In the Arena

Almost every day at some point I wander over to Hacker News, which has some great discussion, along with some less great discussion, among people pursuing or aspiring to pursue a software startup or similar business. Likewise with local events (like ITEN STL offers), and even more so the Business of Software conference earlier this month. (experiences)

I used to have a software product business myself, a vertical market SaaS firm. Now that I’ve been out of that for over a year, the thing I miss most is the feeling of being “in the arena”, of having a speculative product out there for people to buy. To be out there is both terrifying and exhilarating. I have heard it said that there are “product people” and “consulting people”, and looking back it is clear to me that I am mostly in the Product category.

Unlike some product people (like Amy Hoy, whom I admire greatly!) I don’t think it’s necessary to swear off one thing to do the other. Consulting (building software for clients) is very satisfying, especially when working with a team of great people (and a group of very competent customers) like we have at Oasis Digital.

So while I’m going to keep building software for other people, I’m also going to go back to the marketplace with speculative products. This time it will be products in the plural, some subset of:

  • Web/SaaS software
  • iPad software
  • iPhone / iPod Touch software
  • Android software (by year-end the stores will be piled high with Android tablets)
  • Or possibly HTML5/etc software to address all of the above
  • Backend / data / system management software
  • Or even, possibly, locally installed desktop software

I apologize for the vagueness of this list; but I agree with Derek Sivers about keeping one’s specific goals to oneself so my voluminous and tedious notes on exactly what products to offer, will remain offline.