Start-up shut-down

'So you are giving the software away for free and you want to build a business doing that?'. We were somewhat sceptical when we meet the people from Bacula Systems for the first time on 21 January. There we were, six guys from all over the world who had been working with chemicals, automobiles, fashion clothing, banking and shipping. And now we were asked to help a company doing open source backup software build a business! We barely knew what software was about, not to mention open source. Only Gerald Lo [Malaysia] is from the IT industry, so we had to rely heavily on his technical expertise in the beginning.

Today we gave our final presentation to Bacula wrapping up the past four months of work by summarising the findings and recommendations we have made along the way. There were no surprises for them today, as we have been working with them all the way. Bacula was represented by CEO Jack Griffin and by Kern Sibbald, who has programmed the Bacula software. Both gentlemen have a long career in the IT industry. They were very satisfied with the cooperation we have had and said that they will be making signficant changes to their business model and target customers on the basis of our findings. That is the kind of feedback that is great to receive. Then it has all been worth it!

Along the way we have had to learn the basic jargon of the industry and understand a very complex and advanced product well enough to be able to define how it is different from its main competitors. We have learned the basic drivers of the open source community and the dilemmas that a company operating in this sphere faces. We have spoken to potential customers and partners and have analyzed the ins and outs of the competitors. The process has taken us through countless iterations and involved hours and hours of discussions, but eventually we were able to come to an agreement both among ourselves and with Bacula on how the business should move forward.

Tomorrow at 9:50 we start the grand finale. We will be presenting to a panel of Venture Capitalists, who all have seen thousands of business plans and who are renowned for their ability to spot weaknesses a mile away. We have practised the presentation over and over again. I am certain that Ajay and Cedric - who will be presenting - are rehearsing the lines in their sleep right now. Fifteen minutes to explain four months of work is not a lot. We need to be sharp! Really, really sharp!



4 February 2009. Backup for dummies. This is where it all began. Bacula CEO Jack Griffin was very patient and took the time to teach us the basic technicalities.



7 February - Information overload! Trying to make sense of it all. It just seemed insurmountable at the time.



4 March - Bacula boys at work in the Maersk building, where we spent a lot of time together. From left it is Gerald Lo [Malaysia], Ajay Lakhwani [India], Brad Moldin [USA], Slava Raykov [Russia] and Cedric Jusseaume [France].



Mid March - Finally some kind of framework starts taking shape.



Late May - Sharpening the final presentation!