Craig's Lemonade

Open Source On The Brain

Over the past several years, and especially over the past couple of months, I've been trying to better understand this whole open source thing. I've been to conferences and even heard Kim Polese's pitch on why we need SpikeSource in Las Vegas not too long ago. I have several perspectives but the most dominant one is that of an ardent capitalist. Do i need to apologize? For the past 21 years I have lead or at least been present as scores of really smart people created some amazing products with real value and then (gasp) SELL those ideas to people (a.k.a. customers) who also recognized and appreciated the value. We called this "the software business."

OK, sure, the business models have all changed and continue to change but I never thought we'd all start doing this for free! Well, as much as the whole thing still annoys me because I am still in the camp that believes higher education researchers and Microsoft-haters started the whole thing out of spite. Of course, now I am a bit wiser and I am starting to see why this is all happening. I am on the executive committee of Oregon's Software Association (SAO) and we have been actively discussing how open source fits with our mission and affects our members for some time now - to no conclusion of course. Further, Oregon is quickly becoming Open Source Ground Zero ever since Linus T. moved to town (Beaverton) and park at our OSDL. Apparently even our state government is going to invest a few million dollars in some open source thing - for the jobs of course. Huh? Lastly, O'Reilly's OSCON is due here soon too.

So, what to do at our shop? At Attensa, we (for now) have no plans in this area but perhaps we should look more closely? Our value add is all about attentionstreams as a tool to mitigate information overload...not just selling an RSS proxy server. I think this "component" of what we are doing, as well as NewsGator for that matter, is essentially a commodity or will be soon. Hell, the RSS reader has already been commoditized for consumers. So, i keep asking myself, should Attensa just open source our proxy server and admin console? Let's be honest, syncing read status across multiple readers is hardly defensible long term. Plus, MSFT is doing most of the basics soon anyway with Vista/RSS/Outlook. We're focused on value-add and the business market segment (not consumers) at Attensa, so no matter what you will see some surprises from us over the next few quarters.

Open source. It's an idea worth exploring for Attensa...I think. Any thoughts? Write me, I have an "open" mind. ; )

Technorati Tags: Attensa, Attention, Enterprise RSS, IE7, microsoft outlook, Open source, OSCON, OSDL, spikesource, RSS, SAO

Failure is Necessary

I've been involved as founder and/or CEO of several software companies over the past 21 years and have been fortunate enough to work with smart, energetic people that created innovative "first" offerings in several markets. These products were financially successful, solved real business problems, and more often than not garnered industry awards of excellence. First it was development tools (a visual user interface builder called "Prototyper" in the late 80s), client/server PIMs (Now Up-to-Date and Now Contact in the early 90s), and numerous offerings for creative professionals at Extensis (including a portal called creativepro.com.) What's the point? There were many, many failures at these businesses too. And I can say without regret that all of these failures were worth the risk and ultimately we all learned more from those failures than the commercial wins. I know I certainly did.

"How Failure Breeds Success" is a great feature article in the July 10 issue of BusinessWeek that showcases numerous "failures" by known industry leaders. I believe firmly that leaders must allow their people to fail by encouraging them to push the envelope. And, I practice what I preach.

We took (are taking?) a huge risk at Attensa with our technology strategy (and laser focus on business) and its clear to me that most folks who track our little corner of the industry have no idea how significant this risk really is (and admittedly don't care either.) We invested heavily up front in our technology both in infrastructure as well as in portable client-side architectures. And, as our name suggests, "attention" is the foundation of everything we are doing. It is our bet that truly useful, real-time utilization of attention meta-data cannot be "bolted on." That's it. That's our bet.

Without describing future products and/or strategies - or defining what true "attention" really is - let's just say we think our approach will deliver significant advantages for customers. I believe our investment in a true "platform" up front was the right move. I believe our early, deep work with massive quantities of transient meta-data we call "AttentionStreams" is a revolutionary development and will enable "game-changing" capabilities that will be extraordinarily difficult for our competitors to replicate.

So, the net-net in my book is that failure is necessary. If you haven't lived through a failed product/business/service then you simply aren't pushing hard enough. And in most businesses, especially software in my experience, the risk takers are the ones that usually win.

Attensa and attention at Supernova

I just finished my 5 minutes at Supernova where I outlined the explosion of RSS in business, Attensa's take on attention metadata, and the availability our Attensa for Outlook 1.5 (whcih goes into a free public beta in the next week or so.) My last slide announced our Enterprise RSS Server and "the world's first RSS appliance!" Attensa's participation in TechCrunch's "Connected Innovator" was a little unusual as essentially all 11 of the other companies were sexy web 2.0 plays - and we are a conventional client/server software business targeting the enterprise. Nevertheless, a great event, well attended by the digerati, and I met lots of smart folks to boot. Now its off to Montreal for the Canadian GP. The pict is from our advisor and metadata know-it-all Andreas Weigend's flicker collection.

Tags: attensa, attention, supernova2006, EnterpriseRSS, RSS, Microsoft Outlook

Web 2.0 and free software. Sigh.

I just ran across a post by DEMO's Chris Shipley entitled "searching for revenue models" and think she hit the nail on the head. In my opinion, so many of these Web 2.0 companies are AJAX laden "eyeball monetization" projects with no business model other than advertising. Which of course is fine, but like Chris I don't see more than a few really being able to scale to where the advertising revenue will be significant. Further, and what is specifically interesting from where I sit is that the functionality of many of these products/web sites are impressive and are often capable of replacing their traditional conventional software counterparts. This will likely only effect consumer software, in my opinion, but its impact will be devastating to consumer software businesses. Chris writes:

"In the late '90s, a constant parade of start-ups came through my office showing business plans that relied on “monetizing eyeballs” and revenue sharing to generate an income and achieve some splendid valuation. We all know how that story ended: companies – eBay, Amazon, Yahoo, Google, and a very few others – that presented a strong value proposition to consumers weathered the storm and those that relied on other companies for their businesses, more or less, did not.

Today, the parade is back and this time the start-ups are beating the drum of free software and services. These so-called Web 2.0 businesses give away sometimes outstanding functionality now in hopes of finding a business model somewhere down the line. In the meantime, most of these companies are tapping advertising networks and hoping to build a revenue stream (trickle?) from click traffic. (Feels a whole lot like monetizing eyeballs, doesn’t it?)" Whole article here

The software  business has seen constant innovation and business model evolution from the beginning. All of it - from Consumer to Enterprise Software - have utilized tiered pricing. With the proliferation of broadband internet for reliable and quick distribution, most vendors offer a "free limited trial version" as the entry point. As the markets get even more competitive, today many of these same vendors are offering a free version in perpetuity. Whether web based or desktop based this strategy is now commonplace. OK, this is not really news, but as a conventional software entrepreneur it is frustrating to see many of the "free" offerings that don"t need to be. In the long run this cannot be supported by advertising. Chris also rightly summarizes with:

"...at least for now, I believe consumers will pay for value and that it is fundamentally wrong not to ask to be compensated for the value you deliver to the market....The software industry, however, in large measure has become afraid to ask people to pay. Ultimately, this devalues not only the application, but also the industry.

This wont really effect large or enterprise software business at all. In fact, for companies like ours the free "seeding" of client-side or web based software is an expected marketing imperative. But the functionality and service needs of large customers simply cannot be served with free software (save for open source which is another discusssion entirely.)

The software industry is only hurting itself in my opinion and there are only a handful of Oddposts or Writelys that will see a payday with their "its free and I hope someone buys us" strategy (otherwise known as a hail-mary pass.) In the meantime, real software companies lead by experienced managers are going to have to adapt and in my estimation migrate upstream where businesses will gladly pay for real value. Consumers are getting a lot for free and they aren't going back to paying for much of anything. Now that I think about it, many younger consumers never have and never will actually buy a piece of software. Until they get jobs that is, and in that case their employers will buy the software they require to actually do their job and work with others.

Our company, Attensa, is focused on delivering meaningful value to businesses. Not consumers. Not publishers. And, by the way, its not evil to actually be paid for it.

And now for something completely different...PowerSquid

When I first decided to sign up for TypePad and actually commit to a blog, I quickly felt I needed  to set up some categories. I could only justify spending the time on it if I thought if it was centered around my business (Attensa) and my experiences and opinions about starting and running software businesses. When I set up these categories I also included design. I studied graphic and industrial Design at CMU, but I didn't last long there and dropped out to start my first software company back in 1984. At the time the Macintosh had just shipped earlier that year and user interface design was a spanking new area, and interesting DOD-funded projects were emerging at the school. The rest is history.

I share this background because this post has nothing to do with Attensa, attention meta-data, information overload, or even RSS! I was so impressed with a simple new and useful product that I ran across thumbing through dwell magazine that I was compelled to share it. So, I discovered "PowerSquid" this morning.

Check out the Industrial Design firm's web site, called Trident Design that created the thing. Apparently PowerSquid is their venture and the company is based in Santa Cruz, CA. The picture of the product tells the story. Who doesn't get frustrated plugging in devices into power strips? I have three under my desk at the offfice but using less than half of the plugs because they are stacked vertically and too close together and adapters are all too big. Or, perhaps I just have too many gadgets. Either way, kudos to PowerSquid on a useful, fun, interesting, and well designed product.

Tags: PowerSquid, Trident Design, Industrial Design

Attensa is a "Connected Innovator" for SuperNova 2006!

We just learned that Attensa has been chosen as one of a dozen "Connected Innovators," a new program that is part of the annual Supernova technology event in San Francisco. "Created in collaboration with Mike Arrington of TechCrunch.com, the Connected Innovators program brings together the creators of exciting emerging technologies with the industry's top technology and business influencers" the web site says.

The twelve Supernova 2006 Connected Innovators are: (note: I inserted the snippets below of what I understand the businesses to be so apologies if I don't get them exactly right)

• Attensa - Solving  Information Overload with Attention meta-data for users and organizations
• Ether.com - Define your hourly/minute price and availability for your area of expertise
• LifeIO - don't know what this is but it is a project of "attap" (all things to all people) and has a nice web page
• NetVibes - AJAX based home page with lots of cool and useful widgets (I've tried this one, nice implementation)
• PostApp - Site says "PostApp will change how the world thinks about syndicating functionality on the web."
• Protomobl - "...enables mobile users to locate and communicate with nearby friends..."
• Sharpcast - There's been a lot of press on this one. Sync'd photos between your phone and desktops and more.
• SoonR - "Desktop Search, Outlook, Skype, and the files on desktop computer(s) are made available anywhere"
• StumbleUpon - "With a single click you can find and share cool sites matched to your interests."
• Vpod.tv - Video publishing on demand
• Webaroo - "free software program and service that lets you search and browse real web pages without a connection"
• ZiXXo - Local online digital coupons

Like some 65K or so folks (according to Feedburner stats) I subscribe to Arrington's TechCrunch, and like the weekly Industry Standard print publication back in the bubble, I always look forward to Mike's posts each morning to learn about what's going on in the Web 2.0 world. Between TC, parties, panels and edgeio, when does the guy sleep anyway?

What TechCrunch has confirmed for me since I've been reading it is that Web 2.0 is all about the consumer play. Admittedly, I am a bona fide gadget-geek, left-of-the-chasm, use it before its really ready kind of consumer - and it gets me in trouble all of the time. So, while I enjoy learning about these new Web 2.0 companies (such as our co-connected innovators listed above) it can sometimes be lonely applying new technologies (such as attention) to "less sexy" enterprise business problems. But, that's what we're working on here at Attensa and we are thrilled and proud to join this group as the token "Enterprise 2.0" company. P.S. A few months back I posted on all of these Web 2.0 companies.

We learned today that each company will have about 5 minutes on Thursday evening (June 22) to talk about their unique value propositions. Ours is (dare I say it again?) all about "Solving Information Overload." There will be no demonstrations apparently but I will of course reference our almost ready for prime-time Attensa for Outlook 1.5 (which has attention based predictive ranking) and plug our RSS Enterprise Server.

We're doing a lot more than just RSS client/server, and we look forward to participating in this new event.

Tags: Supernova 2006, TechCrunch, Attensa, Connected Innovator, RSS, Enterprise RSS, Microsoft Outlook

Technology CEOs without a clue (technically) are dangerous

Last week on his BusinessWeek blog NussbaumOnDesign, Bruce Nussbaum wrote about so-called "elite" CEOs and their growing disconnect between them and their customers. See "Are CEOs A Tech Gap in Themselves? You Bet." He starts with;

"The more I listen and learn, the more I'm convinced that members of the corporate elite of America are technologically backward and a threat to their own companies. Outside the tech/net space itself, CEOs, by and large, do not go online, know little about blogs, and are increasingly divorced and distant from their customers, their employees, their managers and their global partners (most of whom live and work online)."

One might characterize this phenomenon as some type of  inverted digital divide! I couldn't agree more with Bruce, but I will take the truth of his observation even further and tell you that even in my own peer group in Portland, Oregon, small company CEOs can be as equally out of touch. And most are leaders of friggin' software companies! This is acceptable and even expected of  CFOs, but c'mon, the CEO (and CTO) need to lead and chart a course for their business - not be a "threat to their own companies" as Nussbaum writes. And you can't do this with your head down and your assistant printing your schedule because you don't really use a computer (yes I heard this one at an AEA event from the CEO of one of our region's technology leaders!)

I serve on the executive committee of our trade industry group, the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) and frequently socialize with other leaders of small, medium, and a few large sized companies in the technology sector, and I am routinely amazed at how few of these folks are with the program with regard to technology that is relevant to their business. Nothing is more critical than understanding how a potential or current customer can use your product or service. even better than understanding is actually engaging in the process. I'll give you an example... "Mobile" platforms. I am amazed and even disappointed at how many of my peers are not paying attention to this important area! Phones are computers and they run software and they will be the most important device for all of us - Soon.

That all said, lets not stop with the corner office. What is that saying, "Eat your own dog food?" I was actually talking today with someone at a blogging software company (who incidentally actually likes to write) but doesn't have an active blog?! Of course, I'm sure the rationale is sound. At the end of the day I don't expect that many CEOs will blog (too busy, right?) and probably most shouldn't, but there is no excuse for being "technologically backward" if you are actually leading a company in the technology space. So, technology CEOs, you don't have to personally start writing a blog - but you should know what one is.

Off soapbox.

P.S. Also relevant, a ways back I posted "CEOs not using RSS are irresponsible, lazy, or clueless"

Tags: NussbaumOnDesign, Business Blogging, Software Business, SAO.org

The Stages of RSS in Business

At my attention pitch a few weeks back in New York at Syndicate, I shared a little bit from our experience at Attensa about how RSS finds its way into business. Clearly, as with consumers and RSS, it starts with blogs. This might be obvious to many but I am asked about it so frequently, I thought it warranted a more detailed post. I have seen how RSS can rapidly proliferate in organizations once it is utilized for true business purposes. My observations have convinced me that RSS seems to make its way into business, organically, as follows:

1. Blog Post Updates, Mainstream News - Perhaps obvious but this is how it starts. An individual from anywhere in a company starts using RSS to get updates from blogs and more than likely it is not work related. The other introductory use of RSS flows from subscriptions to news sources such as BusinessWeek, major newspapers, or even more useful an industry publication such as eWeek. This is getting progressively easier with toolbar products that auto-discover feeds. IE7 has this new feature, and Attensa has a toolbar today for IE7 and firefox that detects and displays multiple feeds on one page. Of course, I am biased but it is hands down the best implementation of its kind PLUS includes delicious tagging tools as well. See it here.

2. Marketing and Competitive Intelligence - Rather than cluttering email inboxes with Google alerts, RSS often becomes important overnight for business as a means for marketing folks to keep informed about both their brands and the activity of their competitors. Sales people can use RSS to monitor both current customers as well as prospects. (And, by the way, Attensa's Outlook based RSS reader lets you search for terms across up to 16 search engines.)

3. Business Blogs, Wikis and Collaboration Software - There are numerous players in this space ranging from enterprise class solutions like SocialText and Confluence, collaboration tools like BaseCamp and CentralDesktop, and lastly even offerings such as Six Apart's TypePad (which I use.) All of the applications support RSS, enabling them to communicate updates to those in the relevant groups that are subscribed to the appropriate feeds. This is an exciting growth area that is affecting not just large businesses but even small and medium sized businesses. Also worth noting, Attensa's new partner, Six Apart, has an enterprise offering looming. Details here so far.

4. Enterprise Applications that utilize RSS - Although early, progressive enterprise application vendors are enabling their applications with RSS. There is probably no better place to look than to Spanning Partners' application of RSS to SalesForce. Charlie Wood, the company's founder, is already a leading expert in this area. I've already learned much from him and through his efforts about where enterprise the enterprise app vendors are going. Also, a few months ago Charlie wrote on this subject, see this post.

So, where does that leave us? It doesn't take complicated math to see that before you know it individual users are going to be receiving THOUSANDS of RSS items per day. Some people today (most?) are still in stage 1 described above and if subscribed to two or three hundred feeds for news, blogs, smart searches, etc - they might already occasionally get 1,000 items in ONE DAY. Granted, they are asking for these feeds and it's not like getting 1,000 emails a day where half of it is spam.

I think RSS will mirror the success AND the negativity that email has brought to us in business. Most businesses couldn't imagine trying to work productively without email - but email also brought us spam, viruses, inappropriate use, the "RE: RE: RE:" annoyance, security challenges, etc etc etc. Same will be the case the RSS. RSS will bring to all (and already is for some) unprecedented business productivity. The difference is, I am convinced, that the sheer volume (sans abuse or spam) will dwarf e-mail.

Ideally, Attensa will be there to help cut through this information overload!

Technorati Tags: Attensa, IE7, Collaboration, CentralDesktop, Six Apart, SocialText, Software Business, SyndicateNYC, Enterprise RSS, BaseCamp, TypePad

Solid, useful advice for budding technology entrepreneurs

How to build a bulletproof startup Got a great idea? There's never been a better time to turn it into a great company. Here's a 16-step guide to help you do it right.

This is the title of a feature in Business 2.0 by Om Malik and Michael V. Copeland. When ever I encounter one of these articles I roll my eyes. Usually they are either painfully obvious lists of "duhs", written by journalists who haven't done it (but maybe just watched closely), or the worst - written by lucky entrepreneurs who have never actually "built" a business (profitable or otherwise.) Well, this feature story is none of these. I wish I had this twenty one years ago when I co-founded my first software company, or the others actually now that I think of it. There is of course no substitute for the school of hard knocks, but I highly recommend giving this a thorough read.

An introductory paragraph also sums up nicely the sentiment I share with friends, old investors, and even on entrepreneurship panels - and that is that there has never been a better time to to just go for it.

"...there's never been a better time to start your own company. New technologies are creating new business opportunities on the Internet, on mobile phones, in consumer products, and in information services. At the same time, many of these technologies have radically reduced the costs associated with launching a new venture. In the late 1990s, a typical VC-funded startup needed roughly $10 million to amass the infrastructure and staff required to carry the company from its first business plan to its first product launch. Today that cost has been reduced to just $4 million--and in many cases way, way less. The barriers to entry have never been lower."

Guy Kawasaki's blog is also really funny and often useful, and I like his "lists" too, but this article is a must read.

Tags: Om Malik, Business 2.0, Software Business, Entrepreneurship

Technorati Tags: Business 2.0, Entrepreneurship, Om Malik, Software Business

Ajax desktops for consumers, cool but a commodity

I was surprised to learn of Benchmark's investment in Germany's PageFlakes today. Have they not seen WindowsLive? Same goes for France's NetVibes. Like many in this web 2.0 neck of the woods I get these tidbits from TechCrunch, and Mike A's take is here. He calls it an "Ajax Desktop War." Hmmm, "war" might be overstating things a tad. Both are cool and perhaps even elegant Ajax implementations, but they look like a product to me, not a business. These web services already seem like a commodity to me. There was one called Octopus or something like it back in the bubble too - I wonder what ever happened to that?

The net, net of it is that Google, Yahoo, AOL, IAC, Fox, etc will all no doubt want this customizable feature set for consumers, and my expectation is that they are either already doing it themselves, or will buy these companies and others that will likely pop-up over the next several months. Maybe these were just built to flip out of the chute. We'll see.

One thing is for sure, these two offerings (and Windows Live) are a lot more compelling than the rebranded Claria's "PersonalWeb". What a disaster that appears to be. I got a demo at Ad-Tech and couldn't believe they were going forward with it with all of the options already surfacing such as the aforementioned Vibes, Flakes and Live. The damn thing has ads in every module and still installs software to monitor your behavior to - you guessed it - better target the ads. It's far less sneaky/sleazy than what they used to do (really profitably by the way) ...but I predict their "PersonalWeb" will fail given the less cluttered, less invasive alternatives such as the one that it appears Benchmark will be backing. Here's more about Claria's policies as an FYI.

That said, and given Attensa's focus on RSS, Attention, and business...we agree philosophically with the approach of the user experience these Ajax desktops deliver but feel there is more potent application in business, by leveraging attention, and giving genuine value back to the "knowledge worker" rather than just delivering more relevant ads.

Tags: PageFlakes, NetVibes, WindowsLive, TechCrunch, Claria, Attention, Benchmark, Enterprise RSS

Technorati Tags: Attention, Benchmark, Claria, Enterprise RSS, NetVibes, PageFlakes, TechCrunch, WindowsLive