
Business error leads owner in new direction and success - iamelgringo
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/gala-software-restaurant-2431286-says-altametrics
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gruseom
I almost didn't click on it because there are so many useless blog posts with
this kind of title. But this is a great story! A fast-food restaurant owner
ends up creating a valuable software company. _And_ the programmer gets rich.
Most people here would enjoy it.

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rrival
"We didn't have money. No venture capital. No outside investors. Just two guys
with an idea. Without money there was a great discipline about how we spent
money." right, except the 40k to dev it and 10 franchise outlets to keep it
running =)

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menloparkbum
Actually, it says he spent $600K to develop the software.

 _Gala put more than $600,000 into the project, money earned at the
restaurants, before the official launch of the company, Altametrics in Los
Alamitos, or the inventory control product, eRestaurant, at a Long Beach trade
show in October, 2000._

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jerryji
A truly inspirational and sensational story.

When I was at the "trade show" part, I simply can't help thinking if things
could have been easier for them had they read Steve Blank's (recent) Going to
Trade Shows Like it Matters (<http://steveblank.com/2009/05/21/trade-shows/>).

Of course, I have to agree with rrival on the capital part.

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donaq
I was impressed by the part where the programmer called the potential
customer's bluff and told him to bugger off, especially since they didn't
_have_ any other customers.

