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Good question. We've been doing some serious (read: proper, this time!) customer development on a number of alternative projects. Ones we've rejected through ex

Good question. We've been doing some serious (read: proper, this time!) customer development on a number of alternative projects. Ones we've rejected through extensive testing include: - Software to replace consultants in the process of receiving government funding. Conclusion: market for this product is too small. Plus it was so boring we found it hard to motivate ourselves. - A two-sided marketplace to match SMEs to talent in the science/technology space. Possibly an opportunity, but the dynamics of creating both sides of the marketplace are a nightmare. - Better mobile sites/menus. We had a brief window to snap up a large number of businesses from a major SME website provider. But once we did the maths, it became very uninteresting. Weebly, Wix and soforth have this market nailed. - Enterprise asset management. There's a lot of incumbents and we couldn't find a way of improving their offerings by a sufficient margin in order to get customers to switch (and overcome the "we need this company around in 5 years" problem). I'm fairly familiar with this area due to my long manufacturing engineering experience. There were quite a few more.

orangethirty 14y ago
Thanks for answering. Seems you've had time to de-compress and think things through. Isn't it wonderful? :) Something I've been itching to get into is conventional industries. There is a lot of things to do there, and companies with deep pockets to sell to. They rely on old and clunky software to operate, and it slows their productivity down. I'm working on a project to attack such problem. Let's see how it pans out. Best of luck, and keep us posted. This is not a failure, but a pivot. :)
- JofArnold 14y ago
  It really is wonderful. FitFu as a business was challenging enough, but the personal things that happened to us really took their toll! Having the opportunity to start afresh is invigorating. FWIW, an industry where we see there's a lot of opportunities is construction. This mightn't have been the case a few years back, but smartphones really do open things up now. Lots of innovations to come from tech startups I suspect.
  - orangethirty 14y ago
    I think one area tech can work with is in the construction inspection segment. Pushing and pulling data through an app about some construction job is something an inspector might do.

orangethirty 14y ago

Thanks for answering. Seems you've had time to de-compress and think things through. Isn't it wonderful? :) Something I've been itching to get into is conventional industries. There is a lot of things to do there, and companies with deep pockets to sell to. They rely on old and clunky software to operate, and it slows their productivity down. I'm working on a project to attack such problem. Let's see how it pans out. Best of luck, and keep us posted. This is not a failure, but a pivot. :)

JofArnold 14y ago
It really is wonderful. FitFu as a business was challenging enough, but the personal things that happened to us really took their toll! Having the opportunity to start afresh is invigorating. FWIW, an industry where we see there's a lot of opportunities is construction. This mightn't have been the case a few years back, but smartphones really do open things up now. Lots of innovations to come from tech startups I suspect.
- orangethirty 14y ago
  I think one area tech can work with is in the construction inspection segment. Pushing and pulling data through an app about some construction job is something an inspector might do.