It’s a common question.
Software developer leaves school or university and is great at churning out tight, functional, well-written code.
Software developer doesn’t want to work for someone else, and likes the idea of running their own software company. But s/he doesn’t know what to write that will sell.
They could start by following the wisdom of crowds through Google:
But crowds can’t be trusted.
Most successful software stories begin with a problem.
Software developer is looking for a simple solution for Problem X, can’t find anything particularly good, so writes Solution Y.
Solution Y turns into a business.
If you’re looking for your Product Y, you could do a lot worse than helping fix a very big problem.
Here’s my big problem.
About ten days ago my system became infected with some sort of trojan-virus thing. It spread through my system, trashed one of the hard drives, and left Windows unusable.
This was a Windows XP Pro system that was reasonably up to date with security fixes and updates, that was running an up to date version of Norton Internet Security.
Yet my system was wiped out.
Ten years ago I would have said that my system was watertight. I used a firewall, anti-virus software, NAT, kept my Windows Updates current and so on.
Today, as I can testify, we simply don’t know.
Give me an application that will secure my system. Even if it acts as a hub between my anti-virus, firewall, malware protection and windows updates.
It’s a big problem, and people will pay good money to fix big problems.
And it would be a marketing dream come true.
