This blog begins a new chapter in my evolution as a CEO. I started my first software company in 1984 without the support of any of the infrastructure and wisdom that is now available on the web. Capital was scarce but time was plentiful.
While the processes of starting and growing a technology business remain the same, the resources, timeframes and capital requirements have shifted radically.
Without trivializing billions of value creation via software, we have evolved from the launch of pure-play application software companies (mid 80’s to early-mid 90’s), to middleware companies that integrated those applications (late 90’s) to software as a service where the core application is exposed as services (2000-2005) and now to “application mashups” where the intersection of various services and user-generated content become the application, inverting the traditional software development model.
The cost and elapsed time to launch a software technology play has been cut by at least one half while the barriers to entry have been radically lowered.
Consequently, we CEO’s pull a different set of levers and triggers in ever faster timeframes. I invite your comments as this discourse evolves.