Helium Foot Software

Plus One

A year ago, this light-ped enterprise was brand new and i looked forward to the new year with excitement and very little experience as to how to succeed as an indy. As of today, i've released v2.0 of my flagship product, as well as the first version of my second product. I'm wiser if not wise and again look forward with excitement. For my loyal reader, here is a state of the endeavor:

What Happened

The past few months have been really terrific for Helium Foot. In August, i dramatically cut down my hours at my former day job and put the surplus towards Helium Foot. I never would have been able to get MercuryMover v2.0 out the door, much less undertake the entire effort (design, development, testing, marketing and release) of my second product: Highbrow. Also, during this time, license sales went from being a source of pocket change to being a bona fide source of income for my family. I may not have arrived, but i can definitely see the station.

What's Happening

When i took this sabbatical in order to make some headway on Helium Foot, i always knew that i would still need some additional income to sustain us. License sales are steady and are an order of magnitude higher than they were a year ago. However that is much more a statement of how low they were than how high they are. As such, i've recently taken a three month web development contract. I've surprised myself with how much i'm enjoying this contract gig, but long term my heart is still with Helium Foot. The most immediate effect for my customers is that support requests will most likely be answered in the promised "one business day" instead of the "less than one hour" that i'm fond of offering. Support is still our highest priority and i expect to continue to delight my customers in that regard. While my next app is definitely on the back burner, i just put out a Highbrow fix release and am working on one for MercuryMover. Engineering is absolutely ongoing during this sabbatical sabbatical.

What's Gonna Happen

Always in motion is the future, so it's a little hard to tell but here's some of what i'm shooting for over the next year.

• Continuous minor improvements for MercuryMover and Highbrow
• One major release for each
• Continued marketing and press hacking
• A new iPhone app

What I've Learned

No retrospective would be introspective if it didn't include a statement on how we've grown. the biggest lesson that i've learned in my indydom is that It's All About Marketing, no really. I've said before that marketing starts with engineering, but the converse should be true also: engineering should start with marketing. If your perfectly designed and executed app is one that no one wants then it's not worth very much. Your interface design should be informed by the market that will want your product and the execution should be informed by what it will take to get your product to market. Marketing is of course about marketing, but so is customer support. So is blogging. So is twittering and braining or whatever other doodad web 3.11 will bring us. The modest success that i've achieved in the past year was due to refining my products into something that the market wanted and effectively getting the word out about them. I can't say how far this will take me in the next year but i'm happy with how far it's taken me thus far and am excited to find out.

Why I am a Success and Why I will never be a Success

I had planned to spend the afternoon today working on a long overdue MercuryMover release. Instead my son and i:

• Made a music video for The Alphabet of Nations
• Made a stop motion video of two pencils in a flying V formation
• Went grocery shopping
• Went out for some very tall and chocolatey mugs of hot cocoa

At this rate, i'll never achieve the kind of success that will make me rich. Of course, this is exactly the reason why i wanted to go indie in the first place.