I recently attended Business of Software in Boston, and at the conclusion of the event Paul Kenny asked everyone to make a tangible commitment to act on something they had learnt during the conference.
My commitment was to free up my time so I could ready v1.0 of my new product for launch.
Realising this was going to be near impossible while still in fulltime employment, I decided that I would hand in my resignation upon returning to Sydney. And now, after an incredible 7 year run working with some of the most talented and generous people I’ve ever met, my time with FlexiGroup Ltd will today come to an end.
During those 7 years, I’ve worked as a Developer, shifted into a Release Engineering role and finally onto leadership of the DevOps Team.
However during the last few months, my thoughts and energies have progressively drifted towards my startup. Developing ‘ReadyRoll‘ has occupied nearly all of my time outside work for the better part of the last year but I’ve found it incredibly enjoyable. Corporate work usually involves balancing a number of different workloads, so being able to lavish the design of a singular piece of software is something of a luxury.
ReadyRoll will be the my first product since ‘StyleMaker’, a CSS authoring tool that I created way back in 1997 as a teen. It was something I made for a school assignment, but it ended up being more than that when I decided to distribute it as shareware. I can still remember the rush of my first few sales and seeing my software on the front page of sites like TUCOWS and Download.com.
Though I did manage to achieve “ramen profitability“, it didn’t work out in the end but I learnt a lot about things like how much hard graft and perseverance actually goes into creating things of real value. And how listening to customers and being open and honest in your dealings is key to long-term prosperity in business (thanks to Jason Cohen for reminding me of this). Failure to deliver on these things can be a great teacher.
So in a way this move is a continuation of my “geek origin” story. In the years since my early efforts, I’ve been blessed to have had the opportunity to hone my skills under the guidance of some fabulous mentors. And now I get to do the indie software developer thing all over again.
With trepidation and excitement in equal amounts, today I begin to take those first few tentative steps from “Wannapreneur” towards “Fledgling Startup Founder”. Who knows what happens next.
Every Fall for the last three years I’ve made a pilgrimage to absorb wisdom face-to-face from software greats like Seth Godin, Joel Spolsky, and Eric Ries at the Business of Software (BoS) conference.
It’s an expensive conference, but it’s worth every penny to get the latest, greatest insights from movers and shakers who understand both business and technology, and whose ideas are shaping the future of software entrepreneurship. And the opportunity to mingle with like-minded entrepreneurs is priceless!
BoS also has a Lightning Talk competition – short, fast-paced talks that consist of 15 slides, set to auto-advance every 30 seconds. Giving a Lightning Talk is not for the faint of heart. This year, prospective speakers were required to submit audition videos. Those selected as finalists are invited to give their talks at the conference itself, where the audience votes to determine the “Best Lightning Talk” for the year.
I've been nudging my colleague Justin Goeres from JKI for years to come along and he could never swing it. This year though, he decided to 'earn' his way by submitting a Lightning Talk (also he likes to do this sort of crazy stuff). So he put together a video and sent it along. And in the face of stiff competition, he got accepted to speak!
So this October, both Justin and I trekked to Boston to attend Business of Software 2011. Like the last two years, the conference was incredible! For the first two days, we were awed by speakers like Dr. Clayton Christensen, the Harvard professor who wrote The Innovator’s Dilemma and other award winning books. Praxeology expert Rory Sutherland blew us away with his insights applying human behavioral science and economics to business situations. Dharmesh Shah, Hubspotfounder and author of Inbound Marketing, showed us in detail how to build a bad-ass software business. Jason Cohen, author of popular blog A Smart Bear, rocked the house with his insights on Naked Business: How Honesty Makes Money. (Justin’s and my detailed notes for the sessions are online here).
[Great notes by the way, you should take a look - Mark Littlewood]
The Lightning Talk competition happened towards the end of the second day. This year there were five talks, all by really smart people who can present really really well:
All of the talks were outstanding - which makes it even more of an accomplishment that the BoS audience voted Justin’s talk the winner of the contest! As he introduced the speaker after Justin, Conference Organizer and emcee Mark Littlewood said Justin’s talk brought tears to his eyes. For the rest of the conference, I heard people asking each other, “What’s your Tuva?” In other words, what’s the quest that gives meaning and adventure to your life?
Just getting up in front of this crowd of software superstars and not embarrassing oneself is reason for celebration, but winning the competition is truly a special accomplishment! So from all of us here at JKI, a big congratulations goes out to Justin, who had the focus and courage to step out in search of his Tuva.
[We loved his talk too and can't wait to get them back from the editing suite so we can share them! Thanks Lisa].
"My BoS commitment was to free myself up so I could dedicate as much time and energy to building my company and getting v1.0 of my flagship product ready for launch. Realising this was going to be near impossible while working a fulltime job, I made a commitment at BoS to quit my job at F(redacted) (who graciously helped me get to BoS, knowing my ambitions) as soon as I got home. It was very tough but after an incredible 7 year run working with some of the most talented people I've ever met, my tenure will come to an end next week.
"What BoS has helped me with is to give me the courage to take this step, by introducing me to an incredibly supportive community of brilliant entrepreneurs. People who have been on a similar journey to me and are able to offer support or a friendly ear for the challenges I am facing. And it's very heartening, hearing about how others have similar challenges and being able to offer my own thoughts. Outside the walls of this conference there are very few other venues that offer this kind of experience. Plus the fact that the delegates are just so friggin smart! I have been endlessly namedropping to the guys on my team all the great people I met but the highlight would have to be meeting Peldi from balsamiq. I love his style and how he built his fantastic company on his own mettle is truly inspiring. Jason's talk was the highlight for me, and also his critique of my product pitch (which I already rabbited on about in my other survey response so I'll leave it at that :)). My only regret from the conference was not saying hello to Mark! But I could see he had his hands extremely full. Oh and that I forgot to collect that bottle of champagne ;) I would be delighted to blog about the experience above over my two BoS conferences :) I'd love to hear from someone who still does desktop software and how some of the benefits of SAAS companies might be applied here. For example, measuring customer engagement and subscription-based pricing models. See ya next year! Provided I don't drive myself broke over the next few months ;)"
Congrats D! Hope it works out for you and come and write some guest blogs for us on how it is going.
We will post all of the talks from Business of Software 2011 online over the next year. We will choose when we make them available. Of course we use them to post over the course of the year in order to help market the event next year (October 1-3rd in Boston since you asked).
This year, we will send a password to each of this year's Business of Software attendees that will give them exclusive access to all of the content before it is posted to the wider world. People that sign up to next year's event will also get a password that allows them to watch the videos at their convenience. The video is currently being edited and will not be online for at least two weeks. This should not be shared or used in blog posts until it has been released into the wild via the BoS blog.
Hope that sounds like a good plan?
Day 1 - Jeff Lawson
Jeff from Twilio talked about SaaS pricing models. You can base pricing on how much value you add, how much the service costs to provide, or how much your competitors charge. Ideally the combonation of the three should suggest a suitable point. He talked a lot about the benefits of consumerization - treating all your customers as if the are consumers, but equated this with SaaS more than I was comfortable with. Both of these are options a business can take, and are becoming more popular, but neither necessarily implies the other. Read the other summaries from day 1.
Day 2 - Josh Linkner
Josh talked about creativity. He had a model of how modern education was suppressing creativity in kids, although didn't actually demonstrate this meant adults were any less creative than they used to be. Interesting suggestion around RoleStorming = brainstorming whilst pretending to be a particular character, to free you up to suggest ideas without fear of personal criticism. Read the other summaries from day 2.
Day 3 - Paul Kenny
Paul Kenny talked about the importance of closing and how to do so in sales. People often fail to close because they are afraid to hear a no, and it makes for an awkward conversation. It also means you are less likely to make the sale - more sales are lost due to failing to ask the customer if they want to buy, than asking the customer if they want to buy too soon. When the customer does say no, this is a great opportunity to learn about what changes are needed to the product. Read the other summaries from Day 3.
I had a little catch up with Theo yesterday. I was kind of hoping he might be interested in using some of his sabbatical time to do some amazing things with the community aspects of the BoS website but as his blog details, he has got another itch he is focused on scratching. He did make some interesting commments to me, and in his blog about talks and conferences...
"I've thought about the nature of talks I've attended catering to the entrepreneurship world, and my overwhelming conclusion is I will not look back in 10 years time and think "If only I had attended more talks where people recapped their experiences, I would be in a far better place now".
"So no more entrepreneurship talks for me
"However, far more useful than listening to the content is the opportunity to mix and network with other like-minded people. This is one of the things that makes BoS so good, and I'm glad that Mark is really focusing on how to get the most from this aspect of the conference. As I attend more networking opportunities I become increasingly aware it's not just a social occasion to chat - making the most of it requires you to identify and focus on the other people in the room who are most relevant to you, and avoid getting caught up in conversations that are less relevant. I would be interested in hearing any advice on how to do this better.
"So maybe I'll skip the talks and just turn up for the networking sessions. And the free food."
My daughter has something to say on that subject - http://thebln.com/2011/10/the-childs-guide-to-business-of-software-networking-a-quick-tour-of-the-original-cambridge/ I think we might revisit that subject later in the year.
Warning, contains no bad language but there is much giggling.
You can see some ofthe pictures from the real interview here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/bos2011/
It would be fair to say that none of their worries were realised!
"Along with Zuly, I attended Business of Software (BoS2011) this year. This was my first time attending, and I have to say it was an intense 3 days; lots of learning and lots of networking. Although I had a good time and met a lot of really nice people, I’m glad to be back home programming. It was a bit draining for an introvert like myself.
"I held a workshop on Managing Software Projects with Subversion and Trac. I created a simple eBook for the workshop that walks you through step by step on setting up Subversion and Trac. You can download the Managing Software Projects with Subversion and Trac eBook for free."
Introvert or not, thanks for coming, taking part and volunteering to lead a workshop - it takes guts.
Thanks Beau.
He has taken the lead in the Alexis Ohanian #Suckless #BoS2011 challenge in a way I couldn't have hoped or imagined for...
"Hello Mark & Alexis,
I spoke with Brent Conway the principal of the Melrose Lincoln School - he was very excited and supportive - the project is underway! We will run the Lincoln School Computer Club on Friday Mornings at 7:30am before school for ~20 weeks.
We're offering the Programming Class to the Fifth Graders at the Lincoln School - we're going to start with 8 kids. See the attached document which went home in backpacks & as an email to request student applications. We're planning finalize the student list by November 15th - 2011.
I'm going to start the kids off with SCRATCH from MIT - http://scratch.mit.edu/ because it is easy for kids to see results and get engaged. Then move them over to simple iOS games iPhone & iPad.
We'll be highlighting our accomplishments at the Lincoln School STEM Night (Science Technology Engineering & Math) at the End of the Year Assembly.
Thanks very much for your support! I'll keep you updated on our progress.
Exclusive Opportunity for a small group of 5th Graders
When: Friday Mornings, starting December 2nd.
Time: 7:30 AM-8:10 AM
Where: Lincoln School Computer Lab
Mr. Clarke is a Lincoln Parent who is interested in providing a unique opportunity to a group of 5th grade students who are interested in learning about programming. The students will create a program and share it with their classmates at the end of the year, and will have a special display during our STEM night in the spring. If there are many students interested, the students will then be asked to submit a one page summary of “Why I want to learn about Computer Programming.” We will notify students & parents by Wednesday, November 9th of the status of the registration.
Please complete this registration form and return it to the Lincoln School office by Monday, November 7, 2011. Please know that by signing this registration form, you are agreeing to have your child here promptly at 7:30AM on Fridays.
A sample here from the first talk by Professor Clayton Christensen...
Image Credit: Betsy Weber. More BoS2011 photographs here.
- “Worry about the bottom when thinking about who can kill you.”
- “Pick a fight where the giant is more motivated to flee than fight you.”
- “The market to make something more affordable and simple is often times a bigger market.”
- “A business unit is not designed to evolve.”
- “The customer rarely buys what the company thinks it is selling him.” ~ Peter Drucker
- “Help people do what they want to do even better.”
- “Invest when you don’t need the results of the investment. Innovation is a long term investment.”
Hop on over to her blog for the rest of her summary. Plenty more where that came from. Thanks Zuly and thanks Stack Exchange.