MicroISV – From Vision to Reality (Book Review)

An article by Glen    4 Comments

Just finished reading MicroISV: From Vision to Reality and I have to say that this is one sensational book. If you are interested in starting your own software company, then this is one book that you need to get a hold of.

The focus of this book is starting a small product-based software company with a vision to grow it into something great. But by far the most valuable bit for me was the 50 or so interviews that the Bob Walsh carries out through the book. There interviews the startups of various sizes, their bootstrapping strategies, their marketing plan, how their product came into being, how they improved their sales, what kind of revenue you can expect and so on.

But the interviews aren’t just with software guys. There’s also interviews with editors of CNET on how to get a software review, legal guys on license agreements, eCommerce providers on how to organise credit card payment for your app, Google Adwords folks on how to improve your advertising, and even guys from Microsoft Acquisitions on how get bought!

Overall I’ve found this book invaluable. Some of the really important stuff he covers includes:

• Getting vision for your product (I’ve always found this the easy bit…:-)
• UI Testing, Revision Control, vmware, etc.. (but you probably know all this bit)
• Do you really want to do this? (Personal costs of bootstrapping a small software company – hint: if you can be talked out of it, you should be!)
• How to design a website that will sell your product (where to get templates, hosting options, etc)
• eCommerce options to sell your wares (and what they cost, how to deal with fraud, taxes, and all that)
• End User License Agreements (and where to get templates)
• Managing User Support (forums, email tools, newsletters, and how to deal with the winners who send you emails like “You’re tool sucks. I’d rather eat stale cheese.”
• Download sites (tucows, cnet, etc) and how they work, how to get your stuff listed
• Strategies for Advertising (blogging, adwords, other viral stuff)
• Legals of setting up a software company / patents / trademarks, etc (in US, UK and even Australia – yah!)
• Forums online where you can mix with other entrepreneurs
• Stuff Microsoft offers to help you flog your wares (buddy programs, digital locker, etc) – not so relevant to us Java guys, but good background
• And a whole chapter full of interviews with ISVs at various stages (just getting started, growing, turning into full blown companies, getting acquired).

Overall a fabulous book chock full of helpful info. I’ve done a brain dump of about ten things that were really helpful to me. I’ll post it up here over the next week or so.

If you’ve got a vision to be a software entrepreneur, just go get it.

If you live in Australia, I recommend bookware – great folk to deal with.