Some good quotes from an article about “pure entrepreneurship” in the Boston Globe. There are also a few quotes from Dan Bricklin, one of the creators of VisiCalc.

Pure entrepreneurship is often a solo enterprise, funded by credit cards, consulting projects, and second mortgages. It sparks revolutions and spawns big companies.

‘’Do whatever will get you the most excited,” he says, ‘’and your energy will be the engine for the whole thing.”

“With today’s tools, you can create software yourself, without a big team of programmers. And you can print out physical products cheaply with a 3-D printer. Everything is just so possible.”

via Joho the Blog

David St. Lawrence has an excellent blog where he often posts about careers, small business, and becoming an entrepreneur. In his post The ideal job, he defines the ideal job as follows:

Definition: The ideal jobs are those that prepare you for long-term job security as your own boss.

See also, The ideal job - part 2

Dave Shea, author, creator of the CSS Zen Garden, and widely read blogger recently attempted to purchase Adobe Acrobat from Adobe’s online store. Like any of us, he expected the process to be simple and quick. Instead, it took TWO DAYS, multiple support calls, and multiple computers to be able to download and install the software. His entire experience is chronicled in his post ‘e-commerce Hall of Shame‘.

Its disappointing to see a company like Adobe force their way of doing things on their consumers. There are thousands of readers at this very site, many of whom are brand new to the shareware industry, who get the download and install part of this business correct on the very first try. Adobe, there is no need for things like download managers, they only serve to make things more complicated…and to alienate the very market that you’re trying to sell to.

via J-Walk

Product Pricing Primer by Eric Sink
Camels and Rubber Duckies by Joel Spolsky
Software Pricing by Philip Greenspun
Straight Talk on Software Pricing - manifold.net (product specific)
Users, Vendors at Odds Over Software Pricing - PC World
Supply & Demand: Software Pricing - Eweek
Rethinking Software Pricing in a Service-Oriented World - zapthink

Jesse Grosjean of Hog Bay Software is the latest microISV to be profiled. Hog Bay Software specializes in apps for Apple’s OS X operating system. Jesse is a full time microISV who offers his insights on pricing, user support and productivity.

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Eric’s latest article ‘Finding a Product Idea for Your Micro-ISV‘ is now up at Microsoft’s Longhorn Developer Center. He says this regarding brainstorming for new ideas.

Just write down every idea and start thinking of another one. Once the flow starts, don’t stop it.

Because many of us are not yet full time microISV’s, our current jobs offer and excellent source of ideas. Just yesterday I spoke with someone who receives a monthly check from a company for a script he wrote to automate a very manual process. He has absolutely no training in software development but he was able to identify a need and fill it. The business owner did not care in the least about what IDE he used or how it even worked. All he needed to know was that the process worked consistently and repeatedly. In return for that, the business owner pays him a percentage of each item processed by the script. Not a bad deal.

Eric, thanks for the link and welcome to all the new readers.

Related Sites:
Eric Sink, founder of SourceGear

Paul Allen of Infobase Ventures (not Microsoft Paul Allen) has posted a list of requirements for entrepreneurs who are interested in being mentored by him. While the list is provided as a what to do if you want me to talk with you , there is no reason that this list can’t be used as a checklist for any microISV when setting up your operation for success.

Joseph Lieberman, Marketing Manager for VGSmart, has posted a critique of a press release over on the Indie Gamer discussion forums. He offers some great information for creating a press release that will catch the eye of an editor as well as your target customer.

David Richard Brooks of microISV Reality is looking for new and experienced microISV’s to “collaborate towards success”. David plans to launch in January 2005, so make sure to submit your information soon if you’re interested.

With the big retail holiday push in full effect, increased sales are something that shareware developers would like to see as well. Clark Venable wishes there was an easier way to give shareware as gifts.

In 1999 AOL acquired Winamp creator Nullsoft, the shareware company founded by Justin Frankel, for $100 million. Frankel left AOL earlier this year and is now working on his new project, the Jesusonic!

Nullsoft and Frankel were back in the news in November when AOL shut down what remained of Nullsoft.

Nick Bradbury has found a competitor who is using the data files from TopStyle and is passing them off as their own. Nick posts about how borrowing from others can be a benefit to all, but blatantly stealing is simply going too far. He has asked for your feedback on how to proceed.

Along these same lines, in a series of posts made yesterday in the news section of Stylegala (see Powerhouse Fraud & Fraud Web Designers), a web design company was brought to task for posting links to sites that were supposedly part of their portfolio but were in fact designs by other well known designers. The owner of the company has apparently fired the employee responsible and has apologized to the designers whose works were referenced. The effect of the public outpouring was not very favorable based on the site’s current home page.

Related Links:
microISV Profile: Nick Bradbury