I absolutely agree, but if a hacker can accept the fact that their code truly has value, they can bring in someone they trust to sell that to companies.

10x as much time selling it as writing it

This is not my experience.

I'm guessing my split would be more like:

  sales & marketing - 10%
  analysis          - 15%
  design            -  5%
  development       - 50%
  implementation    - 10%
  support           - 10%

Testing is not a phase, it's included in everything. Implementation includes deployment, training, and documentation.

Sales and marketing was never a problem. There is business everywhere. I mention what I do everywhere I go (who doesn't), and find business almost anywhere. Everyone uses software these days and everyone needs something. I've gotten 5 figure deals at parties, family functions, networking events, and mostly from word of mouth.

I love to hack, but I also love to talk about what I do. I may not be typical, but isn't helping people with cool tech what it's all about?

In my mind, the problem isn't the time needed for selling and marketing. The real problem is that this kind of business (consultingware, one-off packages, lite package with customization, whatever you want to call it) isn't scalable.

If my competitive advantage is better value because "the boss" (not some lightweight on an 800 number) is supporting you, then it's also my biggest limitation. I only have so many hours in a year. Sure, I can extend myself with advanced methods and technology, but sooner or later, I hit my limit. That's why it's so important to find a way to convert your consultingware business into a product business. Not an easy feat, but certainly worth the effort.

I don't think he's talking about consulting. I think he's talking about big ticket business software which almost always costs an arm and a leg to sell and market. Hell, that's true of almost all SMB software as well.

The OP was talking about a microISV (he even calls it "consultingware" himself). No mention of "big ticket business software" anywhere in this thread.

Hrm.

"I think then the best way to come up with a $20,000 B2B product idea is to focus not on "what kind of software do businesses really need?"

and:

"So, how do you sell it? Firstly, the fact you have a "lite" version is covered by your reduced price. You're going to sell your lite version for $5K or $10K a seat or something well below the competition, to account for its being a basic product."

I think his mention of consultingware is in reference to positioning it as "product-plus-consulting". Not uncommon in enterprise software to layer on services.

And, uh- $5 to $10k a seat isn't big ticket?!

The biggest problems faced by the two consultingware shops I've worked at, is that they thought they were product based shops and every design desision reflected that. But the product became so complicated that every client had there own special configuration and no-one really understood them all at the same time. It became very common to make a change for one client and break a feature for someone else when they upgraded.

IMO they would have been much better off to embrace consultingware and plan for it.

He doesn't need to scale since he doesn't care about making more money than it takes to have a comfortable lifestyle.