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This is an hilarious and actionable talk from Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, aka technology editor at Newsweek when he spoke at Business of Software. He left shortly afterwards to become Editor-in-Chief at ReadWrite but by the end of the year he was working for a company that most Business of Software attendees will [...]
We were very sad to hear about the terrible news yesterday of the attack on the Boston Marathon. A horrible day for Boston but we will still be back for the Business of Software Conference, (in response to the email we had asking if the conference will still be going ahead, err, yes). Like millions of [...]
Instead of doing that really important thing that you should be doing, have a look at this instead. It gives you some great ideas for making yourself more productive, less stressed and probably, less of an a**hole about work. In a world where many talk about the insane hours they have to work in order [...]
I don’t think so but I am interested in other views… There has been a lot written and tweeted in the past week or so about the fallout from PyCon which has spiraled out of control. Terribly. It led to PyCon revising its code of conduct for participants and subsequently, a number of people have [...]
When I first joined the BoS team last year and was told about the Lightning Talks I was startled. I thought that Lightning Talks would be a contradiction in terms for the reserved and introverted software crowd. As soon as I started watching the first talk I was hooked – I have so much time for the [...]
So many people have asked us how we select speakers, or how they propose speakers for Business of Software Conference that we thought we would offer some thoughts that are relevant, not just to Business of Software specifically, but to any approach or submission to a conference. We have seen some terrible proposals and some [...]
If you went down to the Business of Software Conference site today to register for our Super Early Bird, you would have been in for a big surprise. The site was down and we were getting no email from early this morning. The Business of Software website was not there. We didn’t notice as we [...]
I am genuinely humbled by the number of incredible, extraordinary people who agree to share their stories and life lessons at the Business of Software Conference over the years. I know how much effort, thought and energy goes into each and every one of those talks and I can’t think of one that I didn’t [...]
This is a quick set of the most popular questions flying in through the door at BoS Towers over the last couple of weeks. Are we accepting speaker proposals? Yes. BUT PLEASE PAY CAREFUL ATTENTION TO THESE GUIDELINES. We get about 10 approaches a day and we simply don’t get the time to respond to [...]
This is a guest post by Jennifer Rullmann. Jen is a developer-turned-entrepreneur based in the Washington, D.C. area. Her company makes Convey, software that plugs friendly, cost-saving user guides into your application with very little effort. She blogs about creating delightful companies and software at Software Smitten. ——————————————————————————————————————————— Every startup begins life with infinite choices, and there [...]
Thank you to Under 30 CEO and to Clarity for recognising Business of Software Conference as a quality, must-attend, event for software entrepreneurs. We love running Business of Software and we know people love coming but it is always rather wonderful to be rewarded with some attention. Hugely appreciated by all of us who work [...]
This is a guest post by Paul Pedrazzi. Paul is a novice coder, aspiring designer, and professional product manager at companies like PeopleSoft, Taleo and Oracle. Paul blogs at http://craftedresonance.quora.com. ——————————————————————————————————————————— The Business of Software is easily my favorite conference of the year. It is held annually in Boston. The next event is October 28–30, [...]
Registration for BoS 2013 is open but please note we had almost 450 attendees last year but this year there will be a maximum of 400. We haven’t released any of the names of the speakers yet and our first early bird price break is just over two weeks away but already 60 places have gone. [...]
So rather than write an introduction myself to Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact‘s talk from the Business of Software Conference last year – ‘The Long, Slow, SaaS Ramp of Death’, I will introduce it with some words from Patrick McKenzie, Kalzumeus Software and @Patio11 on Twitter. Patrick, if you don;t already know him, is a [...]
Stop what you are doing and watch this is you are involved in making software. Most people have been doing it all wrong. The inspirational Kathy Sierra kicked off the Business of Software Conference 2012 with this brilliant, brilliant, talk. Not only some of the smartest advice anyone has given about how to approach software [...]
Blessed are the disruptors (pirates) for they shall be less of a pain in the backside than the incumbents (bandits) who can get into all sorts of nasty little habits. Here is our experience at Business of Software for having a phone number so sales people can call us and make terrible pitches for products we [...]
While this was the last talk at Business of Software 2012, we are publishing it first as Dan Pink is just releasing the book - To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others- and despite not being published until December 31st it is already a number one bestseller. Nice work Dan. Like it or [...]
All of the talks from the 2012 Business of Software Conference are now online. Over the course of the next year we will make the majority of them available as videos and transcripts to everyone via the blog. All attendees to the 2012 conference have been given passwords to access all of the talks now [...]
Access all the videos of Business of Software 2012 talks now AND get a free copy of Dan Pink’s To Sell is Human - $150.
Over the years we have accumulated a great deal of really useful content from BoS conferences: guest blogs as well as talks. But we know a lot of you come here for the presentations, so we have decided to index everything from 2011 and earlier here to make the search easier (of course, all talks [...]
At the end of a packed 2.5 days in October we asked the attendees if they could sum up their BoS experience. Here are their responses – uncensored. Thanks for the feedback: where we can, we will tighten things up. And some of you definitely need more sleep. It was an action-packed thrill ride. I’m [...]
Index to the summaries of the Business of Software 2012 presentations. Kathy Sierra – Building the Minimum Badass User Jason Cohen – How data, statistics and numbers will make you do the wrong thing Joel Spolsky – The Cultural Anthropology of Stack Exchange Dharmesh Shah – Valuation, Competition, Porter’s Five Forces and Culture Peter Bauer [...]
This is a summary of Noam Wasserman‘s Business of Software 2012 presentation. Startup Failures Most startups fail. Let’s accept that. However, there are things we can learn about these failures that can move the chances in our favor. Looking at the failures in VC portfolios will give us some insight. 35% of failures are due [...]
This is a summary of Noah Kagan‘s Business of Software 2012 presentation. Rogue Marketing Strategies Contests Relevant location $0 partnerships Sponsor niche sites Free things/inbound marketing Build a relationship Marketing is only good if your product doesn’t suck. Kagan pyramid for exceptional You’ll make the most money when you don’t focus on money. The Kagan [...]
This is a summary of Peter Bauer’s Business of Software 2012 presentation. Founding and scaling principles According to Peter, the four principles to a successful company are: Build something with friends Deal constructively with fears about success Never allow an investor to change the chemistry or assert their agenda above that of the company Clear [...]
This is a summary of Jason Cohen‘s Business of Software 2012 presentation. Metrics – You’re Doing it Wrong The way you’re approaching metrics in your business is wrong. How you’re using data is wrong, because the tools you’re using are wrong. When asked to guess how many jelly beans are in a jar, individual answers [...]
This is a guest post by Brian Turchin. Brian is CEO/Founder of Cape Horn Strategies, a consultancy devoted to helping software CEOs create vibrant and flourishing businesses. Brian has helped dozens of CEOs successfully proceed from one business life cycle stage to another: he helps start-up CEOs become a growing profitable business; he helps CEOs [...]
This is a summary of Kathy Sierra’s Business of Software 2012 presentation. Getting Customers It starts with “I’m going to start a startup.” Then your friend tells you you need to get funding first. “Funding?,” you ask, “Users will just pay for it.” For some reason people forget that getting paying customers is the ideal way [...]
Hi folks, A quick update for you on two things that people seem to want to know about. Where are those videos of the talks from 2012? They are being processed – again – as there was a problem with the sound output. The good news is that we have been able to get a [...]
This is a summary of Adii Pienaar‘s Business of Software 2012 presentation. The Beginning When Adii started WooThemes he didn’t have a whole lot of experience starting a business. And to complicate things even more, he did so from Cape Town, South Africa – not exactly a startup hub. So how did Adii get to [...]