Category Archives: Infinity Softworks

Writings on running Infinity Softworks. Lessons learned from over a decade of history.

Economic Downturns Are Good For Business

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A few years ago, at the end of Infinity Softworks’ second act as an education company, we decided to raise a round of funding. To make a long story short, I concluded early in the process that that was not possible and abandoned the idea. But two years later, as I watch the news wires for funding deals, a whole bunch of education companies have raised money. While the timing didn’t work out for Infinity Softworks’ education plans, here’s hoping it does for FastFigures and our re-focus on business customers.

Well, that left me thinking. Some of our biggest markets for FastFigures include real estate, financial and investment services. Could we have better timing? Let’s see. A busted real estate bubble, the banking system struggling, and Dow Jones sinking like a lead balloon… great time to sell to those folks!

But the truth is it is a great time to start this business. These problems won’t last forever, and when these problems fade then we will be in a great position to grow with our customers. When everything was easy — when a house sold in a day — no Realtor needed to care about educating their customers about mortgages. The only expertise they needed was to get the offer in fast. Now, with Realtors fighting over a small collection of buyers, education and experience will be the key.

Seth Godin wrote in his post “Looking For a Reason To Hide” a very interesting piece of information: a large chunk of the Inc 500’s fastest growing companies were born in the days following 9/11. From the darkest moments springs new life. It’s true with the tech companies I have watched all my life, too. Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Google, just to name a few, all born in the dark days of recession.

So we start slow, we put the pieces in place, we learn and listen and take action on that. And then when the market shifts, if we’ve done a good job of learning and listening, then we will be ready and waiting to grow!

Company Foundations: Money, Vision and Timing

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I have been thinking a lot about the keys to success for a company. In short order, they are money, strategic vision, and timing. If those three aren’t in place, then nothing else the company does will be successful. What I mean is without these three, excellent execution will mean nothing. Let me explain each.

Money

A company is only as good as it has money in the bank to strategize and execute. This has been Infinity Softworks’ problem the past few years. We never had enough money in the bank to give us enough time to build a comprehensive strategy and execute to it.

In 2001 and 2002, we raised $550,000 but because of the economic downturn at the time money was very hard to come by and we raised it in drips and drabs. The mistake I made was we used the money to meet current obligations rather than executing to a comprehensive plan. At least until the end, when we raised a large chunk all at one time and we used that chunk to build our education plan and go after it. In that case it didn’t work out, but that was because of timing not money.

Don’t take this the wrong way. I’m not saying how much money needs to be raised; I am saying that money gives a company time to plan and execute. When Infinity Softworks started in 1997, we had only a few thousand dollars to build the company with, not many dollars (particularly for the kinds of money being tossed around in those days). But we had time. We were are all young and had very low overhead. This gave us the time we needed to bring out our first products and start to generate cash.

As mentioned, money has been an issue the past few years. We took part-time jobs working for others so we could continue to build FastFigures. Now, we are in the process of completing a small round of funding. It will give us the ability to focus on building our strategy and executing to it effectively.

Strategic Vision

It is imperative that a company understand what it is doing and what it is aiming for. Customers, partners and employees all need to understand it. A vision for what the company can be makes everyone excited to work with you. I have to admit that Infinity Softworks was aimless for a while. I had a better strategic vision in 1998-2000 (the next generation of financial calculators) than I had in 2001-2002 when we raised money. The vision became muddied.

Finally in 2003, we focused on revolutionizing math education (focusing our class time on key concepts instead of keystrokes). It brought partners out of the woodwork. Customers understood it. And the company’s employees all had common purpose. We knew what we needed to do and, importantly, we knew what we should not do. When it fell apart in 2006 (see Timing below), we were aimless again for a couple of years while the vision around FastFigures formulated. Now we are back on track. I can see excitement in the emails and conversations with beta and other customers, and see potential partners becoming excited about it.

Timing

With all the money in the world and the perfect strategy, none of it will matter without the right timing. This was the doom for our education business. The timing was wrong. Monies for technology in the classroom were drying up at the same time that Palm was struggling and decided to get out of the handheld business. We tried to switch course, to move to the web, but we took with the move the same strategic vision. It didn’t fit with how technology was used in the classroom. So we struggled to find partners and customers who bought into our vision. It just didn’t match the market.

The timing has to be right. I was too early and customers weren’t ready to hear my message. If I was too late, then my customers would have found a good enough solution already.

I think our timing is right for FastFigures. From a technical perspective the confluence of mobile computing and web-based computing are making a lot of things possible that just weren’t even two or three years ago. Fine, as my customers have pounded into me, it doesn’t mean web-based apps running on smartphones. But it does mean an improved method for sharing data and interacting between the two.

From a business perspective the economic meltdown has made professionals the world over have to understand the numbers before doing a deal or giving an answer, something missing over the past few years. Are we too early? I hope not but I can only know this one in retrospect.

Introducing FastFigures, Web-based Calculation and Reporting

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This week Infinity Softworks officially rolled out FastFigures. FastFigures, a web service, is designed for professionals and students who perform calculations and share results with clients and colleagues. It combines our powerOne software calculator experience with customized, sharable reports and the Internet for access anywhere.

Some features we are most excited about:

  • The template format we invented works really well for what-if analysis. So we didn’t change it. Calculation templates show all the data at the same time, offering the ability to calculate different variables easily. For instance, if I want to know my monthly payment on a house, I calculate that variable in the Mortgage template. If I want to know how much house I can afford with a different monthly payment, I can calculate that in the same template.
  • Easily add your own templates. Although we are constantly creating calculation templates that are designed for real estate, financial and investment services, construction, math, science and engineering, you are welcome to create your own. You can even choose to share them or keep them private. Creating a template is easy and can include all kinds of data types — real numbers, fractions, tables, lists, dates and more — and be built with hundreds of pre-created functions.
  • Access FastFigures from your desktop, laptop or smartphone. We designed both a “standard” version of the site and a mobile version. It works really well with Windows and Macintosh, iPhone and iPod Touch, Windows Mobile devices, Palm Treo, Centro and T|X, and BlackBerry smartphones.
  • Save your data. For years we have been asked to save the calculations so our customers can keep a record for instant recall and calculation comparison. Not only do we save the last calculation, but we also keep a history of calculations for you as well, all of which can be recalled from both computer and smartphone.
  • Share a report. This is my favorite. Saving the data also generates a professional report, which can be shared with clients and colleagues. No waiting! The report can be created right in the field or at your desk so your client’s have it instantly and you don’t have to add “create report” to your to-do list! And better yet, the report can be customized. Pick different layouts, add your own logo, contact information, and even change the image.

We’ve designed FastFigures to be fast, fun, simple and easy. And best of all, it’s free during beta. I hope you’ll give it a try.

Please visit FastFigures from your desktop or laptop computer:

http://www.fastfigures.com

Or visit FastFigures from your smartphone:

http://mobile.fastfigures.com

Life at Infinity Softworks: 11 Years Come and Gone

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I was half way through my senior year in college when I knew I didn’t want to work in accounting, my major. I had a minor in computer science and had programmed since I was 13 but it wasn’t the same as majoring in it. I picked accounting because I figured 1) it was a good grounding for life in the business world and 2) I could always get a job in it.

In essence, I came out of college not knowing what I wanted to do. As I have written about in the past, a friend of mine was working for a software publisher locally who had an interest in PalmPilot applications. I wanted to see if computer science was better for me and signed on to write a couple of applications.

I remember feeling lost most the time. It was so different than anything I had ever done before from a programming perspective but in those first few years I wrote our original financial calculator, FCPlus Professional, a couple of dedicated apps for loans (Loan Pro) and leases (Lease Pro), and personal finance and investing applications (WalletMate and InvestMate). In all, it was five applications encompassing nine different releases over the course of three years.

Starting and running Infinity Softworks intrigued me but it wasn’t until recently that I put my finger on why. At the time, I thought it was the potential to make lots of money, but frankly money in and of itself has never been a big motivator for me. I thought it was the ability to run my own show. I like that but many times over the years the headaches have far outweighed the benefits. I thought it was the versatility, writing code one day, answering support another, building partner relationships on the third. But doing all of these things means I never really get great at any one or two, just okay at everything. And doing all the stuff I don’t love is a drag.

I have come to realize what I love to do is invent. I love the thrill of the hunt. I love aligning the right people and companies to make something successful. I love creating products that excite people and make them want to use the product. I love great design and can spend hours thinking about the details of customer interaction. I love talking to people about how they use products, watching them use it, and trying to get a good gut feel for what will make a product successful or not.

Over the years, Infinity Softworks has released many products with many more versions. Some have been highly successful and some have been a waste of time and resources. Mostly I have had a hand in design and direction but not actual coding as I was kicked out of the developer room many years ago.

January marks the 11th anniversary for this little company, quite an accomplishment if I do say so myself. It’s good to know that I am still learning something about the business and myself after all these years.

Looking Back Before Moving Forward

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In our last episode, I wrote about the changing face of Infinity Softworks and promised to post the “eulogy” I wrote on my way home from vacation In January 2007. I want to make sure you understand that my intention in sharing this information is to reinforce my belief that staying alive is a big chunk of the game. I hope I can write about amazing success stories for Infinity Softworks in the future. While we have only reached modest revenue, we have had plenty of successes in our past.

Without further adieu…

10 years feels like ages. I started Infinity Softworks in January, 1997. Of course, it wasn’t called that then. I was writing code for a handheld software publisher with no intention of creating a commercial company. I wanted programming experience as I realized, within 5 months of college graduation, that being an accounting major was not for me. In May, 1997, I graduated with a degree in accounting and minor in CS. By July, my business partner and I split with the publisher over creative rights and went out on our own.

My partner, I believe to this day, saw it as a way to pay for graduate school and gain some experience. While I agreed at first, I saw it as a business and continued to see opportunity even after he and consultants brought on to help left me alone to do what I wanted with it. I survived – another two years before I was convinced once again that the time was right to expand the company and grow the business. Infinity Softworks, the small seller of software financial calculators, was going to revolutionize the $1B calculator business. It was not to be. Instead we split our attention away from our chief customers who were in financial fields, trying to make a business out of something we had little experience in. Some months I felt as though I was adrift in the wind, desperately trying to find daylight… anywhere. It was not to be as we continued to shift in the hurricane force winds that were the handheld market. Personally, I was decimated and exhausted even by this time in 2003. Everything we tried failed. Selling handhelds with our software… Attracting major partners in finance fields to bundle a retail product… getting buy-in from major trade organizations particularly in real estate… partnering with hardware vendors to go after the high school market… getting buy-in from the College Board for a handheld with our software on the AP exam. How much can one person take? But through this all, and with continued cash flow decreases and only a glimmer of hope for more funding, I kept a small team together and kept going.

If the answer isn’t handhelds then maybe it is the web. Web services to schools that need better ways of teaching mathematics. But, in my second big blunder, I overestimated school’s interest in our software as an integrated tool. (My first big blunder was the overestimation of the handheld market’s near-term growth potential and our ability to get in front of and remain attractive to those customers.) By the time I realized this second mistake and realized that I couldn’t raise money, our time was up. The money was gone. We tried to adjust, yet again, but ran out of time. Most of my developer’s are now gone. I am left with rapidly depreciating assets, a slowing revenue base. It is enough reality to try my sole. And yet, on this flight back from Florida after a week off when I hoped the reality of my situation and what I should do about it would be visible to me as if a sign from God itself, I still contemplate mortgaging the home and ensuring its continuation for another 4 months while the situation sorts itself out. I can salvage one developer! I can keep the office open! I can try a little longer to make sure my investors are repaid even though I have, in the end, created such little value in the company. And in particular there is basically no value left for the reasons people invested in the first place – to revolutionize the world of software calculators in a very mobile world.

At what point does a CEO who has tried with all his might say enough is enough and move on? I have tried so hard to listen to my head and listen to my heart. I can’t tell anymore which is saying which. Should I fight on? Should I give up? Is my personal make-up such that I can give up? Can the conflict that rages in myself be quenched or will that conflict leave me with nothing but what-ifs and regret and holdings on. I know I have tried my best. To me, that is not the issue. It is not even a matter of what-ifs for what has happened in the past, but instead what-ifs for what the future could hold. What if I do let everyone go but keep fighting, keeping trying to drive the deal that turns the corner and then hire a team to make it happen? What if I learn Java and progress the project the way I see fit while I look for that elusive deal? What if I mortgage the house and keep a developer or two and still don’t have enough time to get a deal in place? Am I too early for this opportunity? Do I have the right skills, the right people, and as much as I want to believe it, determination and perseverance to overcome the brutal reality of the market? Do I have the energy to program again, to learn a “new” language from scratch and advance a company lock-stock and barrel as if it is 1999 all over again? Will I spend my days trying to do marketing and support and new development all the while living in my own world without input from elsewhere?

It is not 1999 anymore. I was so excited, even as my first business partner was walking out the door, about the handheld market. To me, it was a foregone conclusion that EVERYONE would carry a portable computer and do things on it. It was just a matter of figuring out what they would do and be the best person providing it. But reality caught up with me. Too much development burned me out. Again, up to that point, I chased deals I could not get, first with Intuit and then Microsoft, and then decided to develop a finance management solution even with out them. Where was it going, I think now? Wouldn’t I have been better off developing something new [that hadn’t been invented before] that would bring me more customers not the same ones over and over again, the same ones that would buy finance calculator and investment software and money management and expense tracking and every other finance application on the face of the planet. And the situation got out of control. I hired a developer that did a lousy job. I burned myself out trying to run a company, do the sales and marketing and write the majority of the code. I failed to enjoy any of the money that was flowing in nor the time I was afforded running a nice, profitable, small company out of my house.

It is not 1999 again. It was an experience I craved. The riches being tossed around took me in, the dot com craze that carried over into a mobile craze. I flew all the way to NY to raise money! For a first meeting! What a joke. It took me two+ years chasing money, trying to build a plan, losing focus on running the business and making it successful. By the time I came back, we had spent big chunks of the money we raised, the handheld and dot com crazes were over (as well as the excellent economy) and we were struggling to make payroll and build a sustainable business. In retrospect, it was all a nice, little idea. A business that could make money and pay two to three people well. So I am left with this aftermath. The attempts to move into other markets, the desire to build a company big enough to be sold, big enough to make sure my investors get their money back. I have been accused of thinking small, probably true to a certain extent. I have found it so hard to think big when I am wondering whether I am going to survive the next three months. I have been conflicted for years – focusing on the details to make sure they get done, the things that didn’t get done while I was away raising money, and trying to craft and execute a vision for the company. In the end, I am doomed by my own inexperience and inability to build a company that at one point had raised close to 600,000 dollars.

I have gained far more than I have lost over the past 10 years. While I have lost hair and gained weight, I have also gained wisdom, two degrees, a living wage, a wife and daughter. It was a nice, little business that didn’t satisfy my need to learn and grow individually. Then it became a struggle –thanks to recession and quickly changing seas in the handheld market. We were squeezed – by Palm, cheap competitors, and new incompatible operating systems. But we fought. For way too long we fought. We tried finding markets where we could sell handhelds, we tried shaking up the management staff, we tried new markets, we even tried leaving handheld computing.

So here I sit on an airplane on my way back from Florida after a week with family. I have no better clue now than I did before I left a week ago, or a month ago when it became clear we were going to run out of cash in February, or in October when the realization that we didn’t have an education business that would sustain us, or in August when the pending sale fell apart.