Opening Up - Business

Breaking the Promise

nospam@example.com (Todd D. Esposito) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:04:00 -0600

Ok, I broke my promise to announce the latest-n-greatest TurtolCMS here. I did do the release (some while ago, now), but didn't make an announcement. Color me lazy, or perhaps just overly busy. And the book review will be forthcoming, some day.

Just last night, my cousin Rob asked me something along the lines of "have you ever been thinking about a blog entry for so long that you just couldn't get it done?" He was talking about his own blog, mind, but hit the nail on the head for me. So here's me getting it done, finally.

I alluded, in my previous entry, to another blog I would reference for a starting point. That reference is below, but first, a little history.

A little history

Turtol, my much lamented previous endeavor, was originally started to be a hosting company, with 37signals-like aspirations to build some cool web-based applications. Prior to Turtol, I had Yet Another Startup, and after I exited that, I took about 18 months off to be a Dad and work on my 50-some-year-old house and whatnot. Some of my previous clients expressed an interest in my continuing to support their web sites (and so forth), so I put together a tiny little hosting operation, just to service them. It gave me something to do to keep my hand in technology and was just self-sustaining; it made me no money, but I didn't care, because it wasn't supposed to.

After a while, some friend or other heard about my hosting, asked if he could have an account, and of course I put that together. Then, of course, he asked for some changes, and I did that. Then another guy came along, and pretty soon I needed to hack together some software to manage it all (web-based, of course), and keep me from actually running a hosting company so I could continue to play with my kids and generally be lazy. Then Mike came calling, having heard about what I had put together, and needing a site for his then-current employer. He asked what I'd charge. I didn't know, because I didn't charge, except for those few who had sparked the whole she-bang in the first place.

So I put together pricing and Mike's company cut me a check and all was good. But then Mike said something like "wow, that's like the best control panel I've ever used" and went on to tell me how bad most others were and how his pal Libor (who I hadn't, to that point, met) was always hating having to deal with them and how none of his designer friends even COULD use them. I kinda knew that, since I'd looked at using them before I decided to just build my own. Swell, I said. Thanks, I said. And that was that.

Until Mike asked "what would it take for me to resell your services?" The idea, originally, was that I'd run the servers (and develop the control panel further) and he'd sell the service. Several scenarios were suggested. Then Mike had an epiphany about the pricing structure and a few lunches later, Turtol was born. The original business plan was we'd spend some time making the control panel totally kick ass and Libor (who had come on board by then) would help us bootstrap by bringing in ten or so of his freelance designer friends who each had at least a couple of current and upcoming sites needing hosting. But what would become the critical piece of the puzzle was largely an accident born of my frustration with some of the work I was doing.

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A Fork in the Road

nospam@example.com (Todd D. Esposito) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 08:50:39 -0500

I've been putting this entry off for quite some time now. Not entirely on purpose -- though of course my silence was purposeful, as it was motivated by legal matters. But to increase the sense of drama, I'm not going to get right to the point. Instead, first some rambling about the nature of Open Source.

In the Open Source world, a "fork" is, generally, a Bad Thing. It means that some project has gone in a direction inconsistent with the needs of a large portion of its community (or, if you prefer, user base). Or that it's gone nowhere at all. The project leaders, keepers of the Sacred Code Repository, are either doing their own thing or nothing at all, but either way, the community gets pissed off enough that they "fork" the code. This isn't as dirty (nor as punny) as it seems. It just means that they are taking the code and making a brand new project out of it, with new leadership and new direction, like the proverbial Fork in the Road.

Forking is considered a Bad Thing, as I said above, because it indicates that there's a real disconnect among the developers and users of the project, but more so because it results in two projects in the same ecological space, so to speak. This is thought to dilute support for BOTH projects, a kind of electronic overcrowding leading inevitably to starvation of the species.

I'm not entirely convinced of this conventional wisdom. There have been successful projects which forked to created two separate but equally successful projects. And there have been forks which produced very good products which eventually re-merge into one, all stresses being forgiven. Plus, Free Market Economy 101 says that competition is intrinsically a Good Thing, and I tend to agree with that. The reasons that OSS (Open Source Software) folks seem to dislike forking is that (a) they aren't economists, by and large and (2) they are often idealists who believe that we should all be able to just get along, and forking shows the flaw in that ideal.

And this all leads to my personal Fork.... (don't you hate that I'm making you click to read about it?)....

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In the flesh

nospam@example.com (Todd D. Esposito) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:52:36 -0600

I love chambers of commerce. Yes, plural. Chicago is a big town, so every neighborhood has its own chamber. Every once in a while, a bunch of them get together for a big rollicking meeting, but most of the time the local chambers promote smaller neighborhood causes. Both sizes of meetings are good.

We're in "West Town," adjacent to the north-west corner of the Loop, our downtown district. At the regular monthly meetings, we get to meet new people from the area, plus reconnect with folks we've encountered before. Even divided up into smaller districts, Chicago is a pretty big place, so there are always new faces, new stories, new businesses. In my previous post, I posited that you really have to meet someone face to face to establish real trust. Now I don't want to knock on-line friendships. Maybe I'm showing my age or something, or I'm deficient in this particular area. But I find satisfaction mingling with a bunch of strangers, sipping crappy wine from a plastic cup and munching something I can't really identify but assume to be cheese.

Not so much, typing snarky messages into a forum or blog. This is not to say I don't enjoy that too, but it doesn't carry the same weight with me. I'd rather shake hands with the people I work with than not. Now, we have clients from coast to coast in the US and Canada, and I haven't had the opportunity to speak face-to-face with all of them. And I may not get that chance.

But to the extent I can, I do. Most of our conversations are handled over e-mail, with largish file attachments. But even if it's only a quick phone call at some point in the process, I find a little bit of personal contact adds a great deal to the relationship. I enjoy it and it makes me feel better. I hope it makes the client feel better too. So far the results are good.

Non-Social Networking

nospam@example.com (Todd D. Esposito) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:17:00 -0600

This entry may get ramblie (rambly? how DO you spell a made-up word?), but I promise all the themes do tie up nicely in the third act. The themes in question center around communication, a topic upon which I dwell frequently. A long time ago, while running a software/network consultancy, I had a client who embarked on a mission to bridge the communication gap between the mainstream American Christian community and the Muslim community. He was probably the most brilliant man I ever met. He held several Ph's D, which didn't make him brilliant, but served as outward indication. We clicked pretty quickly, and I, in my sophomoric way, explained my theory of how communication breakdowns lead to the problems we face in everyday life, both large and small. He took what I posited, and in the remarkably gentle manner of an excellent teacher, expanded on it. At the same time he deepened my understanding of my own theory. I won't go into it here, just because I have another agenda presently. Some other time, maybe.

The upshot, though, is that there is more than one type of communicating. And knowing which form to employ (either actively or passively, as initiator of a conversation or the focus of one) is at least as important as the words chosen.

This is on my mind due to my answer to the title question of the Shane and Peter Entrepreneur Interview, which has been running around in my mind for the past couple weeks. This answer basically centers around the whole notion of the current "Web 2.0" (how I loath that moniker, but it's stuck, so I'll cope) and "Social Networking" trends, and how they shape our world. You see, one of the several paths to greater visibility for my company which I've been pursuing to become part of social networks. I've got on several of them, but I've yet to work out how to exploit (in the nice sense of the word, not the mean-spirited one) these to actually get the benefit I want.

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Prior Art -- or -- How to Make Money in Open Source

nospam@example.com (Todd D. Esposito) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:56:00 -0600

I recently took Shane and Peter's Interview, as you can see, and in an follow-up comment here, Shane asked:

"a bit off topic but - how does an open source company work. I know its not quite an oxymoron, but I am feeling all conflicted when I think of it."

A common sentiment, and I'm not sure I actually have answers just yet. After all, we've only been in business for about 18 months at this writing. We haven't proven we can sustain what we're doing yet. Let's give it another 5 years and revisit. But, having studied many different business models and several theories of market and social dynamics, plus a whole slew of ideas on motivators, I can say that at least my considered hypothesis is what we're doing will work out, long term.

The options for making money from OSS (Open Source Software) seem to fall into several general categories, which we'll visit each in its turn.

Continue reading "Prior Art -- or -- How to Make Money in Open Source"