

Pick one and own it - terrellm
http://blog.asmartbear.com/one-benefit.html

======
staunch
Made me think of Google. They used to make a big deal out of having the
largest index. They don't do that anymore. Maybe it's a good idea to
transition from pushing One Thing at some point, lest you leave the
opportunity for someone to outshine you on that One Thing.

~~~
nagrom
That point only applies if you think of Google as a 'search' company. I would
argue that Google is an internet services company (that is funded by
advertising rather than subscriptions) that 'owns' search. Arguments can be
made on whose office suites are better, whose maps systems are better, whose
social networks are better and whose phone OS is better, but Google has picked
search and, boy! Do they own it.

~~~
staunch
Google Search is a distinct product of Google's. It's still comparable to the
competition. And they still think Google Search is better, they just don't use
index size as One Thing anymore.

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stuff4ben
well that answers a lot of questions for me as a budding entrepreneur. But the
one question that I've never found answers to is how you get customers? How do
you go out and find people who want to buy what you build?

~~~
terrellm
Pick up the phone and call potential customers or even better you could meet
with them in person.

Cold calling / meeting is tough in the beginning if you are introverted like I
once was, but in my case the motivation to pick up the phone was knowing I
would be able to put food on the table and pay the rent.

~~~
stuff4ben
Just call them up and see if they're interested? What do you say? In my case I
don't have an actual product, just the skills and time in the evenings to do
something. So maybe I should just call up some non-techy friends and see if
they're having problems at work that might be solvable with computers...

~~~
terrellm
Exactly... it all starts with finding a problem that needs solving. If you can
find friends, family members, or local businesses where you have a connection
then it may be easier to get started.

My first business was started when I had an idea for a software program and
talked to a college professor. He put me in contact with another professor who
just happened to know of someone in need of a software like what I envisioned.
I agreed to write the software just how the customer wanted and they agreed to
test. After the software was done, I began marketing it commercially and have
since sold it in 56 countries.

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nkohari
> There's a myth that "more features are always more complex," but that's just
> bad user interface design.

It's true that you can have a bad user experience with less features, but it's
_much_ more difficult to create a good user experience with a complex piece of
software. I like what he says about hiding features that aren't in use, but in
reality, every feature that you add to the product increases its complexity
and cost, and makes it that much harder to create a satisfying user
experience.

------
JoeAltmaier
Its a good drill to go thru - even if you have more than one advantage,
practice pitching each one in isolation.

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DTrejo
This is a kickass article. I see things more clearly now.

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scotty79
> Open-source is free like puppies are free. You don't write a check to get
> it, but you have to support it for life. Your employee's time is not free.
> Working around bugs is not free. Having nothing but the Web of Lies Internet
> to rely on for tech support is not free.

Nice piece of FUD.

~~~
smartbear
Depends on the open-source project. For e.g. Apache, Linux, MySQL, you're
right it's unfair. For things like RoR, it's pretty accurate. For small
projects, it's definitely true, but then again most companies don't depend on
relatively unknown OSS projects.

~~~
terrellm
I'm not seeing how RoR is any different than other OSS. Could you elaborate?

~~~
smartbear
When you use RoR and, say, 10-20 gems, you spend a lot of time discovering
bugs in those things, fixing them, contributing them back, and hoping the
contri's are taken. None of that is free, of course.

Whereas I've used Apache (both the C-based web server and Tomcat), Linux, and
MySQL for years, and never once did I have to patch something myself. The
quality of the software and updates were sufficient; certainly just as good as
any commercial product.

This is what I mean about it being different.

Of course commercial software has bugs etc as well! The difference is there's
a place to complain and other developers are responsible for making the fixes.
Of course some companies are good about this and others aren't, and the same
can be said for OSS projects.

In the end, to SOME extent this is FUD, but _specifically in the context
within this post_ , it's not FUD, because the argument is specifically for a
company who is CLAIMING awesome support for bug-fixes.

You can't just take my quote out of context and then argue against it!

~~~
hasanove
My and I am sure a lot of others' experience with RoR and gems/plugins is
completely opposite.

