Mark Gladding runs a small online business selling a delightful piece of software called Text2Go. Text2Go takes articles (or other text), converts it into mp3 files, and pops it on your ipod or other mp3 player so that you can listen to it on the go. I bought a copy of the software a few weeks ago and I think it is just wonderful. Sure, it needs a little bit of fine tuning (version 1.0 was only released a few months ago) but with hardly any effort at all I can now use my previously dead travel time to get through all those great articles I've wanted to read, but had given up on. Plus, it gives me a cheap alternative to audio books.
Mark and I have been chatting off and on during the last few weeks - I like his software and I've been suggesting a few tweaks to make it better - and it made me realise that although I've worked in software development for nearly 2 decades, I had no idea what his world was like. So I asked him.
Here are the answers:
Q1. I've been using your product for just a few days now and I think it is wonderful. I've tried a few text to speech products and so far your is the best. As you know I am writing a book and I use your software to pop the chapters on my ipod and listen to them. It's much faster than reading them out by myself. So tell me, Mark, what on earth possessed you to start a small software company and why did you choose this particular product?
I had the idea for the product over two years ago. The IT industry changes very fast and as a software developer I need to constantly update my skills. At the very least I have to know what new technologies are out there. This requires a lot of reading. At the time I was spending about 1 ½ hours a day commuting to and from work. I thought if I could automatically convert articles to speech then I could listen to them during my commute. It wasn’t until I got an iPod for my birthday almost a year later that I actually tried out the idea. It was quite successful. Today’s computerized voices are a vast improvement over the robot like voices of the past. They still have a long way to go before they’re completely natural but at least now they’re quite understandable and have some expression. I used an existing text to speech tool to test my idea. It worked but was a little cumbersome for my purpose, so as a software developer I decided to write my own tool. This is how the Text2Go product came about.
As to starting the software company, I decided right from the start that I would make Text2Go a commercial product. I believed I’d identified an unserved niche in the market. Existing products tended to focus on speaking text while you’re at your PC whereas Text2Go is all about getting speech onto your mobile device. At the time I was reading Eric Sink’s blog, where he describes the micro-ISV, a small independent software company, usually run by a single person. All sales and marketing are done over the Internet. I particularly liked the sound of such a business and the lifestyle that goes with it. In a micro-ISV, you have complete control over all aspects of the product and have to take full responsibility. In terms of lifestyle, I like that fact that you can almost work anywhere in the world there is decent Internet access and you can be as flexible as you like with the hours you work.
Q2. So, you wear two hats: one as a software developer, the other as a business man. Can you tell me if the two hats ever argue and what they argue about?
The two hats are in constant battle. I believe that in order to create a successful product and hence company, you need to strike the right balance. As a software developer I would love to work all day, every day on adding new features, refinements, etc to the product. This is especially tempting being a user of the product, as I would also get to enjoy the benefits.
However the business hat is always looking for a return on the investment. This means working on Internet marketing in order to increase sales. When sales increase to an acceptable level, further development time can be justified and hence will be approved.
Therefore I tend to work in cycles, with a period of development followed by a period of marketing.
Q3. What's been the most satisfying about your new venture so far?
The most satisfying thing for me personally is the fact that I’ve been able to create something that I own. As a software developer who has always worked as an employee or as a contractor, I’ve worked on some great products over the years but they’ve always been owned by someone else. I can look back on that time and say I’ve gained a lot of experience, have worked with some really nice people and have been paid a good salary but that’s it. I’m at the stage now where that’s not enough. I want to invest my time and energy into something I own.
The other thing I love is the direct contact with users. On many large projects you never get to talk to the customer directly. You have no idea whether they like the features you’ve implemented, or even know they exist. With a micro-ISV, users are never more than an email or blog comment away.
Q4. What keeps you up at night?
Am I moving too slowly or more precisely, I am taking on enough risk? Should I borrow money to invest in the business or continue my current approach of bootstrapping the business? This is a decision that I review constantly. I’m afraid that a competitor will come along that is either well funded or willing to take on more risk and create a product that will blow mine out of the water. This fear does have the benefit of keeping you focused.
