It’s a hard balance being in the Software/SaaS (Software As A Service) industry. We can put lots of time and focus into systems and development, but sales may suffer… or we focus on sales and then development suffers… ProActive Software (www.proworkflow.com) has bootstrapped (growth through no funding, and only sweat equity) to profitability thus far and this is fun to a point however if the intention is to bootstrap through to profitability as we’ve done, the issue is 100% correct allocation of resources between development, sales, systems and marketing.
We don’t have a truckload of resource, rather a smaller dedicated team and no massive flash offices (ProActive is largely a virtual team). There are a few contractors globally but we do A LOT with what we have.
We’re up to a good number of dedicated servers in California and one in NZ, and are in profit. So the years of hard work have paid off. Revenue is looking healthy and we all earn good salaries (founders work 16hr days).
The biggest problem I see in both the local and global market is the high number of software/SaaS co’s trying to scale, but using (old school) high inertia sales and marketing.
An article came across my desk today about www.smugmug.com – a premium ad-free photo- and video-sharing site. Here’s the article: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/2008-02-19-smugmug_N.htm
These guys are a father and son operation with various other family members involved (and now 30 employees). They have a simple revenue model and 100,000 subscribers. Not bad. They’re now about a $12 million [...]
Continue reading about SmugMug.com: Another bootstrap software success story
Another couple of upcoming NZ software entrepreneurs…
Continue reading about More NZ Entrepreneurs succeeding on the global stage.
Here’s a really cool vid about the Web 2.0 bubble. Worth a watch whilst you’re hanging on a lunch break.
Recently we were interviewed by FastServers. Have a read of the interview and you’ll get a feel for what makes the company tick.
Continue reading about FastServers Interview: Software as a Service – ProWorkflow.com
