I was a PFY working for a dot-com shop in the mid-'90s. I (in large part) invented an internal, web-based system that we used to track employee time against external (billable) and internal (non-billable) projects and tasks. Our salespeople would use the system as a common directory of customer contacts, share notes on business development, and generate estimates. Our accounting department would use the system to generate invoices with different payment terms and forecast receivables.
I left the place right before Y2K, a flaming wreck of burnout, dead set on going to college for a CS degree. My friends and coworkers at the time were emphatic that I should take the system I had designed, reimplement it, and sell it. Of course, this was way before cloud and SaaS and all that stuff. I thought it was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard; I couldn't imagine any other company needing and using the same (or a similar) system. And regardless, I was so burned out from it that I couldn't bear the thought of turning around and doing it all again. What can I say... I was young. :-)
Niku was founded in '97, which CA renamed Clarity in '05 after purchasing the company for $350M. Salesforce.com launched in late '99 and currently has a market cap of about $50B. If I were a little smarter (or more hardworking), or if I had met a few different people along the way... who knows? Or maybe I wasn't so unique in creating something like this, and the Niku, Salesforce.com, and others were the ones who simply saw the opportunity for what it was.
Comments
I was a PFY working for a dot-com shop in the mid-'90s. I (in large part) invented an internal, web-based system that we used to track employee time against external (billable) and internal (non-billable) projects and tasks. Our salespeople would use the system as a common directory of customer contacts, share notes on business development, and generate estimates. Our accounting department would use the system to generate invoices with different payment terms and forecast receivables.
I left the place right before Y2K, a flaming wreck of burnout, dead set on going to college for a CS degree. My friends and coworkers at the time were emphatic that I should take the system I had designed, reimplement it, and sell it. Of course, this was way before cloud and SaaS and all that stuff. I thought it was the stupidest idea I'd ever heard; I couldn't imagine any other company needing and using the same (or a similar) system. And regardless, I was so burned out from it that I couldn't bear the thought of turning around and doing it all again. What can I say... I was young. :-)
Niku was founded in '97, which CA renamed Clarity in '05 after purchasing the company for $350M. Salesforce.com launched in late '99 and currently has a market cap of about $50B. If I were a little smarter (or more hardworking), or if I had met a few different people along the way... who knows? Or maybe I wasn't so unique in creating something like this, and the Niku, Salesforce.com, and others were the ones who simply saw the opportunity for what it was.