It's been a full week since I released MoneyWell and I'm as happy as I am exhausted.
Starting a micro-ISV is so wonderful because you have full control over your product. There's no corporate committee deciding features or a sales department making outrageous promises—it's just you and your ideas.
And starting a micro-ISV is so incredibly tough because you have to wear every hat. There's no marketing department, no sales force, no operations person—it's just you and maybe some generous friends throwing their talents your way.
If you've read an of my previous blog entries (you brave soul you), you'll know that this is not my first time starting a software company. I've been in this business since CP/M was the hot operating system and I've been blessed with a second chance (four times actually). Some people say I'm persistent, others are closer to the truth when they say I'm an idiot.
Luckily, I'm an idiot that learns from my mistakes. No Thirst Software is very close to the perfect company for me. If it wasn't for Judy, my wife, and lots of great friends that prayed for me and supported me, I wouldn't have lasted the whole year that this has been going on and I certainly wouldn't have had the guts to launch MoneyWell by myself.
After having to learn Cocoa and Objective-C, redoing my website four times with four different tools (I've settled on Coda and hand-coded CSS/HTML, which I now love so much more than using big iron web tools), creating lousy graphics with my poor Photoshop skills, creating better graphics with my poor Photoshop skills, and finally, creating acceptable graphics with my still poor Photoshop skills, I was able to pull together enough to launch a mere seven days ago.
But now I feel I've run a marathon at sprinter speeds and I'm a bit worn out. If tomorrow morning's statistics are even close to as good as they have been over the last two days (over 20,000 MoneyWell downloads each day), I'm sure I'll be riding high, coding like it was day one again and ready for week two.
God bless everyone who has given me feedback (positive and negative) and all those who encouraged me to keep going forward. I am truly blessed.
Peace.
