Making Software Companies Rich

They call him... Sam.

Willkommen!

Just thought I’d greet everyone as a new intern. Definitely an exciting time to be joining Branserv and helping spread the word on “making software companies rich.”

I’ve hit the ground running by taking over Branserv’s Twitter feed (but I’ll be nice and let Alex bask in the spotlight from time to time).

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This is the first article in a 3 part series intended for SaaS vendors (Software as a Service). Whether you’re a hungry, bootstrapping startup CEO trying to land your first enterprise client or an account manager for a SaaS with traction, you’ve been there. You know how it is. Its all smiles and vigorous  head nods as you show them the interface, pre-release features, “special tricks,” etc. -

That’s all I have to do to add a user?!

OH MY GOD! No command line? Yes!

Whew, this will make things so much easier. Even my stingy boss will love this.

So you move into explaining the SaaS infrastructure and how secure your datacenter is and how much they’ll save on in-house infrastructure costs, etc., etc. And then it comes.

Wait, so you’re saying you want to hold on to ALL of our [insert particularly sensitive type of mission critical data here] data? Umm…yeah. No chance.

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Branserv.com - A product of the Done Manifesto

As some of you may know, we followed Dharmesh Shah’s advice of getting a blog up before our website. Although I’d love to call this an act of startup genius, honestly, it wasn’t entirely intentional.  In reality, there were a series of setbacks with our main site which delayed its launch severely, but I think we played it off pretty well.

However, the time has come, and we have a real website! It’s not perfect, but you know what? It’s DONE! (For now anyway)

Please take a look at the official Branserv homepage and leave any feedback (good, bad and ugly) in the comments section below. We value your input and will certainly keep it in mind when we’re ready to give it an extra layer of polish (aka. a second itteration).

In celebration of the completion of the Branserv website, I present you with the Cult of Done Manifesto (by Bre Pettis): (more…)

Recently, we had the honor of being covered by ZDNet Linux and Open Source columnist, Dana Blankenhorn, in an article in which he praised Branserv’s initiative to develop appliances around open source software. In it, he made a reference to the hypothetical Wordpress.Mu appliance that I described in the Is My Application Applianceable section of our Appliance Pilot Program.

Seeing this example out of context, one of Dana’s readers got confused/upset and wrote the following:

Name dropping wordpress makes this even worse. Wordpress is a free platform written in php that utilizes a mysql backend, and runs on top of a webserver – your article implies that he has some alchemy (that apparently is not even interesting enough to mention) that hardwarifies all of this into a product they can buy. Especially when wordpress is something that can be used in a zero-install fashion via free accounts at wordpress.com.

- mluebbe

This presented a great opportunity for me to explain what exactly we’re doing with appliances, and why it’s particularly valuable to Open Source Software companies. A big part of what we’re trying to do here at Branserv is open the eyes of smaller software companies who might hear about appliances and automatically think, “Nope, has nothing to do with us! We have a web app/SaaS/whatever.” In some cases, this thinking is valid, but in many others it is simply uninformed.

Wordpress doesn't make a dime each time Wordpress.Mu is downloaded. However, if they developed an appliance, they could take a cut of the hardware markup and charge and appliance premium (this includes a variety of pricing premiums, flagship premium, convenience premium, etc.).

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Branserv is looking for 6 innovative micro ISVs, software startups or open source companies to participate in the Branserv Appliance Pilot Program, a unique opportunity to innovate an appliance around your software at cost and help shape our offering to more effectively and consistently make small, software companies rich.

We are ready to break our backs to make sure each Pilot Partner is converted into a raging fan and an undeniable success. (more…)

Apply Now!

About the Position

This internship has been featured on
One Day, One Internship!

We believe that the only way to truly connect with our clients/partners is to live where they live, eat what they eat, struggle the same struggles …and go to the same parties, too. We want to read all of the blogs that matter to them, participate in all of the forums where they have meaningful discussions and contribute to the dialogue via our blog and Twitter.

The community management intern will be trained to use social media, traditional PR and good-ol’ common sense to spread the word about our young company and build important relationships for that will propel our company’s growth. (more…)

At Branserv, we launch early and often.

Instead of writing a typical “Hi, here we are, please stick around and read our crap, etc.” intro post, I decided to make this a bit more fun and lighthearted.

With that said, thanks for checking out our 1st blog post. Here are 10 things you may want to know about us. (more…)