Interview: DiBartolomeo of Artwork Conversion explores EDA bootstrapping realities

[skmurphy]

Full interview at SKMurphy, Inc. » Founder Story: Steve DiBartolomeo of Artwork Conversion Software

Q: Any suggestions for other entrepreneurs who want to bootstrap a software business?
If you want to run a company you can make a living from–in other words you are not writing a business plan where the exit strategy is on the first page–then I think I can make a couple of suggestions.

• Start with a small team with common values and complementing skills – in our case Antonio was the programming guy and I was the sales/applications guy.
• Don’t take any more money–none if possible–from outsiders than absolutely required.
• Create something small and simple and quickly get it out there. You’ll get much better and faster feedback than if you try to go around asking people what they want.
• Refine it based on feedback. Document it. Do it again.
• Grow slowly. Fast growth is very inefficient since you will then have a lot of people on board that have not figured out their job.
• Staff or employee turnover has a high hidden cost since the replacements have to start over.
• Cash is king. Save some of your profits as a cushion against a rainy day.
• Spend a lot of time listening to your customer’s problems. Not every problem is one you can or should solve, but the aggregation of their issues gives you a solid base for making seat-of-the-pants decisions. You’ll never have enough information to make a MBA-style decision on new products or directions. But if you’ve listened to enough customers you’ll have a good “feel” and make better decisions.
• Beware of business plans. Have a look at some business plans that are 3-5 years old of both successful and unsuccessful companies. You’ll have a good laugh at both. The main difference between the successful companies and the dead/dying ones is how they reacted when their assumptions blew up.

Finally and most importantly: people can say one thing and do another. Only act on what people tell you if you see that their behavior is consistent with their talk. People are much better at telling you what they don’t like than at what they want. When we are developing a new product we try to get something into their hands quickly and then listen to them criticize it. The criticisms are usually much more specific and useful to defining a product.