Stages of a uISV

I’ve read a few posts recently about people wanting to start a uISV. I thought I would share a little of my experience with the different stages of starting a uISV.

1. The Idea
   
   • This is the best stage to me. You are going to conquer the world. Bells and whistles are going off, why didn’t you think of this before. This is going to be so much fun.
   
   
   • Reality check: This is the easiest stage there is. There is no actual work involved in this stage. It is fun to think about your idea and maybe even plan out how everything will fall into place once you start. Ideas are cheap, its execution that is important. I’m guess the vast majority of uISV’s never make it past this stage.
   
   
   
   


2. Initial development
   
   • As a software developer, I think this is the best stage. You’ve chosen the technology you are going to use (maybe even experimenting with a few from the bleeding edge). You put in long hours but it doesn’t feel like work, this is fun! You stay up late into the night and your fingers are a blur at the keyboard. You are banging out various parts of your app.
   
   
   • Reality Check: This is the second best stage there is. (The best is when someone actually buys your product.) This stage will soon end when you run into a challenge and suddenly coding is a lot like working at your day job. You start avoiding sections of code or features that need to get done. You start to regret some of the earlier decisions you made. A lot of uISVs are abandoned at this stage. I have no hard numbers but from personal experience, figure at 60-70% failure rate.
   
   


3. Beta Release
   
   • You’ve completed enough of the app that it is ready to show to people other than your family or close friends. You can almost see the finished product. Just a few more things to wrap.
   
   
   • Reality Check: All those task that you have avoided are coming back to haunt you now. The mundane tasks that have to be finished, the mind numbing ones, and possibly even a technical challenging one as well. While the beta is just around the corner, just weeks away, it keeps slipping beyond your grasp. Part of the issue is that you are afraid to release it. So you keep making excuses on why it is not ready yet. The hours you spend on your uISV are down considerable from when you first started. You sit down to work on it, but end up browsing the web instead.
   
   



4. 1.0 Release
   
   • You can see the light at the end of the tunnel. You will have accomplished what 98% of uISVs have failed to do. Launch a product.
   
   
   • Reality Check: In all your free time (working nights and weekends) you forgot to do any marketing yet. And being more technical, marketing is not one of your strengths. The only way some one finds your website is by searching for your-company.com in Google. The whole world of SEO, AdWords, link building is brand new territory. On one hand you feel great that you actually have a product, but you are waiting for validation until someone actually parts money and pays for it.
   
   

This is not the path everyone takes when starting a company. Since it paints a difficult path to follow, you might ask if it is worth it. I’ll refer back to my post on consulting vs ownership and say that yes it is. If I ever do it again (I’m hoping my current efforts on my customer service knowledge base and online employee scheduling will take off and I will not have to) I’ll have gained a lot of experience and do things a little differently.

The two main things I would do differently is

1. Start marketing from the moment I have an idea. This includes SEO work, blogging, market research, etc.
2. Choose an idea that can be developed in 6 months or less. This reduces the chances of burn out. To me the 6 months is the upper end limit. The less time it takes to develop, I think the better you need to be at marketing because it would be easy for copy cat competitors to spring up.

So for you that have started a uISV, did you hit these stages? Are there any stages that I missed that you think belong in the list? Let me know in the comments.