Think Different

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Frictionless

I have had the unique privilege to have a best of breed product in our category on the opening day of an App Store. The response has been very exciting. More on that later. One of the most poignant realizations this experience has provided is that web apps suffer from the lack of a unified sales process. App Stores have introduced huge advantages to the publisher over the traditional software sales process. For example, to sell a web app you’ve got to create the entire marketing and subscription sales process from scratch. Even if you use a lot of SaaS solutions in combination, it is still a unique experience for customers. It still requires specialized steps and/or information gathering for a customer to commit to a free trial. Traditional software licensing and piracy hurdles are also major problems which the App Stores provide a remedy.

What if there was a way that web apps could be sold through a simple, frictionless mechanism without completely deprecating the infrastructure that is already in place? I think the solution could be simpler than originally conceived. Here’s how I think it can be achieved. I hope it sparks some ideas in internetland.

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The App Paradigm

For the last couple of years Robert and I have been having the same conversation over and over again with customers. We have entered an application paradigm. Nearly all forms of content and business services will need to become available through web-based software applications in some form. Books, movies, television, games, services, news, magazines are all becoming forms of software that need to become available on different devices and delivered over the web. Now business and consumer services – the dry cleaner, the retail store, your vendors, your snow removal company – all need to be able to provide an interface to their customers through web-based or mobile applications.

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Meet three of our customers...

Santa Barbara entrepreneurs Michael Crandell of RightScale, Kevin O’Connor of FindTheBest, and Brian Donahoo of Appfolio talk about the growing opportunity in Sillicon Beach.

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The Power of Less

If you know me you know that I am a non-fiction book junkie. I am always on the lookout for the next cool new idea that someone has to offer. A little known book called “The Power of Less” caught my eye. I read it a few times and listened to it once to make sure I programed the ideology into my head. The idea is pretty straightforward — focus on the essential and eliminate the rest. It is a simple idea that can be very powerful when put into action. Much like the business and design tenets found in 37signals’ Getting Real, The Power of Less asks the reader to consider a minimalist approach toward the way we live our lives.

I have been instituting this way of life over the past few weeks and I have to admit there is something remarkable about it. I am donating, selling or simply disposing of anything that I don’t truly need or I have a personal obligation to in some way. This ranges from video games and books I have either played or never really finished to electronics that have failed to fit into my life. Even clothing I just never wear. It seems the deeper I seek to remove “stuff” from the farthest packed corner the more useless junk I seem to find. Humans have some weird need to accumulate and disregard. I am a pretty minimal person to begin with yet even I have tons of useless, worthless stuff that fills my closets, garage and attic.

I beg of you to consider getting rid of all the excess junk you surround yourself with but have little need for. If you do you’ll begin to live a better, more balanced and less stressed life. I have only scratched the surface of the radical changes that this idea will help me to change my work and my life. I hope it helps you too.

Don’t screw around. Buy the book today on Amazon. continue …