How to become a software entrepreneur

							                       or
A brief summary of my background, lessons learned
 and thoughts on Software and Entrepreneurship.

      David M Bennett MBBS MRCP FACS

                 © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   1
The 10/20/30 Presentation

 10 slides (plus bookends)
 20 minutes
 30 point, or bigger


                  We may need a bit of padding here


               © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   2
Life History
 10 years of mostly medicine (Monash)
 10 years medical computing (Alfred)
 10 years of computing & business (Powerflex)
 10 years of computing, investing and other stuff



                                                            Time flies

              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation                3
Powerflex Technology
 Business-oriented programming language
   Designed for people who think they are programmers
   Conceptually simple, vast range of features
 Everything you need is built in
     Decimal numbers, strings, dates
     Macros, procedures, objects, modules
     ISAM database, and connectors to Btrieve, SQL
     Forms-based, with connectors to curses, Windows GUI
 Highly portable, especially Windows & Unix
                        Now they give them away free
                   © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   4
Powerflex Roadmap
 1985 started coding: Dataflex-compatible 4GL
 1989 started company, first sales
 1992 MS-DOS, OS/2, DOS-286 , Btrieve
 1994 Windows 16, DOS-386, Unix, Xenix
 1996 Windows 32, Linux
 1998 DB2 SQL, native Windows 32
 2000 Oracle, MS SQL, COM, ODBC
                               Programmers are expensive
             © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   5
Powerflex Business
 1990 started company, started hiring
 1991 Abacus invested
 1993 Data Access sued
 1994 Abacus sued
 1995 Customers to the rescue!
 2003 all legals resolved
                                  Lawyers are very expensive

              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation      6
High Points

 About 12 people, $1.5m revenues
 Over 1000 development systems
 Over 100,000 runtime licences
 Sales in 25 countries
 $100K for a piece of paper
                                                            This is fun!
              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation                  7
Making Legal History 1

 DAC sued on 12 claims
 Federal Court (1) hearing, they won 6/12
 Full Bench (3) on appeal, we won 5/6
 High Court special leave, no decision
 High Court (5), confirmed 5/6
                                                            This is not fun!
              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation                      8
Making Legal History 2
Data Access claims copyright infringement by
 Copying reserved words
   each of the reserved words was a computer program
   Collocation of reserved words was a computer program
   Collocation of reserved words was a substantial part

 Copying three macros
 Copying the Huffman compression table
   Huffman table protected as a literary work


                © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   9
Moving On

 Languages are sticky, but the window is closed
 Microsoft.NET looked good, but no product fit
 Innovation is the driver
 Disruption is the opportunity
 Entrepreneurs make it happen
                                                  So onto a new phase
              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation           10
Readify

 In 2001 Microsoft.NET was new and disruptive
 So I wrote a business plan
 Education, then consulting, then products
 Put together a team (6) with sales focus
 Put up the finance ($300K)
 Now $15m revenues, 80 people
         A good result, but a hard business to run
             © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   11
What Did I Learn?

 Business is solving problems for customers
 Your business is defined by what you don’t do
 Good businesses generate rivers of cash
 Running the business is not that hard
 You have to sell, all the time
           Why didn’t I know that before I started?
               © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   12
What Else Did I Learn?

 The business runs better when I’m not there
 Family/friends/advisors you keep close
 The law is like an ass, both ends can hurt you
 Business deals need a termination clause
 Cash is king, knowledge is power
                                                I should write a book
              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation           13
Why is software special?

 No COGS, infinite margins & no working capital
 Licences are way better than contracts
 Software is incredibly sticky
 Good customers are partners for life
 But: the R&D never stops
  Most people don’t know this, even in the industry
              © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   14
Final thoughts?

 Pioneers get hurt, but also the best pickings
 The problem is not piracy but obscurity
 Release early, release often
 Good processes will save your bacon (do it once!)
 Don’t get mad, or even, just raise your prices

             The best software hasn’t been written yet
               © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   15
•Background
•Lessons
•Software
•Business

http://www.pfxcorp.com
http://davidmbennett.com


      © 2010 David Bennett, Powerflex Corporation   16