microISV, The impossible dream

I want to live the impossible dream.

For the first few years of being a programmer I never even thought about the possibility of being my own boss, of actually owning and running my own company. That was the sort of thing a few lucky others might do but never me. I only thought of myself as a code monkey, grinding away at the keyboard and enjoying the technical challenges involved.

But then things started to change. After being made redundant from my permmie job I became a contractor and enjoyed the easy money that went with the dot com boom years. Although being a contractor meant having a company it was really only a half way house to being a real business. But I started to dream the impossible, to dream of a day when I would actually start and run a real software business.

Then for a couple of years I had a little accidental success. Whilst investigating the new Microsoft .NET technology, then just being released, I created a small software library as a learning exercise. I managed to turn this little spare time project into something that could be sold to other developers. This has made a little bit of money and I learned some useful lessons from the process but this came about more by accident than by planning. But it wetted my appetite.

Since then I have read with interest the articles by Erik Sink about the concept of the microISV. The idea of a one-man company that produces software products in order to create a viable stand alone company. Of actually giving up the day job and working for yourself, not as a contractor or self employed, but as a fully-fledged product based business.

This microISV concept has really fired my enthusiasm and I have read every blog and article I can find on the idea. Combine this concept with a few ideas I have for products and suddenly I am not just dreaming about the impossible but planning on living the dream.

So that's the purpose of this blog, to track the process of starting a microISV from ground zero and seeing where it goes. It might be very embarrassing if it turns into a complete turkey, but I think the extra motivation of trying to avoid public humiliation will help me during the long dark hours ahead.

And this is where you come into the picture. I am hoping that you will be able to provide useful feedback and ideas to help me out along the way. As I share some of the problems and issues I encounter I would love to hear others ideas and suggestions. So join me for the ride and lets see where it goes!