Community News:

• Rob Walling, The Micropreneur Academy, has brand new book out: Start Small, Stay Small: A Developer’s Guide to Launching a Startup is out. Have not yet had time to read it, but Rob knows his stuff, and people I respect are raving about it.
• There’s a new website, SoftCity, focused on connecting software developers, and experts with software users. The site provides a single destination for discussing, commenting, posting articles and reviews as well as trying and buying software. Think independent small developer Apple App Store + social media. If you’re looking for another channel to reach customers (and you should), check them out.

Interesting Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• Using consulting to bootstrap your software startup
• What are your top 3 – 5 SEO tips?
• How complete do you make your product before launching it?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Dharmesh Shah (OnStartups.com) adds a valuable concept to Lean Startups: From Minimally Viable To Maximally Buyable Product.
• Since we’ve peaked (in the northern hemisphere) for the year in terms of daylight hours, maybe you should brush up on your productivity: Working Hard Is not Enough. Here’s 18 Ways to Work Smart.
• My new favorite blogger, Stephen Fry (yes, that Stephen Fry) has another well-done review of an Apple product: iPhone 4: a Welcome and a Warning. Well worth reading.

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• New Guide at StartupToDo.com this week. (StartupToDo.com is a subscription-based community of startup founders; if you’re not already a member, get your free 30 day free trial membership):
  • New: Using Tweet Adder to Increase Your Twitter Efficiency.
• New show at the Startup Success Podcast:
  • Show #72 [link] [iTunes]. This week Bob and Pat talk with Adeo Ressi, creator of the Founder Institute (FI), a unique four-month apprenticeship and training program for startup founders running in multiple cities. Adeo shares FI’s approach to recruiting startups that results in a 75% success rate, answers questions about how FI works and has some excellent advice for startups.
    Also this week, Bob recently interviewed Alex Kölpin of Berlin Partner. If you are a US startup thinking about opening an EU office, Berlin Partner – a public/private partnership promoting Berlin as a Startup hub – has a great deal for you. Alex also has some very good advice for EU and German startups looking for assistance in breaking into the US market.
• Active Scholarships at StartupToDo.com:
  • OnStartups.com, Atomic Object and Microsoft Website Spark

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• Sarat Pediredla, hedgehog lab, wanted to let MicroISV Digest readers know about a special offer: buy their bug tracker, fixx, and get 50% off the purchase price until the end of July. (Promo code: SQUASHMYBUGS). (Check out their site in any case: nice use of a custom font.)
• What’s better than having four iPad apps out? Launching four more. Kristina Godfrey, School Zone, has launched “Phonics Learning Game,” ”Preschool Learning Game,” “Kindergarten Learning Game,” and “First Grade Learning Game,” for $9.99 each, for preschool, kindergarten or first grade children (or their parents who actually have the credit cards.)
• Women 2.0 Labs is a new 5-week afterwork program (July 6 – August 5, 2010) for engineers, developers, biz dev folks, and marketing mavens to develop high-growth technology ventures in San Francisco, sponsored by Women 2.0 and open to both women and men. If you want to join one of five teams building a startup with great mentors and support, definitely check this out. Deadline to apply for this program is June 20th, 2010. (StartupToDo.com is donating six-month scholarships to all team members.)

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• Having a Hard time explaining my business.
• Time Tracking tool?
• What strategies do you use to deal with uncertainty in your startup?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Tony Hsieh built his online shoe retailer into an e-commerce powerhouse. But with credit tightening and investors eyeing the exits, Hsieh was forced to ask: Was selling Zappos really the only way to save it? Why I Sold Zappos, at Inc.
• Why Japan Matters: iPad Mania, Cloud Computing, And Social Intelligence, by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com, at TechCrunch.
• An in-depth news story on how our digital/online interactions are changing how we think, perceive and act: Hooked on Gadgets, and Paying a Mental Price.
• 10 Persistent Social Media Marketing Myths – a very good read.

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• One new Guides at StartupToDo.com (StartupToDo.com is a subscription-based community of startup founders; if you’re not already a member, you will need to start your free 30 day trial membership for these links to work.):
  • Getting Legal Advice or Services as a Lean Startup.
  • New features: You now have the option of getting a tweek, email or StartupToDo.com message when another member completes a Site Review you requested and you can choose to be notified with a tweet and/or email when you are messaged within StartupToDo.com.
• One new Show at the Startup Success Podcast:
  • Show #70 [link] [iTunes]. This week Bob and Pat talk with Social Media and PR thought leader Steve Rubel on the changing roles of blogging, social media, public relations, and advertising. The days when a startup could get by with only a blog to engage people online are over as increasingly, social media weaves its way throughout organizations small and large. As SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman (the world’s largest independent PR firm), Steve shares his insights from the bleeding edge of social media transformation.
• Active Scholarships at StartupToDo.com:
  • OnStartups.com, Atomic Object and Microsoft Website Spark

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• There’s a new startup podcast: Startups for the Rest of Us. It focuses on actionable strategies for bootstrapped startups, microISVs and Micropreneurs, with hosts Rob Walling of Software by Rob and Mike Taber of SingleFounder.com. There’s a new episode every Tuesday at StartupsForTheRestOfUs.com, with full episode transcripts provided. [iTunes link]. Way to go Rob and Mike!
• Will Rayer, Ubercode Software, has a new release of Ubercode out with an improved code editor, optimized highlighting code, and improved tooltips. Ubercode is an easy-to-use environment allowing you to create your own software, Free download available.
• Keith Platfoot, RBK Inc., has started an open beta of Maintaino, an online, subscription-based maintenance scheduling and tracking application.  Beta participants will receive a 50% discount for a full year after they launch.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• What are the most common IT services needed by start-ups?
• What is the first step to driving leads?
• How to find and evaluate the most popular blogs to promote your business?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• If you are a Seth Godin fan (and you should be), why not get out and meet other Linchpins June 14th? That’s the day of the Linchpins-are-everywhere-raise-the-flag global Meetup – with 764 (at last count) meetups happening. More info about this event here and sign up to attend/host a meetup here.
• A good post on the Facebook privacy debacle: Can Facebook Unring The Privacy Bell?
• Every year Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher host D: All Things Digital conference with great guests being asked pointed questions. This year is no exception: Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and this beauty: FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski at D8: Trying to Get U.S. Broadband Up to Speed.

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Two new Guides at StartupToDo.com (StartupToDo.com is a subscription-based community of startup founders; if you’re not already a member, you will need to start your free 30 day trial membership for these links to work.):
  • Getting your startup’s email out with Postmark.
  • Create a US Utility Patent Application for free for your start-up, by Dmitry Platonov.
• One new Show at the Startup Success Podcast:
  • Show #69 [link] [iTunes]. This week Bob and Pat talk with Gina Trapani; developer, regular on the This Week in Google podcast, and former lead writer of Lifehacker.com. We talk with Gina about her latest project – ThinkTank – an open source insights engine for collecting and organizing social media responses. And we cover social productivity, Google Wave, and Expert Labs, which is supporting ThinkTank and connecting policy makers to the social graph. We also talk with Gina about gender and sexual orientation issues in the Startup World and in IT in general.
• Active Scholarships at StartupToDo.com:
  • OnStartups.com, Atomic Object and Microsoft Website Spark

====
(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me atbob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

(Apologies to all for the six-week hiatus the MicroISV Digest took while I was working to get out StartupToDo.com Version 2 and start marketing.)

Community News:

• BP and the feds may not be able to turn off the Gulf Oil Spill disaster, but maybe you can code a mobile app that will help. At least that’s the approach Jeff Haynie and the rest of the Appcelerator team is taking. Two open source apps – Oil Reporter and Oil Tracker – are in use, and the company that developed these two apps is working to connect other volunteer developers with government agencies and animal rescue organizations. More info here and especially here.
• Chet Karella of Dangerous Decisions has created the perfect high school graduation gift for parents worried about their speeding sons and daughters: Save Driver Program uses the iPhone GPS and accelerometers to email you when an iPhone toting driver exceeds whatever speed or acceleration set points you want them to stay below.
• Richard Nichols has released Draw 5 (iPad version). What caught my eye was when he said, “Imagine, it actually took me less time to write a full featured Draw 5 Video Poker game that it did for the iTunes reviewers to review and pass it! This was all from scratch and is fully animated with voice prompts and detailed score history. I say this because someone actually accused me of using a 3rd party game framework!” I think I’m in the wrong business. Details here.
• Need to be willing to share. Besides all of the cool apps for adults coming out for the iPad (remember a mere two months ago when it was all the rage to diss the iPad? I do.), there’s plenty of goodness for the wee ones. Case in point: School Zone was among the first companies to launch titles, which parents and teachers can download for $9.99 each: “On-Track Time, Money & Fractions,” ”Flash Action Multiplication & Division” and “Flash Action Addition & Subtraction.” More info.
• Steve Cholerton, Arten Science, have recently released the Multi-User MySQL Edition of their popular ContaxCRM software.  Further information on ContaxCRM Cross Platform Contact Relationship Management Software can be found here.
• The conference schedule for the 20th annual Software Industry Conference (SIC) has been posted. Join your fellow MicroISVs in Dallas, Texas July 15-17, 2010. Special topics include: Selling Your Product on Amazon.com, Code Signing and Authenticode, 25 Ways to Get Google AdWords Wrong, Software Update Strategies, Conversion Optimization, Essentials in Successful Software Promotions, and e-Commerce 3.0. Network with MicroISV pioneers and hundreds of your peers. See the full conference schedule at: http://sic.org/fullsched.asp. Hope to see you there!
• Speaking of conferences, I’ll be giving the keynote for Deploy 2010 June 24th in Seattle – more info here. Early bird pricing ends Friday, so now’s a good time to hop on it.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• What accounting software does most software startups use?
• Putting together a landing page and email contact form
• Have the ideas, found the niche…what to do first?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Leon Bambrick does great lists: 24 things to do, and 100 things *not* to do (yet) for building a MicroISV. Good luck on your new microISV Leon!
• Good reading: Paul Graham on Organic Startup Ideas.
• Crowdsourcing is changing the ways to launch and build a microISV or startup: The lazy CEO’s 10-step guide to crowdsourcing every business task.
• Here’s ten things I need to do. How about you? 10 Marketing Resources Every App Should Provide
• After reading umpteen posts saying the same thing about social media, here’s a breath of fresh air: 5 Surprising Social Media Business Success Stories
• And not to bang the I-told-you-so about the iPad drum too loudly, here’s a post about the effect it’s had on one IT family: What iPads Did To My Family

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Seven new Guides at StartupToDo.com (StartupToDo.com is a subscription-based community of startup founders; if you’re not already a member, you will need to start your free 30 day trial membership for these links to work.):
  • Recording audio guidelines for videos, podcasts or Skype. By Corey Maass, dubfiler.com
  • Improving your copywriting. By Pietro Polsinelli, patapage.com
  • Managing your testimonials with Propadoo.com. By Jim Mueller, propadoo.com
  • A better way to build your startup: the Lean Startup approach.
  • Demoing your startup with Dimdim.
  • Learn How to Conduct Competitive Research for Your Startup. By Daniel Kehoe,
  • Getting the most out of attending a conference/event.
• Five new Shows at the Startup Success Podcast:
  • Show #64 [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat interview Maria Ly, co-founder of Skimble, an iPhone app for tracking and sharing all your sports activities (from rockclimbing to yoga and everything in between). Maria shares her experience as an Apple iPhone developer, how she and her partner and co-founder Gabriel Vanrenen make a business and personal relationship work, and lots more.
  • Show #65 [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat interview two key players in the Startup Visa Act – Eric Ries (see show 59) and Representative Jared Polis (CO-D) who is sponsoring this bill in the House. Eric is also the organizer of the Startup Lessons Learned Conference on April 23rd about the lean startups methodology.
  • Show #66 [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat interview Tom Foremski, one of the foremost journalists covering Silicon Valley, the world of startups and the shifting sands under the feet of traditional media. Tom was one of the first top rank journalists to go solo and leave the sinking mainstream media ship. You’ll find his analysis of the coming media tsunami and why every company – including your startup – is now a media company nourishing food for thought.
  • Show #67 [link] [iTunes]. This week, Bob and Pat talk with Steven Rodin, President of StoragePipe Solutions, one of the first companies to provide online enterprise backup in North America about the changing face of business backup needs in the age of cloud computing. And we talk (starting about 19:20) with Marsh Sutherland and Ken Herron, 2 of the three co-founders of SocialGrow, a still-in-alpha New England startup that holds the promise of restructuring our social media relationships with business peers and personal friends.
  • Show #68 [link] [iTunes]. This week, Bob and Pat interview friend of the show David Schenberg, CEO and cofounder of BusyEvent.com about new events technologies that change the equation both for organizers and attendees. David shares his insights on why being first matters, not being afraid of creating a hardware-based barrier to entry for potential competitors and choosing a business that can scale.
• Four active Scholarships at StartupToDo.com:
  • Details on the first 3: (OnStartups.com, Atomic Object and Microsoft Website Spark)
  • Details on #4 can be found at the Seattle 2.0 blog, the organizers of Deploy 2010 here and here.

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me atbob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• Eight free scholarships to the “Startup Lessons Learned” Conference – On April 23 the first Lean Startups conference happens in San Francisco, and the organizers have made available eight scholarships to startup professionals who are interested in attending the show. The scholarships cover the full price of conference registration, valued at $699 for the “early-bird” registration. The confirmed speaker list is a who’s who of the Lean Startup movement, including:
  • Eric Ries, The Lean Startup (@ericries)
  • Kent Beck, Three Rivers Institute (@kentbeck)
  • Steve Blank (@sgblank)
  • Randy Komisar, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
  • Andrew Chen, Futuristic Play (@andrew_chen)
  • David Weekly, PB Works (@dweekly)
  • Hiten Shah, KISSmetrics (@hnshah)

  If you’re interested in applying, send an email to leanapplication@imvu.com before midnight on Monday, April 12, 2010 describing (in 500 words or less) who you are, how you are using (or intend to use) the lean startup methodology and how the scholarship will help your company. Selected recipients will be notified by Friday, April 16, 2010. More info.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• Referring to one-man-company: use “we” or “I”?
• Can one pay for expenses that a start up requires before forming your LLC or Corp?
• How to start a business and not destroy your marriage?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Just one: Gina Trapani’s awesome The Power User’s Guide to Google Apps. If you use Google Apps, this is a post you need to read.

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• No new Guides at StartupToDo.com (I’ve been on a programming deathmarch the past month, striving to finish 2.0a):
• Show #63 [link] [iTunes]. Bob interviews Jason Fried, co-founder and president of 37signals and co-author of Getting Real and now REWORK. Jason is the archetype of a successful web-based software company founder (Basecamp, Highrise, Campfire, Backpack), a strong proponent for a reality-based (versus VC-funded) approach to building a tech company with a point of view, and a strong believer most of the accepted ways of doing business don’t scale down to startups.
  
  In this interview, we dig into not just Jason and David Heinemeier Hansson’s new book about the business of startups, but why and how they arrived at 37signals’ successful approach to building a software company. Jason generously shares a range of advice and experience about building your startup that is anything but a rehash of all the other advice you’ve heard.
• Show #62 [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat talk with Paul Pluschkell, CEO and cofounder of Spigit.com, an innovative startup that is transforming social media, innovation and idea creation in large enterprises and other companies. What happens when social media reputation building, leaderboards, voting ideas up and down within a company meets companies like AT&T, Walmart and Southwest Airlines? The results may surprise you.
  
  Paul shares some very useful advice for startups selling to enterprises as well, and offers a perspective from a vantage point few enjoy on how social media is going change the workplace.
• Show #61 [link] [iTunes]. This week Bob and Pat conclude our interview with Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
  
  In this show, we quiz Daniel on why public education systems don’t teach how to select your own motivation, how organizations can build that into their business DNA, get some answers for questions for Dan posted by our listeners, how he personally integrates work and personal time, and more.
  

• Show #60: [link] [iTunes]. This week Bob and Pat start an interview with Daniel Pink, bestselling author of Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us.
  
  If you’ve ever wondered why sometimes when doing creative work you’re highly motivated and other times unmotivated, this is part 1 of a 2 part interview that may profoundly change your life.
  
  The scientific research and conclusions Dan brings to the modern business world go a long way to explain why some startups founders succeed, others run out of steam, why some companies will succeed and others fail as we continue moving to an world based on creating ideas, not running assembly lines.

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• Pretty quiet out there…

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• What would you do different if your startup was launching today?
• Does having a professional email account matter?
• SEO: Where can I get reliable information about building my website presence and reputation?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Want to know how to find your customers? This is the post for you: 7 Insanely Useful Ways to Search Twitter for Marketing.
• Cloudsourcing using Second Life: How I reduced translation costs of 200 articles from $9000 to $46
• Dreaming the Possible Dream (Tom Friedman, NYT).
• Getting an introduction to a VC is no mean feat.Tony Wright tells you how: How to Ask for an Introduction.
• A Pew Internet Study: Understanding the Participatory News Consumer. “The internet is at the center of the story of how people’s relationship to news is changing. Six in ten Americans (59%) get news from a combination of online and offline sources on a typical day, and the internet is now the third most popular news platform, behind local television news and national television news.”

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• No new Guides at StartupToDo.com (I’ve had my coder hat on, finishing 2.0a):
• Show #59 of the Startup Success Podcast is up:  [link] [iTunes]. Should there be a special immigration visa for non-U.S. startup founders? We grill Eric Ries of StartupVisa.com about the federal bill he and thousands of VCs, Angels, Silicon Valley notables, IT people, and others are supporting, tweeting and advocating.

  Pat and Bob robustly question Eric on exactly how the Startup Visa would work, what it will and won’t do, how this VC/tech community political movement got started, and can social media become political action and even national policy.

• Show #58 of the Startup Success Podcast:  [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat talk nuts and bolts, billing and bookkeeping with Greg Jones, CEO of Bookkeeping Express. A startup is a business and an outsourced, tech-aware, certified bookkeeper using a state-of-the-art online accounting system can do bookkeeping tasks better, and save you money at the same time

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• Mike Schoeffler, roadbud.com: the right three words could win you a top-of-the-line iPhone. Mike is running a contest to find a great tagline for his new iPhone app coming out March 1st – details here.
• David Christian, Bright Spark Software, SimpleGlucose is trying an experiment, switching to the ‘freemium’ model: membership is now free with Google Adwords ads in the main members area, later diabetic specific companies (such as manufacturers of blood glucose meters). What do you think?
• Marcus McConnel, bvsoftware, has released a major upgrade to his hosted shopping cart platform. They have a free store plan for up to 10 products which might be of interest to some of you. Marcus is presently working on adding electronic download functionality for MicroISVs looking for inexpensive tools to sell digital goods.
• Wayne Allen, devZing.com, has released devZing.com, a software project management hosting solution where we deploy and manage the software and hardware and you make your product better. They call it “No Hassle Project Management Hosting”. Currently they provide Bugzilla and MantisBT with TikiWiki coming soon.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• What is the best free seo rank checker tool?
• How to request a review from bloggers?

Who would you like to listen to/ask questions of

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Adam Goucher spotted this guest post by one of my favorite new startup bloggers, Ash Maurya, a lean entrepreneur who runs a bootstrapped startup called CloudFire: My experiments in lean pricing.
• And speaking of Ash Maurya, Customer Development Checklist for My Web Startup – Part 1 and Customer Development Checklist for My Web Startup – Part 2.
• A video worth watching from Women 2.0 in Conversation: Maria Ly Makes the Climb.
• Must see TV for startups and microISVS: Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain.
  
• A thoughtful post: In the Future We’ll All Have Online Reputation Scores. Punchline and software opportunity: “In a world where individuals emerge as important sources of information, products and services, people will need a way to break through the limited knowledge they’ll have on any one person. Look for online reputations to emerge as a way to fill that gap.”
• The blurring distinction between graphic design and software development. Great, relevant post on Pietro Polsinelli’s blog.

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Three new Guides at StartupToDo.com:
  • Google Adwords for the Startup: High Level Overview by Ben Wootton
  • Google Adwords for the Startup: Increasing Adwords ROI by Ben Wootton
  • Rekindling your Motivation.
• Show #57 of the Startup Success Podcast is up:  [link] [iTunes]. A very special interview with author and marketing authority Seth Godin on how startups can succeed in a world where fitting in doesn’t work anymore. Seth is the author of a dozen bestselling books including Purple Cow, Tribes, Permission Marketing and most recently and perhaps most importantly, Linchpin.

  In this interview Bob and Pat have the opportunity to ask Seth how Linchpin applies to startups, the IT industry, what art means to developers, what keeps you from shipping, what Ayn Rand would say and succeeding in this post-industrial world. And, we get to several of the questions you asked us to ask.

• Show #56 of the Startup Success Podcast:  [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat interview Carl Erickson, President of Atomic Object, on the importance of testing regardless of platform, how to outsource startup development, applying Agile techniques – pair programming and standup meetings – to startup development, why programming deathmarches are a bad idea and more.

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• The 19th annual Software Industry Conference will be held this year in Dallas, Texas at the Hyatt Regency DFW, July 15-17, 2010. The conference runs each year from Thursday through Saturday. It is designed for both beginners and experienced Micro ISVs and internet marketers. At SIC you can go to sessions on current software and internet marketing topics, take part in web site and marketing tutorials, participate in networking opportunities, attend Exhibit Night, and mingle with your peers at the Gala Networking Dinner. For more information on the SIC visit their web site at: http://sic.org
• Mike Davis, Centripetal Software, has launched Centripetal Retrieve for Basecamp a comprehensive backup solution for 37Signals Basecamp. It provides automated backups of all your Basecamp files, writeboards and data and delivers it to you via Dropbox or FTP. If you’re interested, email Mike first and just mention mention my name, and you’ll get a discount.
• Dennis Gurock, Gurock Software, has released his second product after 18 months of development: TestRail – a web-based test case management tool.
• Will Rayer, ubercode.com, has updated Ubercode (a programming environment for Windows designed to make it easy to build EXE files). The improvements in v1.2 include full support for Windows Vista, updated help and documentation, over 63 tested example programs, CHM and HTML help, and many other tweaks and improvements.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• Video hosting provider for commercial content – who is the best?
• What’s the best way to assemble a board of advisors/mentors?
• Captcha vs. Email confirmation vs. None
• No 1 “must read” for startup founder. Could you point just one?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Jason Cohen on Painful, Surreal, and Surprisingly Effective: The Personal Checklist – if you Dare!
• Dharmesh Shah on 9 Quick Tips Learned While Raising $33 Million In Venture Capital
• The good people at Pingdom.com on Internet 2009 in numbers.
  • 90 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2009.
  • 92% – Peak spam levels late in the year.
  • 47 million – Added websites in 2009.
  • 81.8 million – .COM domain names at the end of 2009.
  • 1.73 billion – Internet users worldwide (September 2009).

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Four new Guides at StartupToDo.com:
  • Getting Started with Rails if you’re a .NET developer.
  • Continuous Integration – Why Do It?
  • Creating a Business and Marketing Plan for a startup. Part 1: Introduction.
  • Email Productivity for startups.
• Show #55 of the Startup Success Podcast is up:  [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat interview David Allen, creator of the Getting Things Done ™ methodology on what GTD can do for you and your startup. If you are feeling overwhelmed by all the projects, tasks, and emails you need to manage to successfully build your product and startup, this show is for you.

  We focused in this interview on how to apply GTD to the common problems startups face: coping with email, beating your project/task list down to an actionable next steps, how and what a Weekly Review is and how it keeps the process going, what tools and technology David uses and much, much more.

• Show #54 of the Startup Success Podcast:  [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat talk with Brian Fitzpatrick about his project at Google, The Data Liberation Front. The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products – and promotes making it easier for everyone to be able to do the same for any software product. And, Bob and Pat mull over the announcement of the Apple iPad.

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• Rob Bazinet, Stillriversoftware.com, has purchased Expens’d from Atlantic Dominion Solutions (Robert Dempsey). This is a good move for Rob, Robert and Expens’d’s customers. It’s also a good model – on both sides – how to create and grow value.
• Michael Douma, IDEA, has launched ColorRotate – a 3D color picker for PhotoShop and other programs unlike – and better – than any color picker you’ve ever seen. Seriously. Their pricing model is interesting too: $39 as a PhotoShop plugin, $49/year as an online service. Also, checkout what else IDEA is up to.
• Mike Schoeffler, http://roadbud.com/, has launched a site to support his new iPhone exercise app. Not much info here, but I like the concept: put play back into workouts.
• Rade Stojsavljevic, Jet Set Apps, has released BottomLine for the Apple iPhone. BottomLine allows small business owners to quickly and easily track key financial data anytime, anywhere. Users enter three simple data points daily (opening amount, closing amount and average cost), and BottomLine displays the business’ weekly and monthly progress.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• What’s a good book for learning business law?
• What kind of startup gathering to host?
• Should I use my personal blog as my company blog?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

As you may have heard, Apple introduced the iPad January 27th, unleashing a wave of opinion to follow the wave of speculation. I’m very much of the [as yet unsupported by evidence] opinion that iPads are a Very Big Thing and startups/microISVs who ignore the opportunities and disruptions the iPad will bring do so at their peril. Here’s three posts, in my opinion you should read.

• David Pogue, NYT, The Apple iPad: First Impressions
• John Gruber, Daring Fireball, The iPad Big Picture and Various and Assorted Thoughts and Observations Regarding the Just-Announced iPad
• Fraser Speirs, Future Shock

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Three new Guides (so far!) at StartupToDo.com this week:
  • Getting business legal services in the US at an affordable price.
  • Meeting up with other startups via Meetup.com.
  • The power of Twitter Lists.
• Show #53 of the Startup Success Podcast is up:  [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat talk with Ben Hatten, co-founder of Legal River, a startup creating a marketplace where attorneys bid for your startup’s business. Proper lawyering, like proper plumbing, makes sure bad stuff doesn’t flood your startup. But finding the right attorney who understands IT and startup issues is hard outside of Silicon Valley and impossibly expensive if you deal with a large Silicon Valley law firm. Legal River turns this situation on its head and in your favor.
• Legal River/StartupToDo.com contest (ends Monday, act now!) – see this post and this post for details.

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Apologies for the lateness of this Digest – I’m really busy right now. I’m going to try posting these on Saturdays and see if that works better.
(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Community News:

• Anthony Williams, Just Software Solutions Ltd, Tired of waiting for the upcoming C++ standard (C++0x)’s support of multithreading and concurrency? Just Software Solutions’ just::thread library is an implementation of the C++0x thread library for Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and g++. V1.3 introduces support for the new std::async function for launching asynchronous tasks, support for 64-bit Windows and support for g++ 4.4..
• There’s more than one way to create a startup: my friend Tsutomu Kodama in Japan has launched a site for non-Japanese who want to get to see the real Japan at Kotodamaya.com. If you’re thinking about broadening your horizons in 2010 by visiting a really different country than what you’re used to in the US or EU, check out this site. (I hope this clown’s picture doesn’t scare away visitors!)

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• LAMP Deployment dilemma. Cloud or Dedicated?
• How to become more of a risk-taker?
• I created a software product. How and where do I promote it?
• What’s your title in your little startup?
• How do you record your project progress, to do lists, requirements etc

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

• Oh, that’s what Twitter lists are for! @balsamiq/essential-startup-tools. And yes, you should be reading the Balsamiq blog: any microISV/startup that made in 2009 gross gevenue: $1,626,528.93, and shares how they did it is a blog you should follow.
• Five Early-Stage Alternatives to the Traditional Investment Model of Growing Startups. (from July 2009, but still a good list)
• I’m biting my nails waiting for my iPhone App to be approved. Here’s what it will look like, thanks to AppMakr. I have at least some company: Morten Jacobsen talks about his new AppMakr-made app. Don’t like AppMakr? Check out iSites Will Let Publishers Simultaneously Build Apps For iPhone And Android. The more interesting ways you can reach out to your market, the better!
• Online Calendar Management Roundup: How Do You Plan Your Days?

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Two new Guides (so far!) at StartupToDo.com this week:
  • Copy protection of desktop software.
  • Handling subscription e-commerce with Amazon Payments – the Business Viewpoint.
• Show #52 of the Startup Success Podcast is up:  [link] [iTunes].Bob and Pat talk again with entrepreneur and Silicon Valley consultant Sramana Mitra, this time about her newest book, Positioning: How To Test, Validate, And Bring Your Idea To Market. This is the third volume in Sramana’s Entrepreneur Journeys series. This was a fascinating interview that sliced through the what do I build – how do I find my market conundrum. Pat and Bob also talked a little bit about how Pat is positioning his new microISV, Spackle Software.
• Sramana did a guest post here that’s must reading if you stuck because you don’t know the right questions to be asking to define your startup: Clarify your story.
• Sramana offers free weekly strategy roundtables for entrepreneurs to address positioning, financing, and other aspects of a startup venture. Up to 1,000 people can attend each session, but only the first five who register to pitch will be able to present their business ideas. All attendees are able to join in on the conversations via a live chat.

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

Welcome to the first MicroISV Digest for 2010 with a somewhat new approach. To increase the likelihood of me consistently doing this, The MicroISV Digest will come out on Wednesdays and cover about the previous week’s worth of happenings and news in the microISV/startup world.

Community News:

Vance Lucas, InvoiceMore, has relaunched with a new, simpler, pricing structure and lower prices.

Atul Godbole, LogicNP Software, has released Versions 2010 of :

• CryptoLicensing For .Net (ActiveX and MFC editions also available): Add Licensing, Copy-Protection, Activation And Hardware-Locking To Your Apps, Libraries And Websites.
• Crypto Obfuscator For .Net: Powerful Code Protection, Obfuscation, Optimization And Simplified Deployment For Your .Net Apps.

Steve Cholerton, Arten Science, is The Man Who Does Not Sleep: he’s offering 25% off his (count them) 7 microISV’s products during January by using the promo code ARTJAN25 during checkout.

Interesting  Answers.Onstartups.com questions with useful answers:

• What should you monitor about your company in social media?
• What single book/text changed your life and why?
• Is it that I’m aiming too high? Or maybe I’m just not meant to be an entrepreneur?
• What’s a better marketing strategy: big-bang or ramp-up?

News/posts for microISVs and Startups:

Dharmesh Shah, founder of Hubspot and startup blogger powerhouse at OnStartups.com came up with a great idea: What advice would you give startups - in exactly 3 words? This is one post – with its comments – you want to print to pdf, load up on your phone and ponder/evaluate your way through.

Omar Ead has just started a Twitterlike web site for startups: http://thisisstartup.com/ : ratable 300 character posts feel positively roomy! I’d suggest taking your next break to read a few and post one there.

David Skok has written a well researched and excellent post of a topic of concern – Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition.

Elie Kochman, Optimal Upgrade Consulting, has some good posts on the growing pains of consulting, if you’re still wearing that particular hat.

Chris Brogan found this gem: Get ready for some fun!

StartupToDo.com, The Startup Success Podcast and other plugs:

• Three new Guides (so far!) at StartupToDo.com this week:
  • Daniel Kehoe has authored, Learn How to Conduct Competitive Research for Your Startup
  • Introduction to social media for startups.
  • Choosing between Google Moderator, Get Satisfaction and UserVoice
• Show #51 of the Startup Success Podcast is out  [link] [iTunes]. Bob and Pat talk with Mark Juras, co-founder of Great Migrations about his firm’s deep software translation offering. If your company still running VB6 or ASP, Great Migrations might be the silver bullet you’ve been waiting for. And, Pat launches his own microISV in addition to keeping his day job (woot!). He needs a real name for his product – Call our Listener Hotline ( 206-202-6473)  to make your suggestion!
• Take your time but hurry up! was a great guest post here by Jarie Bolander, author of Frustration Free Technical Management…
• …As was Inner Productivity and Startup Businesses by Chris Edgar author of Inner Productivity: A Mindful Path to Efficiency and Enjoyment in Your Work. If you’ve ever wondered why knowing how to not procrastinate <> stop procrastinating, you need this book!
• Jason Cohen over at the ASmartBear.com blog interviewed me – it was and uncommon and challenging interview! http://bit.ly/BobWalsh

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(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

The MicroISV Digest for the week(s) ending December 31st, 2009.

(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

News and Announcements

• Brian Swanson, Purple Ant, is looking to kick off 2010 with a robust public beta of their new application, TotalRM. See the TotalRM Blog for more info. (via email)
• Tim Haughton, The Agile MicroISV Blog, is looking for feedback on a product idea, and while I normally don’t cover idea feedback requests, Tim has helped a lot of people at Business of Software over the years and deserves your feedback and support. (via BOS).
• 47hats goes mobile! If you go to 47hats.com on your iPhone, Android phone or internet-enabled phone, you’ll see the nifty new mobile interface that took me about 5 minutes to set up with the awesome WPTouch WordPress plugin by the guys at BraveNewCode. Notice the “message” button in the menubar? Yep – a Growl message will appear on my iPhone. A mobile-friendly interface makes a huge difference to how you experience a web site on a phone – something I will bet you will see more and more of in 2010.
• In Show #49, of the Startup Success Podcast I interview Eric Ries, the creator of the Lean Startups methodology. If you’ve felt there must be a better way to run your startup than conventional wisdom dictates, you’re right in spades. Have a listen to this provocative interview. You’ll find The Startup Success Podcast at iTunes.

Relevant Blog Posts, Podcasts, Videos and Articles

• Okay, I admit it: I’m ready to stand in line 14 hours in a few months for the Apple iSlate. Why? If you thought the iPhone and the Apple App Store’s 100,000 apps rewrote the rules, you have not seen anything yet. Seriously. So, if I sound all in on this one, I am, with bells on. Here’s the latest rumor roundup – http://gizmodo.com/5434566/the-exhaustive-guide-to-apple-tablet-rumors.

And…

• Happy New Year to one and all: may this be your best year yet! The MicroISV Digest will return next year, on Wednesdays, with a somewhat new format. ‘Til then, thanks for reading!

The MicroISV Digest for the week(s) ending December 21st, 2009.

(If you have an announcement of interest to your fellow microISV, indies or startups, please email me at bob.walsh@47hats.com with the word digest in the subject.)

News and Announcements

• Joseph Thibault, Partner, Coursefeeds.com, is recruiting beta testers for a January launch of his new Learning Management System. (via email)
• Hector Sosa, PainlessSVN, has released PainlessSVN 1.1.0 and is offering readers of this blog 50% off when they type “discount47hats” as their promo code at http://www.painlesssvn.com.
• Joel Roggenkamp, bestattendance.com, has launched his microISV with Attendance Management System (http://bestattendance.com) is an easy way for community organizations to track attendance without the bells, whistles and cost of competitors.
• Jeff Lewis, Consultutah LLC, has relaunched site for SharpAuthorize.com. SharpAuthorize does one thing and does it well: It makes it fast and easy for developers to add credit card processing through Authorize.net to their .NET based application.
• Gareth Hayter, Slyce Software, has just launched the beta version of Visual NHibernate, a visual designer and mapping tool for creating and editing new and existing NHibernate projects and is looking for testers. Visual NHibernate reduces the learning curve for new users and increases productivity for .NET developers using the leading open-source object-relational mapper (ORM) framework.
• Show #48, of the Startup Success Podcast is one podcast you don’t want to miss: I interview Don Dodge, now of Google, on both the strategic developer/startup ramp ups you see in 2010 and how Google will be going head-to-head for enterprise wins for the company’s browser, cloud and mobile platforms. You’ll find The Startup Success Podcast at iTunes.

Relevant Blog Posts, Podcasts, Videos and Articles

• Andrew Chen, makes a good point in Benefit-Driven Metrics: Measure the lives you save, not the life preservers you sell

And…

• This week’s microISV Digest is sponsored by StartupToDo.com: Focused action and discussion save you precious bootstrapping hours. Be Successful Faster with StartupToDo.com.