4 ms·

I see an awful lot of people dramatically under-valuing their own time in here. Anyone who's capable of building and launching a successful software system nece

by ef4 13y ago

I see an awful lot of people dramatically under-valuing their own time in here. Anyone who's capable of building and launching a successful software system necessarily commands a pretty high rate. I value my R&D cost based on what I used to make when I was coding for the man. Which was a lot. So three years in, I haven't broken even on my real opportunity cost. Given my trajectory, I fully expect to. But it's not an overnight thing.

mindcrime 13y ago
So three years in, I haven't broken even on my real opportunity cost. Given my trajectory, I fully expect to. But it's not an overnight thing. Same here - approximately three years in. We aren't far from "breakeven" in terms of actual dollars spent, because we don't actually spend much money right now. But in terms of return on founders time, we're way in the red right now. But, we're in the B2B space, doing complex enterprise software that addresses challenging problems using cutting edge technology. You don't go from zero to thousands of customers overnight. TBH, we're only just now at a point where we have a real product (two products, really) that are ready to sell to the early adopter / earlyvangelist types. So now I get to go out and meet customers and see if I can retrain myself, on the fly, to be a sales-person. So yeah, nobody expected this to be an overnight thing either. It's been a tough slog so far, but we think we're getting close to really turning a corner.
- ef4 13y ago
  Your story sounds much like mine: using modern software to solve a complex problem for business customers. One difference is that we've been out talking and selling from day one. Our first customer was willing to be an early adopter and was sold on the vision of what we could build for them. We couldn't have mastered the problem domain without having real users and data. It's actually a good deal for both sides: the customer gets high-touch, custom-tailored software for relatively little money (because you're funding the development and you own the software). You get a proving ground and data. As long as you've identified a problem shared by other customers that you'll be able to sell again and again, it can be a big win. It also helps that we've been out selling (at least regionally) for three years now. It adds to our legitimacy. People in the industry are getting to know us, and that has made them more willing to say yes. And B2B sales cycles can be absurdly long. We have heard "sounds great, but I just finished making my budget for this year", and then eleven months later they're back with a signed contract.
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    Sounds good. We've been out "talking" but for most of the early years weren't "selling". But part of the reason for that is that what we're doing isn't entirely novel. There's a known market for the general class of things we're doing, so we're not operating completely in the dark. It doesn't help that we don't yet have a dedicated salesperson with selling experience. So I've been working to reinvent myself as a salesperson over the years, and I think part of it is that I'm only not starting to feel like I know what needs to be done to go out and sell this stuff. That said, there are things I would certainly do differently if I could go back and do it again. :-)

by ef4 13y ago

mindcrime 13y ago

So three years in, I haven't broken even on my real opportunity cost. Given my trajectory, I fully expect to. But it's not an overnight thing. Same here - approximately three years in. We aren't far from "breakeven" in terms of actual dollars spent, because we don't actually spend much money right now. But in terms of return on founders time, we're way in the red right now. But, we're in the B2B space, doing complex enterprise software that addresses challenging problems using cutting edge technology. You don't go from zero to thousands of customers overnight. TBH, we're only just now at a point where we have a real product (two products, really) that are ready to sell to the early adopter / earlyvangelist types. So now I get to go out and meet customers and see if I can retrain myself, on the fly, to be a sales-person. So yeah, nobody expected this to be an overnight thing either. It's been a tough slog so far, but we think we're getting close to really turning a corner.

ef4 13y ago
Your story sounds much like mine: using modern software to solve a complex problem for business customers. One difference is that we've been out talking and selling from day one. Our first customer was willing to be an early adopter and was sold on the vision of what we could build for them. We couldn't have mastered the problem domain without having real users and data. It's actually a good deal for both sides: the customer gets high-touch, custom-tailored software for relatively little money (because you're funding the development and you own the software). You get a proving ground and data. As long as you've identified a problem shared by other customers that you'll be able to sell again and again, it can be a big win. It also helps that we've been out selling (at least regionally) for three years now. It adds to our legitimacy. People in the industry are getting to know us, and that has made them more willing to say yes. And B2B sales cycles can be absurdly long. We have heard "sounds great, but I just finished making my budget for this year", and then eleven months later they're back with a signed contract.
- mindcrime 13y ago
  Sounds good. We've been out "talking" but for most of the early years weren't "selling". But part of the reason for that is that what we're doing isn't entirely novel. There's a known market for the general class of things we're doing, so we're not operating completely in the dark. It doesn't help that we don't yet have a dedicated salesperson with selling experience. So I've been working to reinvent myself as a salesperson over the years, and I think part of it is that I'm only not starting to feel like I know what needs to be done to go out and sell this stuff. That said, there are things I would certainly do differently if I could go back and do it again. :-)