right, though.
Food for thought--thanks.
Created by Q on 12.04.2007 10:23 pm