That's not a bad angle, and in fact to minimise the risk, a services business may be a good idea. However, services businesses come with their own bundles of pr

That's not a bad angle, and in fact to minimise the risk, a services business may be a good idea. However, services businesses come with their own bundles of problems, not the least of which being that you're still caught in the "sell your time for money" trap which stops you from doing other things. It's better than a job, but not as good as building a product. I think in all cases where you're building a product, whether it's competing with existing products (better), or an entirely new thing (worse), there is some amount of market validation to do. Does anyone want your "accounting software with this extra feature"? Will anyone care about your "Basecamp but with a different look"? Best to validate those before sinking lots of dev effort in them...