小即是美 Web 2.0创业公司流行小巧路线
作者： CNET科技资讯网 翻译：李海
CNETNews.com.cn 2006-02-08 08:37 AM
CNET科技资讯网2月8日国际报道 Jason Fried，37Signals 公司的总裁是一位很棒的软件企业家。但他不想用传统模式去开办一间软件公司。
没有试图挤进复杂的，价格昂贵的产品业务市场，Fried 和他的同志选择了相对比较偏门的软件：主机式个人组织器及项目管理应用。
对于Fried 而言，那种老式的依靠客户拿出大把美金维持运营的模式已经作古。
Fried 说：“我认为企业软件的理念已经死亡。企业软件是一个肮脏的世界－大而无用的东西从来就不奏效，永远没法按时为客户就位，并且，它们太昂贵了。”
虽然发展速度比以往几年有所放缓，企业软件市场仍然是一个价值数十亿美金的行业，它还在增长。一些投资者和企业家们说，不断变化的这个行业使得它很难突入进去。
Onset Ventures公司的Mark Hildenbrand说：“投资者们对企业软件的兴奋度正在降低。毫无疑问，它是一个具有挑战性的区域。”
与此相反，过去两年，小型公司正在大量的出现，它们开发基于网络的应用，或者开发开源软件，人们有时称它们为Web2.0公司。
它们中的许多能够依靠相对小规模的前沿投资获得腾飞，而不是过去那种上亿美元的大手笔。
例如，37Signals 的商业计划就是构建简单的主机式应用，按月向小企业或者个人收取注册费用。
自从推出它的第一个服务的两年多以来，这家自筹资金起步的公司已经获得了成百上千名客户，它没有债务。这家公司还成功的资助了开源Web 开发项目Ruby on Rails.
Fried 说：“你可以利用互联网建立很棒的小巧产品，你可以获得1 百万或者50万用户。”
企业家和投资者们说，一系列技术的变化令非常专门的产品生存下来变为一种可能。大多数的变革是那些正在不断发展普及的主机式应用，或者服务式的软件。
网络字处理器公司Upstartle 的创始人们，最开始考虑开发针对企业内部网的协同与文件管理软件，但他们最终放弃了这个主意，而决定将注意力集中在互联网上的字处理器上。
Writely 公司的创始人之一的Claudia Carpenter 说：“过去，你不得不做一种巨大的事情－象套件一类的东西。现在，似乎你能够做一些轻量级的东西。”
由于互联网已经成为一种应用平台，Writely 能够将他的字处理器服务与其它网络服务连接起来，比如网络日志或者照片分享网站。现在，很多网站不断的公布它们的应用程序接口（API ），这让用户及开发者们能够在不同的主机式服务之间分享信息。
另外一个重要的技术进步就是AJAX（异步JavaScript+XML）的兴起。这是一种创建交互式图形用户界面（GUI ）及网页的开发技术，它能够自动的刷新网络服务器上的数据。
利用AJAX，程序员门能够开发出桌面应用程序的主机式版本，比如文件和照片发布，AJAX可以给用户提供和在PC上类似的用户体验。
除了将注意力集中在专门的产品上，和以往相比，这些新创公司能够用很少的资金实现腾飞。
自由提供的开源软件正在增长，功能强大的硬件服务器价格变得越来越低。而在5 年之前，新创业的公司可能需要花费成千上万美元去购买这些硬件设备。
运营成本也变得相当的低。以37Signals 为例，这家公司没有花钱在市场营销上，他们采用了网上的营销手段，比如网络日志的口碑宣传。这家7 人公司没有销售人员。
纽约天使投资公司的董事David Rose说：“我们看到的Web2.0是一场软件公司发生深刻变革的运动。”
Rose表示，现在的网络企业家可以在短短的一年时间内，仅仅用50万美元的资金即可实现从概念到功能性产品的转变。他说：“要是放在过去，得花数年时间，上百万美元，以及多次的计划修改才会等到第一个产品出笼。”
RDF 风险基金的主任Richard Forman认为，基于网络的软件模式可以同时辐射个人与企业两个市场。
他说：“Web 2.0 的迷人之处在于它是一种双管齐下的模式。一方面，你拥有用户提交的内容，这对网络来讲是一种巨大的机会，另外一方面，你拥有针对协同性工作以及应用服务提供商的网络服务，它将给企业世界产生真实的影响。”
现在，Salesforce.com，NetSuite和SAP 都在鼓吹，企业客户正希望放弃那些大型的软件项目，而选用主机式服务。即使微软这个软件世界的君王也已经发出过类似的感言。
进入Web 2.0 世界的低门槛使得那些新奇主意可以轻易的转化为新创企业。一些分析师说，也许这个门槛太低了。
许多的Web 2.0 网络应用可以由几个人，相对较少的创业投资和时间来完成。但是，与此同时，投资者们认为，这些服务很容易被复制。
另外，一些Web 2.0 公司的业务模式没有经过完全测试，比如Writely 就仍处于测试当中，公司仍然在评估几种不同的收入模式，比如客户注册和广告模式。（编辑：孙莹）
Small is beautiful for Web 2.0 start-ups
By Martin LaMonica
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: February 6, 2006, 4:00 AM PST
Jason Fried, president of start-up 37Signals, is a bona fide software entrepreneur. But he wants nothing to do with the traditional model of starting a software company.
Rather than try to crack into the business market with a complicated, pricey product, Fried and his colleagues chose to stake out a fairly narrow sliver of the software world: hosted personal organizers and project management applications.
To Fried, the old way of doing things--where a start-up's success hinges on a few well-heeled customers willing to shell out big dollars--is history.
"I think the idea of enterprise software is dead. Enterprise software is kind of a dirty word--big bulky things that never work, were never delivered on time, and are too expensive," Fried said.
The enterprise software market is a multi-billion dollar industry that's still growing--albeit more slowly than in years past. But changing industry dynamics are making it a less attractive market to try to break into, say some investors and entrepreneurs.
"Investors are less excited about the tough sledding of that (enterprise software) business model," said Mark Hildenbrand, general partner for enterprise applications and infrastructure software at Onset Ventures. "There's no question that it's a challenged area."
Instead, the past two years has seen a proliferation of smaller companies building Web-based applications, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, as well as open-source companies. Many of these firms can get off the ground with relatively small up-front investments, not the tens of millions of dollars that venture capitalists pumped into new software ventures in years past.
The business plan at 37Signals, for example, is to build simple hosted applications and charge a monthly subscription fee to small businesses and individuals.
In the two years since launching its first service, the self-funded company has signed on hundreds of thousands of customers and it has no debt, said Fried. It has also founded a successful open-source Web development project, Ruby on Rails.
"You can build a great business on a niche product because with the Internet, you can reach a million or a half-million people," said Fried.
Sharp focus, wide angle
A number of technology changes are making very focused product offerings more viable, according to entrepreneurs and investors. Most significant is the growing popularity of hosted applications, or software delivered as a service.
The founders of Upstartle, which makes an online word processor, Writely, first considered building collaboration and document management software for corporate intranets. But they eventually scrapped that idea and decided to focus on word processing over the Internet.
"In the past, you had to do a huge, overwhelming thing--a suite of stuff. Now it seems like you can do a lightweight part, which would've seemed like a feature before, that can be stitched together with something else," said Writely co-founder Claudia Carpenter.
Because the "Internet has become an application platform," Writely can connect its word processor service to other Web services, such as blogs or photo-sharing sites, Carpenter said. Web sites are increasingly publishing APIs, or application programming interfaces, which let users and developers share information between different hosted services.
Another important technical advance is the emergence of AJAX a development technique for creating interactive GUIs and Web pages that can refresh Web server data automatically. With AJAX, programmers can build hosted versions of desktop applications, such as document and photo publishing, which offer a user experience similar to PC-bound applications.
In addition to pursuing a narrow product focus, new companies can get off the ground with significantly less money than a few years ago, according to entrepreneurs and investors.
Freely available open-source software is becoming increasingly robust and powerful hardware servers are relatively cheap. Five years ago, start-ups would have had to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for equivalent products.
Operating costs can be lower as well. 37Signals, for example, has not spent money on marketing, relying instead on viral marketing techniques, like blogs and word-of-mouth advertising from its customers, said Fried. The company of seven employees has no sales people.
"What we're seeing with Web 2.0 is that the game of what a software company is and how it gets started has very much changed," said David Rose, board member of New York Angels, which is an angel investment organization that recently launched a practice for Web 2.0 companies.
Rose said Web entrepreneurs nowadays can go from idea to functional product in under a year with under a half-million dollars in investment. "It used to take multiple years, millions of bucks and years of top-down planning to get the first product out," he said.
The Web-based software model applies to both the consumer and the business market, said Richard Forman, managing director of RDF Ventures and a member of New York Angels.
"The fascinating thing about Web 2.0 is that it's a double-barreled track. On the one hand, you have user-submitted content which is a sea change for the Web and then you have Web services for collaborative interaction and ASPs (application service providers), which will have a real impact on the enterprise world," he said.
Companies such as Salesforce.com, NetSuite and now SAP have demonstrated that corporate customers are willing to forgo large-scale internal software projects in favor of hosted services, at least for some select applications, analysts noted. Even Microsoft, king of the shrink-wrapped software market, has taken notice.
Calling on the Fortune 5 million
A lower barrier to entry makes it easy for new ideas to turn into fledgling businesses. Maybe too easy, some analysts said.
Many Web 2.0 online applications can be put together with just a few people and relatively little upfront money and time. But by the same token, those services can be easily replicated, according to investors.
Also, some business models for Web 2.0 companies are not fully tested. Writely, for example, is still in beta and evaluating several different revenue models, including subscriptions for certain customer segments and, potentially, advertising.
"We're seeing a proliferation of start-ups, many of which may be nice little businesses that will be beneficial to the founders, but few that have the fundamental ingredients for creating lasting, meaningful businesses," said Onset Ventures' Hildenbrand.
Although building enterprise software companies may be tougher, money continues to flow into the field. But companies may pursue newer strategies, such as open-source or hosted applications.
Onset's Hildenbrand, for example is focusing on companies that have deep expertise in a particular technical area, such as mobile devices or RFID. He's seeking technology that does more than automate a set of business processes at global 2000 corporations.
"That's now pretty darn easy to do and hence the value proposition of doing it is not nearly as strong," Hildenbrand said.
But for entrepreneurs like 37Signals' Fried, that's a row not worth hoeing any more. And, he contends, keeping his business operation small and his product simple doesn't mean making sacrifices.
"I think we can be one of the most meaningful companies in the next 20 years," he said. "We don't care about the Fortune 500--it's the 'Fortune 5 million'--the small businesses that are doing interesting things."
作者： CNET科技资讯网 翻译：李海
CNETNews.com.cn 2006-02-08 08:37 AM
CNET科技资讯网2月8日国际报道 Jason Fried，37Signals 公司的总裁是一位很棒的软件企业家。但他不想用传统模式去开办一间软件公司。
没有试图挤进复杂的，价格昂贵的产品业务市场，Fried 和他的同志选择了相对比较偏门的软件：主机式个人组织器及项目管理应用。
对于Fried 而言，那种老式的依靠客户拿出大把美金维持运营的模式已经作古。
Fried 说：“我认为企业软件的理念已经死亡。企业软件是一个肮脏的世界－大而无用的东西从来就不奏效，永远没法按时为客户就位，并且，它们太昂贵了。”
虽然发展速度比以往几年有所放缓，企业软件市场仍然是一个价值数十亿美金的行业，它还在增长。一些投资者和企业家们说，不断变化的这个行业使得它很难突入进去。
Onset Ventures公司的Mark Hildenbrand说：“投资者们对企业软件的兴奋度正在降低。毫无疑问，它是一个具有挑战性的区域。”
与此相反，过去两年，小型公司正在大量的出现，它们开发基于网络的应用，或者开发开源软件，人们有时称它们为Web2.0公司。
它们中的许多能够依靠相对小规模的前沿投资获得腾飞，而不是过去那种上亿美元的大手笔。
例如，37Signals 的商业计划就是构建简单的主机式应用，按月向小企业或者个人收取注册费用。
自从推出它的第一个服务的两年多以来，这家自筹资金起步的公司已经获得了成百上千名客户，它没有债务。这家公司还成功的资助了开源Web 开发项目Ruby on Rails.
Fried 说：“你可以利用互联网建立很棒的小巧产品，你可以获得1 百万或者50万用户。”
企业家和投资者们说，一系列技术的变化令非常专门的产品生存下来变为一种可能。大多数的变革是那些正在不断发展普及的主机式应用，或者服务式的软件。
网络字处理器公司Upstartle 的创始人们，最开始考虑开发针对企业内部网的协同与文件管理软件，但他们最终放弃了这个主意，而决定将注意力集中在互联网上的字处理器上。
Writely 公司的创始人之一的Claudia Carpenter 说：“过去，你不得不做一种巨大的事情－象套件一类的东西。现在，似乎你能够做一些轻量级的东西。”
由于互联网已经成为一种应用平台，Writely 能够将他的字处理器服务与其它网络服务连接起来，比如网络日志或者照片分享网站。现在，很多网站不断的公布它们的应用程序接口（API ），这让用户及开发者们能够在不同的主机式服务之间分享信息。
另外一个重要的技术进步就是AJAX（异步JavaScript+XML）的兴起。这是一种创建交互式图形用户界面（GUI ）及网页的开发技术，它能够自动的刷新网络服务器上的数据。
利用AJAX，程序员门能够开发出桌面应用程序的主机式版本，比如文件和照片发布，AJAX可以给用户提供和在PC上类似的用户体验。
除了将注意力集中在专门的产品上，和以往相比，这些新创公司能够用很少的资金实现腾飞。
自由提供的开源软件正在增长，功能强大的硬件服务器价格变得越来越低。而在5 年之前，新创业的公司可能需要花费成千上万美元去购买这些硬件设备。
运营成本也变得相当的低。以37Signals 为例，这家公司没有花钱在市场营销上，他们采用了网上的营销手段，比如网络日志的口碑宣传。这家7 人公司没有销售人员。
纽约天使投资公司的董事David Rose说：“我们看到的Web2.0是一场软件公司发生深刻变革的运动。”
Rose表示，现在的网络企业家可以在短短的一年时间内，仅仅用50万美元的资金即可实现从概念到功能性产品的转变。他说：“要是放在过去，得花数年时间，上百万美元，以及多次的计划修改才会等到第一个产品出笼。”
RDF 风险基金的主任Richard Forman认为，基于网络的软件模式可以同时辐射个人与企业两个市场。
他说：“Web 2.0 的迷人之处在于它是一种双管齐下的模式。一方面，你拥有用户提交的内容，这对网络来讲是一种巨大的机会，另外一方面，你拥有针对协同性工作以及应用服务提供商的网络服务，它将给企业世界产生真实的影响。”
现在，Salesforce.com，NetSuite和SAP 都在鼓吹，企业客户正希望放弃那些大型的软件项目，而选用主机式服务。即使微软这个软件世界的君王也已经发出过类似的感言。
进入Web 2.0 世界的低门槛使得那些新奇主意可以轻易的转化为新创企业。一些分析师说，也许这个门槛太低了。
许多的Web 2.0 网络应用可以由几个人，相对较少的创业投资和时间来完成。但是，与此同时，投资者们认为，这些服务很容易被复制。
另外，一些Web 2.0 公司的业务模式没有经过完全测试，比如Writely 就仍处于测试当中，公司仍然在评估几种不同的收入模式，比如客户注册和广告模式。（编辑：孙莹）
Small is beautiful for Web 2.0 start-ups
By Martin LaMonica
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: February 6, 2006, 4:00 AM PST
Jason Fried, president of start-up 37Signals, is a bona fide software entrepreneur. But he wants nothing to do with the traditional model of starting a software company.
Rather than try to crack into the business market with a complicated, pricey product, Fried and his colleagues chose to stake out a fairly narrow sliver of the software world: hosted personal organizers and project management applications.
To Fried, the old way of doing things--where a start-up's success hinges on a few well-heeled customers willing to shell out big dollars--is history.
"I think the idea of enterprise software is dead. Enterprise software is kind of a dirty word--big bulky things that never work, were never delivered on time, and are too expensive," Fried said.
The enterprise software market is a multi-billion dollar industry that's still growing--albeit more slowly than in years past. But changing industry dynamics are making it a less attractive market to try to break into, say some investors and entrepreneurs.
"Investors are less excited about the tough sledding of that (enterprise software) business model," said Mark Hildenbrand, general partner for enterprise applications and infrastructure software at Onset Ventures. "There's no question that it's a challenged area."
Instead, the past two years has seen a proliferation of smaller companies building Web-based applications, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, as well as open-source companies. Many of these firms can get off the ground with relatively small up-front investments, not the tens of millions of dollars that venture capitalists pumped into new software ventures in years past.
The business plan at 37Signals, for example, is to build simple hosted applications and charge a monthly subscription fee to small businesses and individuals.
In the two years since launching its first service, the self-funded company has signed on hundreds of thousands of customers and it has no debt, said Fried. It has also founded a successful open-source Web development project, Ruby on Rails.
"You can build a great business on a niche product because with the Internet, you can reach a million or a half-million people," said Fried.
Sharp focus, wide angle
A number of technology changes are making very focused product offerings more viable, according to entrepreneurs and investors. Most significant is the growing popularity of hosted applications, or software delivered as a service.
The founders of Upstartle, which makes an online word processor, Writely, first considered building collaboration and document management software for corporate intranets. But they eventually scrapped that idea and decided to focus on word processing over the Internet.
"In the past, you had to do a huge, overwhelming thing--a suite of stuff. Now it seems like you can do a lightweight part, which would've seemed like a feature before, that can be stitched together with something else," said Writely co-founder Claudia Carpenter.
Because the "Internet has become an application platform," Writely can connect its word processor service to other Web services, such as blogs or photo-sharing sites, Carpenter said. Web sites are increasingly publishing APIs, or application programming interfaces, which let users and developers share information between different hosted services.
Another important technical advance is the emergence of AJAX a development technique for creating interactive GUIs and Web pages that can refresh Web server data automatically. With AJAX, programmers can build hosted versions of desktop applications, such as document and photo publishing, which offer a user experience similar to PC-bound applications.
In addition to pursuing a narrow product focus, new companies can get off the ground with significantly less money than a few years ago, according to entrepreneurs and investors.
Freely available open-source software is becoming increasingly robust and powerful hardware servers are relatively cheap. Five years ago, start-ups would have had to spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars for equivalent products.
Operating costs can be lower as well. 37Signals, for example, has not spent money on marketing, relying instead on viral marketing techniques, like blogs and word-of-mouth advertising from its customers, said Fried. The company of seven employees has no sales people.
"What we're seeing with Web 2.0 is that the game of what a software company is and how it gets started has very much changed," said David Rose, board member of New York Angels, which is an angel investment organization that recently launched a practice for Web 2.0 companies.
Rose said Web entrepreneurs nowadays can go from idea to functional product in under a year with under a half-million dollars in investment. "It used to take multiple years, millions of bucks and years of top-down planning to get the first product out," he said.
The Web-based software model applies to both the consumer and the business market, said Richard Forman, managing director of RDF Ventures and a member of New York Angels.
"The fascinating thing about Web 2.0 is that it's a double-barreled track. On the one hand, you have user-submitted content which is a sea change for the Web and then you have Web services for collaborative interaction and ASPs (application service providers), which will have a real impact on the enterprise world," he said.
Companies such as Salesforce.com, NetSuite and now SAP have demonstrated that corporate customers are willing to forgo large-scale internal software projects in favor of hosted services, at least for some select applications, analysts noted. Even Microsoft, king of the shrink-wrapped software market, has taken notice.
Calling on the Fortune 5 million
A lower barrier to entry makes it easy for new ideas to turn into fledgling businesses. Maybe too easy, some analysts said.
Many Web 2.0 online applications can be put together with just a few people and relatively little upfront money and time. But by the same token, those services can be easily replicated, according to investors.
Also, some business models for Web 2.0 companies are not fully tested. Writely, for example, is still in beta and evaluating several different revenue models, including subscriptions for certain customer segments and, potentially, advertising.
"We're seeing a proliferation of start-ups, many of which may be nice little businesses that will be beneficial to the founders, but few that have the fundamental ingredients for creating lasting, meaningful businesses," said Onset Ventures' Hildenbrand.
Although building enterprise software companies may be tougher, money continues to flow into the field. But companies may pursue newer strategies, such as open-source or hosted applications.
Onset's Hildenbrand, for example is focusing on companies that have deep expertise in a particular technical area, such as mobile devices or RFID. He's seeking technology that does more than automate a set of business processes at global 2000 corporations.
"That's now pretty darn easy to do and hence the value proposition of doing it is not nearly as strong," Hildenbrand said.
But for entrepreneurs like 37Signals' Fried, that's a row not worth hoeing any more. And, he contends, keeping his business operation small and his product simple doesn't mean making sacrifices.
"I think we can be one of the most meaningful companies in the next 20 years," he said. "We don't care about the Fortune 500--it's the 'Fortune 5 million'--the small businesses that are doing interesting things."
