You know, I'm tempted to flag this on purely selfish grounds. I want this article to disappear into the dust-bin of history and never be seen again.
Why?
Because I'm one of those weirdos that finds (most) consumer web apps to be inane and boring to the nth degree; and who is already all about building an enterprise startup, and for (mostly) the exact reasons cited by this article. And I don't want everybody and their brother jumping on the bandwagon! :-)
Ok, ok, I'm being a little bit fascetious. I don't care that much about competition, and (God|Allah|Satan|Zeus|Zoroaster|Dionysus|FSM|$DEITY_OF_CHOICE)knows, I have enough anyway though... Jive Software, Yammer, Clearvale, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others all offer products that are - if not direct competitors - at least a viable substitute. Fortunately some of them offer complementary products that support the overall ecosystem I'm working on. A few more startups probably aren't a big deal.
Suffice it to say, I think this article hits on some very good points. Yes, selling to the enterprise has it's own set of challenges, but it definitely has it's advantages as well. The key point probably being "businesses spend money."
Why?
Because I'm one of those weirdos that finds (most) consumer web apps to be inane and boring to the nth degree; and who is already all about building an enterprise startup, and for (mostly) the exact reasons cited by this article. And I don't want everybody and their brother jumping on the bandwagon! :-)
Ok, ok, I'm being a little bit fascetious. I don't care that much about competition, and (God|Allah|Satan|Zeus|Zoroaster|Dionysus|FSM|$DEITY_OF_CHOICE)knows, I have enough anyway though... Jive Software, Yammer, Clearvale, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and others all offer products that are - if not direct competitors - at least a viable substitute. Fortunately some of them offer complementary products that support the overall ecosystem I'm working on. A few more startups probably aren't a big deal.
Suffice it to say, I think this article hits on some very good points. Yes, selling to the enterprise has it's own set of challenges, but it definitely has it's advantages as well. The key point probably being "businesses spend money."