What Have We Learned?
1/ What have we learned? With the caveat that Q Branch is a one-product company (rarely sustainable), we have learned that…
2/ …Vesper, an app with the voice and reach of John “Daring Fireball” Gruber, Brent “Mac RSS” Simmons, and Dave “Better Elevation” Wiskus…
3/ …even with a high-gloss msft promotional video, cross-platform media, personal friends at the mothership, and a VERY high-quality product…
4/ …we have learned that a single app cannot support three people, even with all of their well-earned advantages and social capital.
5/ It can be a side project from a day job, a side project from writing and thought leadership, a side project from contracting…
6/ …but a single iOS app will not sustainably put food on your table. Period. This game is over, thanks for playing.
7/ There will be exceptions, now and in the future. But, like Levi Strauss of yore, probably better to sell tools to the gold miners…
8/ …than to be a gold miner yourself. Mines are difficult, filthy places, where specks may be fortunes, or may not. Where wildcatters prey…
9/ …sitting in wait for the next claim, only to swoop in, by hook or by crook, and undermine your potential win. People die in mines.
10/ Whereas selling tools… well, retail trade is often a clean well-lighted place, of promise and promotion, even if the margins are lower.
11/ So, friends, if *Vesper* is a side project, what makes you think your project can do better?
12/ Listen to the elders! The ordered society cometh. Align with passion or profit. Do not be fooled that they are the same.
13/ We’re bombing people. We’re storing every communication forever. But you have nothing to worry about; you have nothing to hide.
14/ Enough with this childish “opportunity” you speak of! Find an extraction business, like your cousin. Oil, finance, a franchise.
15/ Perhaps a gravel pit, or a ministry, or a job in IT? Timbering? Chicken farming? Venture capital?
16/ It matters not. We’re born, we live, we love, we die. Enjoy your time here. But confuse passion and profit at your peril.
17/ Sometimes they align. Though, with respect, don’t count on it.
