Ian Landsman is Starting From Scratch, September 10, 2006:
Have Any Questions for Me?
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’ve been so busy this summer that I’ve really fallen off in my blogging. I suppose it happens to all bloggers, but I really want to kick things back in motion. Since I’ve also done a poor job keeping up with my feeds I’m a bit short on general blogging fodder so I thought instead it might be interesting to fields questions from readers. So if you have any questions for me please post them here. I’ll then pick a few and respond via a dedicated post. I’ll also try and answer everyone’s questions in the comments if I don’t do a post on the question.
Note, I won’t be responding below until after I choose a few questions to respond to towards the end of the week.
I’m open ended on the questions so whatever you’ve got. Business, HelpSpot, other, it’s all on the table.
Discussion
OK, here's a good question. Say you're a programmer with a particular idea - what are the most effective ways that you know of to research and evaluate the market before you jump in? Both qualitatively and quantitatively?
Created by lee on 09.11.2006 2:19 am
Oh man, where to begin? 
I'd love to hear more about your development environment. I'm not sure why but I'm always fascinated to learn how others are doing things.
Have you ever "run out of steam" midway into a project, e.g. lost interest, decided the project idea wouldn't ever be successful, etc. If so, how do you deal with it?
That's probably enough for a start.
Created by ChrisC on 09.11.2006 8:55 am
HelpSpot is run on your own server software, not the software as a service model that a lot of us work on.
I'd love to know a bit about the final stages of releasing a new version. How do you make sure each new version doesn't introduce a new bug? How do you make sure that upgrading from v1.23 goes as smooth as upgrading from v1.01? etc.
Created by Ben Richardson on 09.11.2006 9:03 am
You mentioned a while back about a product idea you had kicking around outside of HelpSpot. Any news on this front?
Created by Kris on 09.11.2006 10:24 am
I'd be interested to hear more about the hidden aspects of running a software business, i.e. tasks outside of HelpSpot product development, particularly those that require software. For example, how do you keep track of and/or analyze customers, pricing, marketing, site traffic, accounting, billing, etc. Have you had to build back-end systems yourself? Have you used open-source or other third-party software? Or online services? In other words, what's your business stack? I'm a developer and feel like I have a pretty good handle on what it would take to build a sellable application, but am less familiar with the behind-the-scenes of a micro ISV. I'd enjoy a glimpse into how you allocate time and select software to run the business.
Created by Rich on 09.11.2006 4:01 pm
When's the next revision of HS getting released?
Created by John P. Speno on 09.11.2006 4:16 pm
I have two questions for you:
A lot of people in the micro-ISV world (including Eric Sink) tend to push the idea of targeting a vertical niche market. But in my view, HelpSpot is a fairly horizontal product, yet you seem to be quite successful with it. When you were planning things out, did you do a lot of research to find some unique features/aspects that would uniquely position HelpSpot in such a crowded market?
Second, I understand that you quit your dayjob to develop HelpSpot full time. I imagine there was always the possibility that it wouldn't sell. At what point did you feel confident enough that HelpSpot would find a market to leave your job?
Thanks!
Created by Jesse on 09.11.2006 5:54 pm
How's Tyler doing? Is his first word going to be "helpspot"? How is running a home-based business with a baby working out?
Created by Phil on 09.11.2006 10:14 pm
I'd like to know more about the next version of HelpSpot. When is it due, what's going to be in it, etc.
Created by Mark Richards on 09.12.2006 5:30 pm
Hi Ian,
I'd love to hear more about how you built your templating engine. I was very impressed with how easy it was to template your software, so any information you'd like to share on that would be greatly appreciated!
Regards,
Steph
Created by Stephane Grenier on 09.13.2006 12:59 pm
Most of your support is probably via email and through your helpdesk system. But I notice that you provide a phone contact as well. Do you get a lot of calls asking for support? How do you deal with all the requests being a 1-man shop?
Thanks!
Created by Jake Richmond on 09.15.2006 7:40 pm