gdp's Comments

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : Don\'t make the recurring revenue mistake that Microsoft, Symantec and HP are making

Wed, 6 May 2015 13:42:35 +0000

I'm not sure I follow the logic here....

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : Don\'t make the recurring revenue mistake that Microsoft, Symantec and HP are making

Tue, 5 May 2015 19:04:44 +0000

Agreed. Symantec for instance has a ton of competitors. They lobbied heavily for resellers to enter an MSP agreement where we own the licenses and then rent them out to our clients as part of a service agreement, then turned around and punished us for doing so by de-allocating us from Silver to Registered partner because we weren't turning around adequate "new sales". Guess what Symantec: ESET, MacAfee and others are all sitting there waiting to eat your lunch. They will take my tens of thousands a year in recurring revenue happily.

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : What would you say to $2000 worth of software for $150/year?

Sun, 1 Mar 2015 23:02:40 +0000

That is not within our current mission, Joel. There are plenty of people out there that support and promote Open Source, and in fact we support DotNetNuke - an open source product that runs on Microsoft platforms. As a small company we could choose to be mediocre at many things, or excellent at a specific set of things. We chose the latter. I partner with any number of organizations that support LAMP stack and frequently refer business to them (and vice versa). There's plenty of room in the world for both the corporate, Microsoft based lineup and the Linux based one. I'd encourage you to look at Microsoft's products in the same way you encourage me to look at the open source ones - you may find that from a "return on investment" point of view those products are actually a pretty darn good deal.

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : Time Warner Roadrunner epically fails once again

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 13:50:59 +0000

And don't even get me started on how the security certificate on their email server has expired.... :(

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : Time Warner Roadrunner epically fails once again

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 13:49:58 +0000

My recommendation would be to stick with Gmail (and turn on 2 factor authentication) but to access your junk mail folder and settings you would login to the WEB interface for mail and set them there. Turn off junk mail filtering at the web end, and check your junk mail folder for legit mail that you can move to the inbox. To get to your online web folder go to http://mail.rochester.rr.com and login with your email address and email password.

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : A shameless plug - OS-Cubed, and what we do

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 19:17:36 +0000

We work on open source software as well - in the Microsoft world. DotNetNuke is actually open source. It's actually good that you're NOT working in the Microsoft world - if you have a client or know someone who IS working in that world and needs some integration help, please feel free to refer them to us.

Rochester Startup Blog : Rochester Works and NYS DOL hold entrepreneur workshop

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:06:26 +0000

I'd recommend contacting Anne Marie at Rochester Works for more info about possible follow-on events. This event was held in Oct 2009.

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : Recent news and Career Fairs

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:07:12 +0000

2nd work on your first 90 seconds for the interview. A firm (not crushing handshake), eye contact, learn the recruiters name and repeat your own, and a nice - not too cutesy - introduction of yourself makes a great first impression. Read Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People (http://astore.amazon.com/leedrakesbusi-20/detail/... ). This is more true of career fairs than of interviews. Remember - you're seeing me once - I see over 100 people in the space of a couple hours. If you stand out I'll remember you (for good or bad) during that first 2 minutes. Practice it with a friend or colleague over and over until it's smooth and confident.

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : Recent news and Career Fairs

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 16:07:03 +0000

John - My answer would be - know the company you are approaching. Take the time to visit their website, examine their culture and their requirements, and - taking a real objective look at yourself - be sure you are a good fit for that. If you are - say so, and be able to explain why. Just because a job isn't posted doesn't mean there isn't a spot for you. If you are a salesperson who examines my product line, figures out a good fit for yourself, and can SHOW ME how you can improve my bottom line - I'll probably at least give you an interview.

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : There's a reason most of our new projects are in social media

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:23:32 +0000

Thats awesome. Can you tell us more about your projects or are they all in the "Top secret" category for now?

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : If we treated everything in life like consultants and developers are treated

Fri, 28 Aug 2009 14:53:06 +0000

One of the most egregious examples of this sort of attitude is the traditional "RFP" process - one I rarely participate in any more. RFP's are specifically designed to turn the entire process into a lose-lose scenario. To build a win-win scenario you're probably going to come in more towards a higher price for the service, but better quallity and more flexibility in design and features (since RFPs rarely provide enough specs to really decide on what the end price of the product will be). The entire process though is designed to remove the personal consultative and collaborative process and deliver the least you can get away with for the smallest price - a definite lose-lose proposition. My son took Game Theory and Probability last year in CTY at Skidmore and they looked specifically at the "game" involved with RFPs and concluded they are the least well suited to a good outcome - why then do clients continue to use these poorly performing filters? Are they usually happy with the results delivered?

Developing Software for Entrepreneurs : If we treated everything in life like consultants and developers are treated

Tue, 9 Jun 2009 14:52:35 +0000

Thanks for reading the blog - good to know someone out there is paying attention :) In any case I think you are correct.... it is certainly a US culture thing. I've dealt with european entities while working on projects for Xerox Worldwide Customer Service and the differences in culture between various countries certainly made for some interesting integration meetings :) I'm not saying you should accept every vendor at face value - just that you should be finding vendors that will work positively with you to achieve a common goal - the best product for the least dollars and soonest delivery. If that's not the relationship you establish early in developing your software you will never be happy with the results.

Rochester Startup Blog : Twestival, ImagineRIT, and YEA - OH MY!

Mon, 4 May 2009 20:16:01 +0000

Matt, if they're a local entrepreneur we'd like to profile them here on RochesterStartups.com. Please send them my way!

Rochester Startup Blog : The chilling effect of bandwidth caps on Entrepreneurial Culture

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 04:11:08 +0000

David, I was an original beta tester. The original speeds were at 10mb/s down and 768up but they throttled them back shortly after the initial release, and then dribbled updates to speed out as DSL became more competitive. Unfortunately Time Warner deleted their technical support newsgroup and I don't have any copy of those original usenet messages, but believe me it did happen. Time Warner rarely posts rates for ANYTHING since in many cases different people are paying different rates (Depending on what they can rope them into), so it's hard to find a citation for you. Might look back at the dslreports.com forum history? I'm pretty sure that Phillip Dampier over at www.stopthecap.com can back me up on this, as he was also one of the orginal beta testers.

Rochester Startup Blog : The chilling effect of bandwidth caps on Entrepreneurial Culture

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 18:07:32 +0000

Lance,
I certainly understand your point about not involving the Attorney General, unless there is an actual fraudulent or criminal act being invoked. The only reason to involve the Attorney General is that in this area, there is no competition for either high end broadband, nor cable television. For various reasons (Trees, etc.) Dish/DirecTV not an option for some, and no one provides speeds faster than DSL other than Time Warner. Thus they have a monopoly on those two resources in the area, and feel they can safely charge whatever they want. It\\'s not the size of the company, it\\'s the exclusivity of their arrangement. I would not invite the AG if there were competition from, say Verizon, in the area - but there is not, so no \\"open market\\" to rein in outrageous pricing. There is no coincidence that they\\'re not \\"Testing\\" this concept where there is significant competition. The TEST is to see if they can raise prices outrageously in monopolistic markets.

Colorado Startups : You kids and your LLCs

Sun, 5 Apr 2009 05:17:55 +0000

But isn't there a significant difference in the tax rates between LLC/S and C? Aren't the C corps taxed at capital gains rates, and the LLCs and S's at the owner's income tax rate (regardless of if they leave in the company or not). I'm not an accountant (can you tell) but this was how it was explained to me 12 years ago when I formed my company :) Cheers, Lee