 |
||
Business Strategy for Software Executives |
October 30, 2006 |
|
|
Launching an Open Source BusinessMoving from open source ìprojectî to ìcompanyî involves unique considerations for todayís software startups.By Dave Rosenberg, MuleSource There are many great open source projects that have dedicated developers, users and admirers. But only a few have the possibility of becoming legitimate businesses. The trick is to figure out the market, the business context and the viability of sustained revenue. I recently went through a successful fundraising effort to build a company around an open source project called Mule, which was developed by my co-founder, Ross Mason. We raised $4 million from Hummer Winblad and Morgenthaler earlier this month. The takeaways from our experience moving from open source project to open source business may serve as guideposts for other second-generation open source startups.
|
||
VCs: Widen Thy NetThe latest data show venture capital investment is holding steady at $6 billion per quarter ñ not bad. But a new report from Topline Strategy Group finds that venture investors could improve their returns if they broaden their areas of investment. Founder Jonathan Klein outlines where VC money is flowing now, and where new opportunities lie in this weekís post to the SandHill.com Blog on Software Finance. To Hype or Not to HypeÖEvery innovation is new ñ but how oftenÝ should tech companies play the ìnew and improvedî card when they market their products? David Taber of Taber Consulting offers some perspective and advice on how and when to hype ìnewî products in this weekís post to the SandHill.com Blog on Sales & Marketing. Publish Your Perspectives!The SandHill.com Blog wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to editor@sandhill.com and weíll publish them in our blog.
Learn to Work Better with OthersLower communication costs and globalization make for a tremendous opportunity for knowledge-industry workers to collaborate. Management must improve the networks through which this collaboration occurs in order to best take advantage of Enteprise 2.0 potential. Learn more in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly. Poll: Oracle vs. Red Hat?Will Oracleís move to offer service & support to Red Hat customers mean death to the open source company? Last week, readers gave their opinions as to whether they thought a new technology investment bubble is building. More at SandHill.com:Presenting the next wave of software licensingÖ Source Labs gets $7 million. PDF Solutions buys Si Automation. Cadre Technologies names Chris Scherpenseel as CEO. Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site. Parting ThoughtìOpen-source is nothing more than peer-review science.î Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group |
THIS WEEK'S SPONSOR
GlobalLogic (formerly Induslogic) is a leading pure play global product development company, offering a portfolio of software product life cycle solutions. GlobalLogic delivers high quality, reliable and cost-effective Software Product Lifecycle services to customers globally. SOFTWARE PULSESoftware Pulse is a publication of SandHill.com, the online resource for software business strategy. To subscribe, To unsubscribe, see the bottom of this email. Forward this email to a friend Send us your feedback, SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics. |
|
