In The Interim

I just learned that Engineous, a competitor of mine, was acquired by Dassault Systemes.  Last year Engineous tied a partnership with IBM, and its acquisition by Dassault Systemes (an IBM company) was in the air.

A colleague of mine in UK writes: “In the interim we should be ok, Abaqus hasn’t bore fruit after being acquired by Dassault Systemes”.

Savvy, in the interim.

Profitable Niches

Roland Thomas (Moldflow CEO) told me: “the more the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) market consolidation leads to standardized software, the more opportunities will come for profitable niches to be exploited”.

E-Xstream makes a software that calculates the behaviour of composite materials, like plastics reinforced with glass fibers. The opportunity for E-Xstream came from the multi-phase nature of composite materials. The software Digimat they produce calculates the physical properties of the material to be used for further calculations.

This is an example of what Roland predicted.

Features That Matter Most

Companies like Google and Netscape knows what it takes to run a successful business. It is the business model, and not the product that determines success or failure of software companies. That’s what many start-ups have unhappily discovered for themselves.

I’ve still much to learn, yet something have learned on what start-ups should better do:

1. -remain a “product company” long enough to build a customer base, before offering customization and services
2. -run the business independently from distribution channel
3. -avoid appointing the chief engineer as business manager.

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