Plus One
Where Keith adds another year
A year ago, this light-ped enterprise was brand new and i looked forward to the new year with excitement and very little experience as to how to succeed as an indy. As of today, i've released v2.0 of my flagship product, as well as the first version of my second product. I'm wiser if not wise and again look forward with excitement. For my loyal reader, here is a state of the endeavor:
What Happened
The past few months have been really terrific for Helium Foot. In August, i dramatically cut down my hours at my former day job and put the surplus towards Helium Foot. I never would have been able to get MercuryMover v2.0 out the door, much less undertake the entire effort (design, development, testing, marketing and release) of my second product: Highbrow. Also, during this time, license sales went from being a source of pocket change to being a bona fide source of income for my family. I may not have arrived, but i can definitely see the station.
What's Happening
When i took this sabbatical in order to make some headway on Helium Foot, i always knew that i would still need some additional income to sustain us. License sales are steady and are an order of magnitude higher than they were a year ago. However that is much more a statement of how low they were than how high they are. As such, i've recently taken a three month web development contract. I've surprised myself with how much i'm enjoying this contract gig, but long term my heart is still with Helium Foot. The most immediate effect for my customers is that support requests will most likely be answered in the promised "one business day" instead of the "less than one hour" that i'm fond of offering. Support is still our highest priority and i expect to continue to delight my customers in that regard. While my next app is definitely on the back burner, i just put out a Highbrow fix release and am working on one for MercuryMover. Engineering is absolutely ongoing during this sabbatical sabbatical.
What's Gonna Happen
Always in motion is the future, so it's a little hard to tell but here's some of what i'm shooting for over the next year.
- Continuous minor improvements for MercuryMover and Highbrow
- One major release for each
- Continued marketing and press hacking
- A new iPhone app
What I've Learned
No retrospective would be introspective if it didn't include a statement on how we've grown. the biggest lesson that i've learned in my indydom is that It's All About Marketing, no really. I've said before that marketing starts with engineering, but the converse should be true also: engineering should start with marketing. If your perfectly designed and executed app is one that no one wants then it's not worth very much. Your interface design should be informed by the market that will want your product and the execution should be informed by what it will take to get your product to market. Marketing is of course about marketing, but so is customer support. So is blogging. So is twittering and braining or whatever other doodad web 3.11 will bring us. The modest success that i've achieved in the past year was due to refining my products into something that the market wanted and effectively getting the word out about them. I can't say how far this will take me in the next year but i'm happy with how far it's taken me thus far and am excited to find out.
Highbrow 1.0
Where Keith would like to thank the academy
Other than, "Highbrow 1.0 is out the door", there isn't too much to say about the release. Highnrow's development has been well chronicled. One thing that i did want to say is, thanks! Helium Foot's users have been extremely supportive and have given me some great feedback that really got Highbrow to where it is today, and will take it much further.
Do you use more than one web browser on your Mac? Download Highbrow and find out how much easier your life should be.
Highbrow 1.0 Public Beta
Where Keith puts out his sophomore product
After a three week sprint, Highbrow 1.0 beta is away! Since the app was mostly finished a few weeks ago, i figured that this release would have come sooner. I had forgotten how much work it is to launch a new product! With a groovy new icon, a very decent help file, a nice custom Sparkle based auto-update, a pretty (though currently troublesome) disk image, a web page, a homepage redesign, a screen movie, some wordsmithing, a press release, and i'm sure a few other things that i've forgotten and we've made it to the beta release. If you ever use more than one web browser on your Mac, either at the same time, or in serial, you definitely owe it to yourself to try Highbrow. For me, all of the annoyances of using that second (and third) browser have completely disappeared now that Highbrow automatically changes my system wide default browser on the fly as i move from one browser to the next.
Do you feel some web browser frustration? Get your Mac web browser zen with Highbrow. Look for the v1.0 release on 15 December 2008.
T-shirts for Programmers
Where Keith tries to help a helper
December is here and snow is on the ground, so if you're in the habit of giving gifts at this time of year, then this online shop may interest you. Andy Brice of Perfect Table Plan fame has put together an online store selling t-shirts for programmers and is donating all of the proceeds to, jaipurfoot.org and www.sightsavers.org. Andy is one of the luminaries of the indy software scene. In fact, he's so luminous that he straddles the platform divide and is a member of the indy Mac and windows communities. I count Andy as a mentor of mine in that i read his blog and he has been generous with his time, once giving me some very salient advice on how to position my product(s) in the marketplace.
Not sure what to get your programmer friends and loved ones? Please consider this opportunity to cloth them in geekiness and do something good in concert.
On and Off the Internets
Where Keith gets some great coverage
MercuryMover and Helium Foot Software have both been garnering some pretty nice attention recently. In the wake of the recent v2.0 release, MercuryMover has leapt from the pages of the internet to the, er, pages of MacWorld magazine. That's right, MercuryMover made the print edition!
Hot on the heels of our print debut, MercuryMover was featured on the excellent ScreenCastsOnline in an episode about working with large displays. In the run-up to the release of this screencast, i offered Don McAllister, the proprietor of ScreenCastsOnline, a $2 commission on every MercuryMover license sold via ScreenCastsOnline. This would just be a small way to help support his really terrific site. Don turned around and donated all of these commissions to the National Cancer Coalition as part of Helium Foot's philanthropic work. I was (and continue to be) really moved by Don's generous offer and have in turn pledged to spread the word about Don's menschiness.
Next up was a really nice mention by Tonya Engst on the Mac Notables vidcast. Tonya and her husband Adam publish the very successful Take Control series of e-books as well as the long-standing Mac news site, TidBITS. I've always been grateful for the coverage that Tonya and Adam have given to Helium Foot over the past year and after seeing them together on the vidcast, i immediately nominated them for the Cutest Mac Couple contest.
One great mention can definitely lead to another. After watching the Mac Notables cast, i contacted the host and well known Mac-about-town Chuck Joiner and before i knew it, he was interviewing me for his MacVoices show. I'd never done an interview like this and it was a lot of fun! We shot the breeze like old pals for half an hour covering MercuryMover, Highbrow, my podcast, our work with the National Cancer Coalition and even touched on our purported iPhone app. Chuck's a really great guy and if you see him out there in the Mac World, you should definitely introduce yourself.
Exciting things are ahelium at Helium Foot Software. Stay tuned to these same internets and you'll surely hear all about them.
Highbrow v0.4.0
Where Keith inches towards a new product
Announcing a new Prerelease of Highbrow: Juggle all of your browsers with ease! Highbrow always knows which one you want to use. If you haven't yet met Highbrow, let me give you a proper introduction now. From our Highbrow page:
Highbrow makes its presence felt in the menubar, always showing you what your default web browser is. Highbrow shows its mettle by changing the system wide browser according to your habits. Highbrow can of course keep a single browser as YOUR browser, but its value is in switching your default to the most recently used or most recently launched browser. Highbrow can even ask you which browser you were looking for.
Since the
last prerelease, here's what we've accomplished:
- Implemented "Ask me which browser to use" feature
- Highbrow now recognize newly installed browsers (assuming that they are in /Applications or ~/Applications)
- Added the cmd-ctrl-h hotkey to show the Highbrow Menu without using the mouse (Helium Foot is all about mouselessness)
Some of what's still needed:
- Better automatic updates: nicer interface, more control
- The icon is temporary
- There is no first-run window
- There is no help file
Go ahead.
Download it!
MercuryMover v2.0.2
Where Keith gets in a quick one
MercuryMover fixes v2.0.2 fixing a freeze that occurs with some MacBook(Pro) users when they connect to or disconnect from an external display. Get it here.
Currently underway is a fix for an issue that affects PowerMac and iMac G5 users. If you're one of those hang in there, help is coming.
MicroISV Marketing for the Masses
Where Keith manifestos
Despite the fact that i'm the host, my good friend and co-panelist Kevin Hoctor beat me to the punch in announcing this latest episode. Joined as always by the aforementioned Kevin of No Thirst Software as well as Gus Mueller of Flying Meat and Steve "Scotty" Scott of mamooba and The Mac Developer Network, we discuss how a new or newish (even if you don't look newish) Mac shop might garner some interest from the Mac blogosphere, Mac press-o-sphere and Mac user-o'sphere. Also as usual, the best stuff in this show, definitely comes from the rest of the panel and i'm continually grateful for Gus, Scotty and Kevin's participation.
You can find the m4a of this episode at the Mac Developer Network. If you're not familiar with the Mac Developer Network, it's a really terrific source for some fabulous content: audio, video and text. If you enjoy this type of content, please consider supporting the Mac Developer Network by joining up.
Check back in three months for our farewell episode.