Thanks to Bob Walsh of 47hats.com for inviting me as a guest blogger to offer some tips for Micro-ISVs considering going mobile with their products.

If you’re going mobile with your micro-ISV offering, then stop what you’re doing and think it through first. Make sure that it’s the right thing to do, that it really adds value and that your basic software proposition is strong enough in the first place. You would do well to stop by Bob’s site and take in some of the solid advice that he has to offer on how to become a successful micro-ISV.

Bob got me thinking. Well, not quite. I never stop thinking, especially about how to make money from mobile apps. I see that as my primary assignment in life, even though I am an architect and technologist. My recent role as Chief Apps Architect for Motorola’s mobile apps group was essentially a business development role. How do we take all the various mobile apps components and assemble them into a money-making machine?

Don’t feel too embarrassed if you don’t know the answer. Very few do. Moreover, my usual first port of call is to ask ‘what do we know about the customer’s mobile habits today?’ And you’ll be surprised how few companies really know the answer - and I’m talking big companies with large marketing departments.

Over the next few weeks and months, I shall be trying to assemble as much good advice as I can on how to succeed, if at all possible, as a micro-ISV in the mobile space. I have taken many products to market as a mobile ISV (and elsewhere) and learned many lessons. I have spent years as a consultant working for operators and large mobile equipment and software vendors. I know mobile apps like the back of my hand, which I know very well because I’m always itching it (I have eczema, or is it just an itch?).

At every level - micro ISV, ISV, ‘Mega ISV,’ operator, equipment vendor - the same question always gets asked - ‘How do we make money from mobile apps?’

Most of the time, I answer that question by not answering it. I mean, at the levels that I am used to working at, there isn’t an easy answer, so we end up formulating strategies, concepts and deploying ‘out of the box’ thinking, which, frustratingly, in many of my assignments often boils down to ‘outside the box’ (spoken), ‘but can you do that whilst staying inside the box please’ (unspoken).

Whilst I continue to strategise, innovate and — whatever the vogue word is — in the big boys’ world, I would like to pay more attention to the dominant mode of software creation and innovation on this planet, which is the one or few-man micro-ISV.

If you have any success stories, insights, failures, tips, things to share in the small start-up realm in mobile, I would love to hear from you. You will only benefit by sharing because I promise to share it all back, sprinkled with a little insight and innovation, if I can. I’m already formulating some ideas around the theme of the ecosystem/platform play for mobile (and web apps generally) and how to achieve this through collaboration, one micro-ISV with another. But let’s not race ahead just yet. Looking forward to hearing from you (paul at paulgolding dot com).

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