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The simple solution to this problem is to enable a new type of sales model for software. The current models are broken and lean toward the investor-founder-oper

The simple solution to this problem is to enable a new type of sales model for software. The current models are broken and lean toward the investor-founder-operations-developer chain of control, with the investor and founders controlling the revenue. Flipping the model on its head would allow for the revenue to flow directly to the developers, bypassing the chain. I think I may have a solution for this, but it's going to require some infrastructure changes.

paulhauggis 11y ago
The problem is money. There is no way to magically get money into the hands of the founders and the people that have it (IE: investors), will never make a deal where they won't get a good ROI.
- MichaelCrawford 11y ago
  Sell software directly from your own website. software you write all by yourself. Lots of coders do this, some are brilliantly successful. The ones that dont make money dont know how to Read The Fine Manual. For example, SEO is not a black art, it is well documented.
  - jpmoral 11y ago
    > The ones that dont make money dont know how to Read The Fine Manual. Can you elaborate, do you mean that making money selling software from one's own website is a well understood and replicable process? Not trying to argue, I'm genuinely curious.
    - jacquesm 11y ago
      It used to be a well understood and replicable process. But these days I'm really not so sure that it is either well understood, or replicable. The late 90s are gone and won't be back and selling software got harder, not easier since then unless you sell apps.
      - fsloth 11y ago
        "selling software got harder, not easier since then" Can you elaborate? I'm fairly clueless - I thought services like stripe which streamline payments and Steam that serves as a whole distribution platform would have made software sales (for PC:s) easier.
        jacquesm 11y ago
        There was a time when everything you did with your computer was an application. Nowadays a very large portion of that work is done with a browser, either for free or ad supported. So the market for licensed software sold to end-users has contracted, and the delivery mechanism (installing downloaded software for your PC) is more and more tainted because of malware and rogue installers.
  - danieltillett 11y ago
    Yes Michael - make something that actually does something useful and is difficult to copy and you can sell it without needing VC money (this is what I do). It won't be easy, but it is very nice not having to answer to anyone else. On SEO yes you can do it on your own, but it is almost a full time job these days.
  - paulhauggis 11y ago
    "For example, SEO is not a black art, it is well documented." SEO takes a different kind of person. I do both (software design and SEO/marketing) and am pretty successful at it. However, pretty much all developers I know despise anything related to marketing, are really bad at it, or just aren't willing to spend the time learning it. It's also not "well documented". It's like trying to say that investing in the stock market is "well documented".
vezzy-fnord 11y ago
For proprietary software, other than per-unit or tier/SaaS, what would be more viable? Artificial scarcity can only be exploited so far, especially with a highly saturated sphere of competition. Now for free software, where there is zero marginal cost for redistribution and no information restrictions are enforced, there's some experimentation going on with quadratic base pledging (multiple people pledge a low base amount, e.g. 1c, and for each individual the base pledge times the number of pledgers is what is deducted). This is being done by Snowdrift.coop: https://snowdrift.coop/ https://snowdrift.coop/

paulhauggis 11y ago

The problem is money. There is no way to magically get money into the hands of the founders and the people that have it (IE: investors), will never make a deal where they won't get a good ROI.

MichaelCrawford 11y ago
Sell software directly from your own website. software you write all by yourself. Lots of coders do this, some are brilliantly successful. The ones that dont make money dont know how to Read The Fine Manual. For example, SEO is not a black art, it is well documented.
- jpmoral 11y ago
  > The ones that dont make money dont know how to Read The Fine Manual. Can you elaborate, do you mean that making money selling software from one's own website is a well understood and replicable process? Not trying to argue, I'm genuinely curious.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    It used to be a well understood and replicable process. But these days I'm really not so sure that it is either well understood, or replicable. The late 90s are gone and won't be back and selling software got harder, not easier since then unless you sell apps.
    - fsloth 11y ago
      "selling software got harder, not easier since then" Can you elaborate? I'm fairly clueless - I thought services like stripe which streamline payments and Steam that serves as a whole distribution platform would have made software sales (for PC:s) easier.
      - jacquesm 11y ago
        There was a time when everything you did with your computer was an application. Nowadays a very large portion of that work is done with a browser, either for free or ad supported. So the market for licensed software sold to end-users has contracted, and the delivery mechanism (installing downloaded software for your PC) is more and more tainted because of malware and rogue installers.
- danieltillett 11y ago
  Yes Michael - make something that actually does something useful and is difficult to copy and you can sell it without needing VC money (this is what I do). It won't be easy, but it is very nice not having to answer to anyone else. On SEO yes you can do it on your own, but it is almost a full time job these days.
- paulhauggis 11y ago
  "For example, SEO is not a black art, it is well documented." SEO takes a different kind of person. I do both (software design and SEO/marketing) and am pretty successful at it. However, pretty much all developers I know despise anything related to marketing, are really bad at it, or just aren't willing to spend the time learning it. It's also not "well documented". It's like trying to say that investing in the stock market is "well documented".

vezzy-fnord 11y ago

For proprietary software, other than per-unit or tier/SaaS, what would be more viable? Artificial scarcity can only be exploited so far, especially with a highly saturated sphere of competition. Now for free software, where there is zero marginal cost for redistribution and no information restrictions are enforced, there's some experimentation going on with quadratic base pledging (multiple people pledge a low base amount, e.g. 1c, and for each individual the base pledge times the number of pledgers is what is deducted). This is being done by Snowdrift.coop: https://snowdrift.coop/ https://snowdrift.coop/