

The biggest need web startups fail to address - jrogers65

This has always struck me as blindingly obvious but, since nobody is saying it, perhaps it's not.<p>The single most important factor which makes me gloss over new web startups and the services that they provide is that there is no option for self-hosting.<p>Considering how many web 2.0 businesses have gone out of service (I remember an infographic showing something close to half), it is, in my opinion, insane to have a company which relies on one.<p>It's really simple - just license your code out for people who want to host it themselves. This gives you a passive income stream, which is always great - especially for those slow months. It gives your customers peace of mind because they know that if you go out of business the impact will be minimal.
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madpilot
This brings up other issues that are generally the main reasons people build
web apps in the first place:

1) Updating code is a pain. You can't just push a patch, you have to rely on
others to download the patches and install them

2) You now have to support multiple versions. Because of above, you'll be
getting bug reports for old versions

3) Different hosting environments. Not only wil you end up with support for
environments you've never heard of, but you'll have to contend with bug
reports that are actually to do with misconfigured servers.

4) Unless you are targeting enterprise (in which case there IS a business case
for self hosting) the number of organizations with the know how and resources
is probably far lower than the rest of your user base - and they will probably
take up most of your support time.

5) You lose the subscription model. Certainly some apps can charge people on
going fees for support etc, but subscriptions are such an easy way to make
money in software.

Your point is valid, but it kind of goes against why people chose to build web
apps!

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pc86
Not to mention the fact that there's a whole new level of security to try to
prevent sharing of code and folks using it past licensure dates that you don't
need to worry about with a subscription/SaaS model.

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jrogers65
The application could "phone home" occasionally to check up on the status of
the license. Should the business close, an override code could be provided
(and fulfilment of this could be a contractual obligation).

Applications written in interpreted languages can usually be secured with
tools built for the purpose (e.g. ZendGuard for PHP). Compiled languages do
not have this problem in the first place.

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mooism2
How do you enforce contractual obligations against a business that no longer
exists?

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jrogers65
Have a contract directly with the owners, I guess.

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mooism2
I'm going to ignore the issue of the extra costs this imposes on the startup,
and ask: what proportion of the target market are actually interested in self-
hosting?

The people you (or anyone else) interact with online are not representative of
the broader public.

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ScottWhigham
Sorry - I've had two cups of coffee and I'm still not understanding what you
consider "the biggest need web startups fail to address". You said:

"The single most important factor which makes me gloss over new web startups
and the services that they provide is that there is no option for self-
hosting."

Self-hosting what exactly? What are we even talking about?

Wait - upon my fourth reading, I'm guessing you are referring to "web
startups" who offer an API or other SaaS offering. Is that what you are
talking about? I'd rather ask than spend 20 minutes writing a response to that
and then for you to later so, "No, that's not what I meant."

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pestaa
Yes, I think you grasped his post. Software you use in a relative isolation
(yourself only or with a well-defined group) could be installed and maintained
on your server. He claims he'd look into web startup offers more if they
provided this alternative.

