RE: SMB Linux approaches?

The trick is finding the right kind of pain -- the kind
that is so acute that the sufferers will pay big money and
that can only be solved with aspirin that is really easy
for you to create.  I doubt that any small or medium
business has a pain that could be solved by simply replacing
windows with linux, as Karsten seems to be proposing.

There is nothing wrong with getting pigeonholed if the 
pigeonhole is big and warm and full of food.  


-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen J. Turnbull [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Stephen J. Turnbull
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 10:56 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: 'Karsten M. Self'; 'Free Software Business'
Subject: Re: SMB Linux approaches?

>>>>> "Chris" == Chris Maeda <[email protected]> writes:

    Chris> I would find segments of this business community that have
    Chris> pain and budgets, and figure out how to solve their
    Chris> problems using a linux-based solution.

I dunno.  Don't they all have pain?  Also, I've met Karsten over
dinner.  I think Roblimo's strategy fits him to a "T".  Find the
people, get them to talk about their problems, tell them (plausibly
but not-too-technically[1]) "we can do that without disrupting your
current practices much".  Hopefully leaving with an invitation to drop
by to talk about a bid on a system!

On the other hand, coming in with a ready-made solution for wine clubs
will risk him getting pigeon-holed as "the wine-club systems guy".
_We_ know that CRM packages can do both real estate and wine clubs,
but the businessfolk are not going to make that connection.