Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality

This is my foreword to Bob Walsh's new book, Micro-ISV: From Vision to Reality.

How the heck did I become the poster child for the MicroISV movement?

Of all people. Sheesh.

When I started Fog Creek Software there was gonna be nothing “micro” about it. The plan was to build a big, multinational software company with offices in 120 countries and a skyscraper headquarters in Manhattan, complete with a heliport on the roof for quick access to the Hamptons. It might take a few decades–after all, we were going to be bootstrapped and we always planned to grow slowly and carefully–but our ambitions were anything but small.

Heck, I don’t even like the term MicroISV. The “ISV” part stands for Independent Software Vendor. It’s a made-up word, made up by Microsoft, to mean “software company that is not Microsoft,” or, more specifically, “software company that for some reason we have not yet bought or eliminated, probably because they are in some charming, twee line of business, like wedding table arrangements, the quaintness of which we are just way too cool to stoop down to, but you little people feel free to enjoy yourselves. Just remember to use .NET!”

It’s like that other term, legacy, that Microsoft uses to refer to all non-Microsoft software. So when they refer to Google, say, as a “legacy search engine” they are trying to imply that Google is merely “an old, crappy search engine that you’re still using by historical accident, until you bow to the inevitable and switch to MSN.” Whatever.

I prefer “software company,” and there’s nothing wrong with being a startup. Startup software company, that’s how we describe ourselves, and we don’t see any need to define ourselves in relation to Microsoft.

I suppose you’re reading this book because you want to start a small software company, and it’s a good book to read for that purpose, so let me use my pulpit here to provide you with my personal checklist of three things you should have before you start your Micro… ahem, startup software company. There are some other things you should do; Bob covers them pretty well in the rest of the book, but before you get started, here’s my contribution.

Number One. Don’t start a business if you can’t explain what pain it solves, for whom, and why your product will eliminate this pain, and how the customer will pay to solve this pain. The other day I went to a presentation of six high tech startups and not one of them had a clear idea for what pain they were proposing to solve. I saw a startup that was building a way to set a time to meet your friends for coffee, a startup that wanted you to install a plug-in in your browser to track your every movement online in exchange for being able to delete things from that history, and a startup that wanted you to be able to leave text messages for your friend that were tied to a particular location (so if they ever walked past the same bar they could get a message you had left for them there). What they all had in common was that none of them solved a problem, and all of them were as doomed as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Number Two. Don’t start a business by yourself. I know, there are lots of successful one-person startups, but there are even more failed one-person startups. If you can’t even convince one friend that your idea has merit, um, maybe it doesn’t? Besides, it’s lonely and depressing and you won’t have anyone to bounce ideas off of. And when the going gets tough, which it will, as a one-person operation, you’ll just fold up shop. With two people, you’ll feel an obligation to your partner to push on through. P.S., cats do not count.

Number Three. Don’t expect much at first. People never know how much money they’re going to make in the first month when their product goes on sale. I remember five years ago, when we started selling FogBugz, we had no idea if the first month of sales would be $0 or $50,000. Both figures seemed just as likely to me. I have talked to enough entrepreneurs and have enough data now to give you a definitive answer for your startup.

That’s right, I have a crystal ball, and can now tell you the one fact that you need to know more than anything else: exactly how much money you’re going to make during the first month after your product goes live.

Ready?

OK.

In the first month, you are going to make,

about,

$364, if you do everything right. If you charge too little, you’re going to make $40. If you charge too much, you’re going to make $0. If you expect to make any more than that, you’re going to be really disappointed and you’re going to give up and get a job working for The Man and referring to us people in startup-land as “Legacy MicroISVs.”

That $364 sounds depressing, but it’s not, because you’ll soon discover the one fatal flaw that’s keeping 50% of your potential customers from whipping out their wallets, and then *tada!* you’ll be making $728 a month. And then you’ll work really hard and you’ll get some publicity and you’ll figure out how to use AdWords effectively and there will be a story about your company in the local wedding planner newsletter and tada! You’ll be making $1456 a month. And you’ll ship version 2.0, with spam filtering and a Common Lisp interpreter built in, and your customers will chat amongst themselves, and tada! You’ll be making $2912 a month. And you’ll tweak the pricing, add support contracts, ship version 3.0, and get mentioned by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show and tada! $5824 a month.

Now we’re cooking with fire. Project out a few years, and if you plug away at it, there’s no reason you can’t double your revenues every 12-18 months, so no matter how small you start, (detailed math formula omitted – Ed.), you’ll soon be building your own skyscraper in Manhattan with a heliport so you can get to that 20 acre Southampton spread in 30 minutes flat.

And that, I think, is the real joy of starting a company: creating something, all by yourself, and nurturing it and working on it and investing in it and watching it grow, and watching the investments pay off. It’s a hell of a journey, and I wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Micro-ISV: 从梦想到现实

Micro-ISV: 从梦想到现实
Joel Spolsky
2006年1月11日

这是我给Bob Walsh的新书《Micro-ISV: From Vision To Reality》写的序言。

Faint. 我怎么就成了MicroISV运动这么一大堆人里的出头鸟了？ 唉。

当 年我创立Fog Creek Software时就决定与'micro'这个词划清界线。我的计划是建立一个庞大的跨国软件公司，在120个国家都有分支，总部坐落在曼哈顿的摩天大楼 上，楼顶得有个直升飞机停机坪，一会功夫就能飞到Hamptons。这些可能得个几十年 - 毕竟，我们白手起家，得谨小慎微 - 但是我们的志气可不小。

咄，我甚至都有点鄙视MiroISV这个词。"ISV"指的是独立软件提供商(Independent Software Vender)。这是个生造出来的词，微软造了这个词来指代那些“不是微软的软件公司” 或者更确切地说是指那些 “因为某些原因我们还没收购或者挤垮的公司，他们大概都在些涂脂抹粉的行当(比如布置婚礼桌子)里混，咱们得酷点，对这些轻佻的生意要不屑一顾，你们这些 小屁孩先玩着。记得用.NET就成。”

这词和另外一个词“遗留”类似 - 微软用来指代所有非微软软件。于是，当他们说Google是一个遗留搜索引擎，他们暗示Google就是“你现在还在用那个以前一不小心用上的又老又破的搜索引擎，你迟早要认清革命形势弃暗投明转到MSN上去。”

我更喜欢“软件公司”这个词，并且做一个创业者也没啥不好的。“初创软件公司”，说的就是我们，我们没有必要跟微软沾边。

我假定你是因为想开一家自己的小软件公司才读这本书的，这本好书也很有针对性，下面我就占点篇幅来讲一下你开始你的Micro..., 呸呸呸，初创软件公司前，要检查的三件事；当然有很多其他的事要做，Bob在书里都讲到了。不过开始前，先听听我的：

第 一条：你的产品为谁解决了什么令他头大的问题？凭什么说解决了这个问题？以及客户怎样为解决的问题掏腰包？对于这些问题你要是说不出个所以然来就别开始你 的生意。有天我去看六个高科技创业公司的展示，没有一家能说得清他们解决了啥问题。有一家公司在实现一种让你可以和朋友约时间喝咖啡的方法；一家公司给你 的浏览器装他们的插件，这样就可以记录下你在网上冲浪时所有的动作，然后呢？我们就可以从动作的历史记录里就删他几条了；另一家公司能让你给不挪窝的朋友 留短信（这样如果他们经过同一酒吧时，就会收到你留给他们的消息）。这几家公司的共同点就是没有一家解决了一个问题，他们注定要像一只长着长长长...长 尾巴的猫绕进了一个满是石凳的屋子里一样举步维艰。

第二条: 不要单干。我知道有很多成功的一个人创立的公司，不过一人公司失败的更多。要是你的点子连一个朋友也忽悠不起来的话，嗯，那个想法八成就不太灵光？还有就 是单干比较孤单郁闷，你找不到别人可以和你脑力激荡一把。另外总会有情况不妙的时候，如果你一个人就可以卷起铺盖，关门大吉。而要是两个的话，你就得考虑 要对得起你的合伙人，和他一起度过难关。对了，那个猫不算。

第三条：一开始不要想得太美。没人能知道产品第一个月能卖多少银子。我记得五 年前，当我们FogBugz开卖的时候，我们对于第一个月能卖0刀或者50，000刀一点概念都没有。这两个数对我来说没啥差别。现在我和很多企业家谈 过，收集了不少数据了，我就可以给你的创业公司一个权威的答案。

是啊，我有一个水晶球，我现在就能告诉你比其他任何事情都需要知道的最重要的事实：产品发布后第一个月你能入账多少？

准备好了？

好吧。

第一个月，你将赚到，

大约，

346刀，前提是你没做错啥的话。如果你要价太低，你就会赚到40刀；要价太高，你一分也捞不着。如果你期望的比这个数多的话，你就会失望透顶，然后你就会放弃，去比尔老板那里讨口饭吃，从此也管我们创业者叫“遗留MicroISV”。

346 刀听起来令人沮丧，其实不然， 因为你很快就会发现一个把50%潜在用户的钱包拒之门外的致命缺陷，然后，当啷，你就可以一月728刀了。你接着继续努力工作，攒了些人气，你又琢磨明白 了一点点有效利用AdWords[1]的道道，镇上的“婚庆计划快报”里也开始八卦你的公司。然后，当啷，你一个月1456刀了。然后你的2.0版发布了 - 包含了一个垃圾邮件过滤器和一个Common Lisp解释器 - 客户们也开始互相聊起你的软件了。然后，当啷，你一个月2912刀了。你再调整调整价格，加上客户支持合同，发布了3.0版，Jon Stewart[2]在他的每日脱口秀里提了你的大作。然后，当啷，5824刀一月。

现在咱总算能吃上口热饭了。设想几年后，无论你一开始时多么微不足道，你如果你埋头苦干，总能每过12~18个月收入翻倍的（详细的数学公式略 - 编者按），你很快就能在曼哈顿建起自己的摩天大楼，坐着私人直升机30分钟飞抵南安普顿参加一个占地20英亩的酒宴了。

这，我觉得，就是开创公司的真正乐趣：创造一些东西，亲力亲为，然后培养它，为之辛勤工作，投入所有，看着它成长，看着付出得以回报。这是一趟美妙旅行，我岂能错过。

[1] AdWords：google提供的搜索引擎关键词广告，或者叫做关键字广告。是采用按点击付费方式进行的网络广告。

[2] Jon Stewart：主持人，他最受欢迎的个人电视节目"The Daily Show With Jon Stewart"是他从1999年开始担任主持的。到了2001年，这个节目由于Stewart的优异表现获得了电视界极具权威的Peabody Award奖项和EMMY奖。Stewart其他的节目还包括HBO电视台特殊节目：“Jon Stewart: Unleavened”，"The Larry Sanders Show"和MTV电视台的"The Jon Stewart Show"。

[3] Carrie读了磕巴的初译稿，打磨了一些段落，要求了注解，在此致谢。