Gestation Phase - First 2 Months

November 1, 2004 was Day 1 for me as a microISV.
Since then I have been in the Gestation Phase.
(Note: this terminology is from Ten3 Business e-Coach. Take a look, their site is filled with 100s of quality concise articles related to starting and running a business)

The risks identified with the first period of a new venture are:
- clarifying vision
- developing your business skills
- identification of the market niche

I started with a file of potential ideas and some prototype code for some of the ideas.
I had a short-list of 3 ideas and one in particular that I was prototyping. I started working on something called TEAM qWIKpage while learning as much as I could about business, and marketing in particular (which I contend covers most of what we need as microISVs)

On the personal side I also spent more time with my family than in the past 7 years while at Pattern Discovery Software as Dir. of Product Development. I needed more time with my kids just doing things together. Simple things, like preparing and eating breakfast with all 5 of us each morning and then driving them to school instead of the bus. Of course, I may have accomplished more in my business if I didn't do this but you can't put a price on these memories.

While working on the qWIKpage Technology in Nov and Dec, I made some exciting innovations that will differentiate it from the competition.
At the same time, I was becoming less comfortable with my market positioning. You see, this technology (not unveiled yet) can be used in many applications.

The common downfall of many software entrepreneurs is that they get married to an idea and press on with developing and launching a product. In an article titled, The 10 Deadly Small Business Mistakes, the number one mistake is "Getting Wedded to an Idea and Sticking with it Too Long". With the technical blinders on, the status quo entrepreneur misses the chance to target a more profitable market.

We read everywhere that the best time to save a failing project is sooner rather than later. For this reason, I stopped the product development to allow me to be more diligent about the product strategy.

I shifted my focus to www.qWIKpage.com to do some on-the-job training on launching a site, getting it indexed in the search engines and generating traffic.

While doing this I started to do some market research on some other product ideas. This is where I am now.

If you read my tongue-in-cheek page About DRB, you will learn that a personal passion of mine is running. This experience has identified an opportunity in the sizeable running subculture. Not only is there a potential for a successful site/service/franchise but there is a seasonal window of opportunity that goes along with it. For this reason, I have committed to developing this idea immediately.