I discovered a genre of web sites and books about small software venders. The tech boom of the late 90s was all about this knock it out of the park thinking. These guys are talking about practicality and sustainability. I have started with the book Eric Sink on the Business of Software. It’s a collection of blog posts. They guy seems like he knows me, and all my weaknesses! Great work Eric!

I think I found another key to making consumer jewelry design software happen. The key is there needs to be competition. Or should I say if there was competition the market for consumer jewelry design software would be safer to enter. As a typical developer I want to go to a cave and appear a year latter with a full blown working system. I want to hit the ball out of the park, create something that has never been done, and blow everyone away. I want real time 3D tools in the browser, but 2D and 2 1/2D consumer jewelry design are not out yet. There is no consumer windows application. Silly me. It’s hard to be humble, but I’m beginning to think this project is better done in baby steps.

Boot strapping and baby steps….. I thought I was doing this with the crowdsourcing service bureau project, but then it took on a complex life of it’s own. Maybe I need to do a very simple working example system. Like a 2D band designer in Flash(in the browser), and provide links to 3D files(created on the server side). However simple and small this would start a flow of people using the software. With my experience from this project I could then refine my ideas about this world of consumer jewelry design.

Backing up… If you look on RingHunt.com I have done some very complex stuff. I entered a cave and I came out with what I thought were some very cool tools. My plan was that they would be so cool, that people would discover them, and motivate me to build better versions. I got some response, but I got scared with no money flowing in. Next time I need to think things through more, and have experience people review my plans. Which is one reason why I am blogging.