Dimitris has launched the beta on his CRM product, Magna CRM. If you're in the market definitely check it out, I will be. Dimitris started his product a little after me and he's been a reader of my blog from near the beginning. It's great to see him moving into the next phase. Good luck Dimitris!
He also did a nice job of fully integrating HelpSpot into his support area. Nice job!
Probably the number one challenge to a programmer starting a business is maintaining your discipline. Programmers are naturally creative people. Maybe not in the art sense, but in terms of always wanting to create new things and explore new ideas. This aspect of the programmers makeup is simultaneously our greatest strength and our greatest weakness.
If you're going to start a company you need to be able to focus 100% of your creative energy into your product and marketing. There's simply no time to be distracted with other interesting ideas. Once committed to developing a product it's so important to stay on track. It's probably the hardest part of getting things rolling. I've struggled with this from the very beginning.
Since starting HelpSpot I've installed at least 3 wiki's with ideas for ISV oriented websites, started coding a PHP system for handling directories of information at least 3 times (i need this for something else I shouldn't be working on!), started a stock oriented blog, and wrote up some plans for another software product. I'm happy to report that none of these lasted more than a few hours before I kicked myself and stopped working on them. Any could have spiraled out of control and lasted several weeks before I realized I was off track.
I don't have any great techniques for preventing these "attacks" of creativity, but I do find that channelling that energy someplace else can help. For instance, I often write a blog post when I find my mind wandering off to new programming ideas. This gives me a creative release that's also a worthwhile thing to spend time on.
This is just one of those duh! things. I'm not sure why HelpSpot didn't have a 10 pack but now it does. It didn't really make much sense to go from 1 to 20 with no 10 in between. The 10 pack provides a 5% discount.
Dave sums up my thoughts exactly on Google and Microsoft. Microsoft is the best at improving a competitors good 1.0 product into a kiler 2.0 version. Every time Google releases another worthless product I just shake my head. There is so much to do in search, why are they wasting the time of all these very smart people building packs with Adobe Acrobat and Norton? Huh? Is it 1998? Nobody cares about software bundles, people care about search. Search has made them rich and they've barely scratched the surface. Search still stinks. Imagine if they actually put all these minds on making search better rather then building PC's or worthless software bundles.
"The Zombie Walk happens when I get so engrossed in my thoughts that I’ll begin pacing around the house in a semi-conscious, meditative state. I’ll walk to a window and stare outside for a while, then I’ll wander in circles around the living room, then I’ll pace into the library and stare at the bookshelves, then I’ll walk back and forth through the kitchen. This goes on without any real awareness of what I’m doing. My mind is totally focused on the problem, oblivious to the fact that I’m wearing a groove into the floor. To amused observers it appears like I’ve become a Zombie. "
http://www.ellislab.com/index.php/the_zombie_walk/
In my house we call this "code mode".
Andrew has a new blog and an interview with yours truly over on Redscowl Bluesingsky.
If you're going you need to register (free). Go do it now!
http://www.barcamp.org/index.cgi?BarCampNYC
See you there.
I've seen a few reports on the adoption rate of PHP 5. There's another one out today. All seem to conclude that PHP 5 adoption is at about 5%.
This relates to one of the best decisions I made regarding HelpSpot. About a year ago when I was doing the requirements I had a big decision to make. Support PHP4 + 5 or only 5. I was very very close to supporting only 5 because it would allow me to make things more OO (not that big a deal to me) and more importantly make use of newer functions like simpleXML and so on.
As it turns out supporting both 4 and 5 was definitely the right way to go. With adoption of 5 still at miniscule levels it would have really put HelpSpot in a bad position. Word on the street is that the PHP guru's are jumping right from 5.1 to 6 so it could turn out that PHP 5 will be the version nobody ever installs and they all jump right to 6 when it's released.
So if you're doing or going to do a PHP app you better keep PHP 4 support at least for the next year or so.
Kevin is looking for a partner to help finish up his RSS reader, Zesty News. If you're a Python guru this could be a great opportunity for you. Beyond just what's being offered (equity in the company) the biggest upside may be the opportunity to work with Kevin and his army of TurboGears supporters. Helping create a high profile product in a new and upcoming community can only be good for your career.
That's a question I think everyone developing a new software product should ask themselves. In software there tends to be a big pricing difference between "nice to have" and Got to Have. Got to Have is mission critical software which is usually somehow related to the making or saving of money. Nice to have software is a utility, a small time saver, or entertainment.
People make money with nice to have software all the time don't get me wrong, but if you want to make the Mad Money (I love Jim Cramer BTW) then Got to Have software is the way to go.