Best Starting Software?

[Wardaddy™]

Whats the best start to go with? I generally start with 4 founders for fun but still cant create anything good. No one buys my stuff.

[Oobie]

Start with contracts, avoid the ones that need manufacturing. Then once you have some cash, start an Antivirus, do at least 3 iterations, then alpha to 100% (both). Then Beta to fix bugs for several months. For marketing at least do a press build release, but not more than 4 months before the release of the software (you will likely not be able to afford the marketing team to do a proper marketing push just yet).

After release hire marketing team and support. Make sure the support can do system programming, to fix bugs. Release an update right away to get the software up-to-date. Then, use the support to do both 'Support' and 'Updates' to keep bug tickets handled and fix bugs. Release the updates when they fix about 10% of the bugs, sometimes at the end of each day if the team is getting more than 100 done each day.

Once you understand all this, try to do the antivirus with a publisher, choose only 'marketing'. This way, they will build the audience for you. I might be leaving something out, but that's about the basics for you.

[Wardaddy™]

Originally posted by Pezzilla:

Start with contracts, avoid the ones that need manufacturing. Then once you have some cash, start an Antivirus, do at least 3 iterations, then alpha to 100% (both). Then Beta to fix bugs for several months. For marketing at least do a press build release, but not more than 4 months before the release of the software (you will likely not be able to afford the marketing team to do a proper marketing push just yet).

After release hire marketing team and support. Make sure the support can do system programming, to fix bugs. Release an update right away to get the software up-to-date. Then, use the support to do both 'Support' and 'Updates' to keep bug tickets handled and fix bugs. Release the updates when they fix about 10% of the bugs, sometimes at the end of each day if the team is getting more than 100 done each day.

Once you understand all this, try to do the antivirus with a publisher, choose only 'marketing'. This way, they will build the audience for you. I might be leaving something out, but that's about the basics for you.

Thanks, I will give this a try.

[LatN's Strategy]

Yes, start with contracts, and when you have achieved three stars in business reputation move to deals.

Use deals to fund your teams... My Strategy is Games as you can update them and port to other OSs' even after a year; games are more viable than antivirus because the antivirus falls out of favor as the technology moves forward. They are great for getting something into the market quickly. But I now prefer games!