In this episode, Ian and Andrey sit down with special guest, Andy Brice ( @Andy ) , to discuss Perfect Table Plan, software marketing, creating desktop software vs. SaaS web apps, software pricing, cross-platform development with QT, analytics, measuring how many people are ‘word-of-mouth’ customers, Andy’s 2-day intensive training course on starting your own software business, practical software products, the legacy of shareware, the effect of SaaS apps on lifestyle, A/B testing, Adwords, email vs. helpdesk system for one-person companies, and martial arts.
3 Likes
Thanks for a very interesting podcast and interview with Andy.
I’ve gone through a similar path in my own development: BBC-B Basic as a kid, Turbo Pascal, C, Fortran at my first job, and now mainly C++ in my own product. And as a result of many and long hours of work I have a niche desktop product and live well off it, while I’m not really looking for ways to build a huge company.
A major difference is of course that Andy is sort of famous since BoS!
So it made me wonder, in the current world where everyone talks about SaaS and mobile, how many of you are there that have this type of one person business and do fairly well.
David.
I can barely walk out of my front door without being mobbed. ;0)
It is interesting how we have followed parallel paths. I think I have seen your website before.
I’m not sure I believe that 
There should be more people that have followed this path, are in their forties and running a profitable but not very visible business.
Just because like you said, it provides a very comfortable lifestyle whenever the profit starts to match a normal wage. Being the boss of your own time is very valuable in my opinion.
I’d be very interested to hear their stories.
The main drawback for me is that I need to check my inbox every day of the week - or better said, check HelpSpot that I highly recommend - even when on holiday. It has caused some stress in the Australian outback with no internet within 200KM…
Yes, it is a great lifestyle. But not really ‘sexy’ enough for any journalist to write about when they could be writing about celebrity entrepreneurs with their own 747s.
We’re two people - married couple - and I’m not quite in my forties but I was listening to the podcast today while running and thought we have a similar outlook.
Being able to decide what we want to do, where and when we want to do it is hugely valuable. I’m happy to trade having to do support on my holiday for being able to go for a run at midday because the rain has stopped, and not being tied to a certain location. I wrote a bit about that for my ALA column a couple of months ago - How do you go on vacation?.
I’m happier with this life than risking it all on the chance of “winning big”. Sustainable works for me!
Thanks @speno! Checking HelpSpot that’s what we like to hear @David 
Yeah, I’m kinda in the middle of al of you. That’s the downside of our kind of B2B products. You really have to be available all the time and people have messy problems or being enterprise(ish) we get one group that sets thigns up but the other that actually uses it and you run into stuff there. Still, it’s fun and I get to meet such cool people!!