BackupBrain: My MicroISV Venture

Ian, a fellow Micro-ISV (who’s ahead of me with a released product!) has posted interesting thoughts regarding software-as-a-service. I thought I’d add a few comments…

“…but it sounds like he’s interested in doing something which may be sold as a software service rather than a straight download and buy.”

I could be wrong here but it sounds like he may be referring to the type of model where the user downloads and installs the software, and has to keep paying an annual fee to keep it from expiring. This isn’t what I had in mind. In actual fact a subscription-based web service is what I am going to try.

“When it comes to web services however, it’s a totally different ball of fish.”

Exactly! And this is the area where I will be concentrating my efforts. I live in a big tourist area, and those I’ve spoken to so far have shown quite an enthusiastic response to the types of features I would be offering. There are some services that offer small bite-sized chunks of my ideas, but none that are quite as broad.

Do I have the ideas? Yep, a plethora!

Could it all fall in heap and not make any money? Yes, it’s by no means a “sure-thing” but, even if it fails, it’ll have taught an awful lot about development, design and business that I could not have learnt elsewhere. And, I can always carry that over into one of the other software ideas I have…

Anyway, thanks for the comments, Ian.

There does not seem to be as much in this space as I originally expected. It seems that most Micro-ISVs are selling their software as download packages rather than using the software-as-a-service. I can understand the downsides to this model in terms of infrastructure if your service were to grow too big, but I’m still surprised there aren’t more people trying it.

Anyway, as things stand at the moment, Interlogy’s Profile Manager looks to be the best choice for me to build upon. Unless of course I stumble across something else in my virtual wanderings!