Venture Adventure

In the past, I have discussed creating a Microsoft Exchange replacement.  While everyone seems to want it, the market is very iffy.  If you sell a server product, you end up competing directly with Microsoft, and they’re not eager for that, so getting access to their libraries is very difficult.

Thus, the plan had been to offer exchange as a SaaS solution.  But there, it turns out, you’re competing against people who are doing just a hosted Exchange solution, which Microsoft now allows.  By hosting Exchange directly, you also get the advantage of Blackberry support, as well as other smart phone support through third-party plug-ins.

We’d have to do a lot of engineering in order to get to where MS is.  Even factoring in the cost savings from hosting this on Amazon, etc., there wasn’t enough financial upside to make this worth it.

I’m in the business of making money, not losing money.  When we realized that the project wasn’t a money maker, we stopped.

Now we’re on to something where there’s a path to profitability.  Details to come….

While on an emergency trip to the east coast a few weeks ago, we arranged for a cleaning crew to come in and clean my parents home. Typical of home cleaning services, this one was three Hispanic women. They did a top-to-bottom cleaning of the house, since they hadn’t been there in over 6 months.

Their outfits included shirts from Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, and Izod. In fact, the entire crew was swathed head to toe in designer clothing – shirts, pants, shoes, and handbags.

Does janitorial attire signal the death of your brand?

It’s always nice to read someone who really speaks their mind:

“Idiots” Is Far Too Kind. (Dumb Bastards? Venal Jerks? Value-Destroying, Customer-Insensitive Clowns?)