An Ignoble Experiment: Helping Small Business help themselves - SolutionsArePower� - Developing Killer Web Apps – A Discussion with Keith Casey, CEO of Casey Software

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Keith Casey is a man of many talents - developer, entrepreneur, writer, bon vivant and someone who can actually pull a ponytail off. He has been building software for almost two decades and seen many development fads and even more startup ideas than he probably cares to remember. But the one thing that has been consistent in his career is building great software with great tools that are right for the job at hand. He is CEO of Casey Software which specializes in open source software development and project management. I was able to spend some time with him recently and here is a transcript of our interview:

Steve: How did you get the idea for Casey Software?
Keith: CaseySoftware was simply my way of getting out of my dead end job. In terms of maturity, they were a zero on the Joel Test. No version control, no specifications, no plans, and our priority ranking system was "high", "red hot", and "white hot". No, I’m not kidding. Within CaseySoftware things are a bit different. When in the thick of a project, we vary between a 4 and a 7 but normally stay towards the upper end.

On the contracting front, being an Open Source guy helped me pick the right skills 3-5 years ago. I was an early adopter of Drupal – a PHP-based Content Management System – in 2004 and it’s turned into a steady stream of work and projects as its gained acceptance outside the tech community. I’ve launched 28 Drupal sites in the past four years and a few more potential in the next two months.

In terms of real products, we’re working on a pair – one in the Mobile space and one related to Project Management – of which we’re already using early alphas. I have initial customers lined up for each and hope to have respectable betas out late this month.

Steve: You have worked with many startups, what is your approach to helping them get their product out the door as quickly as possible?

Keith: Get your idea on paper. No seriously, I know it’s "perfect" in your head and you "have all those details figured out", etc, etc. Ha. Personally, I don’t count an idea worth anything until you can sit down, write a paragraph on it, and express it to someone without any further explanation. If you idea requires a lot of hand waving or explanation, you haven’t thought it through enough.

Steve: You have developed many "dotProject" products. Was this a way to improve effectiveness of client engagements or was it to expand your revenue streams or both?
Keith: It was a little bit of both. When I was a Project Manager at the Department of Justice, we were looking for a collaborative tool to coordinate the efforts of 55 people across 18 different groups. Microsoft Project is great as a planning tool, but once you need to run a project on a day to day basis, Microsoft Project starts to break down and dotProject/web2project shine.

Late last year, we took a bit of a turn. Development and innovation on dotProject had essentially stalled, so those of us supporting customers forked into a new project called web2project. Using that as the framework, we’re extending it to integrate with things such as bug trackers, invoicing tools, wikis, etc. It really serves as more of a hub trying everything together and providing a single point to coordinate everything on a project.

So yes, it improves effectiveness for our projects, improves effectiveness for our customers… and happens to expand my revenue streams too.

Steve: What is your philosophy on building software in general?
Keith: My philosophy for Open Source development is no different than proprietary development: Make your customer’s life easier. It doesn’t matter if you’re been paid or not, when you focus on solving a problem, success seems to follow. It doesn’t always translate to dollars, but it often translates to reputation… and when you’re starting off, it’s one of the few things you have.

I originally got into Open Source specifically because I realized I didn’t have a portfolio to share. In 2003, I had been writing proprietary software for almost seven years and didn’t have a single line I could show potential employers. Open Source quickly solved that problem.

Steve: Now that Web 2.0 development has been evolving for the last three years where do you see it going over the next 18 months?
Keith: I think there’s a shakeup coming on a few fronts:
- There are too many sites based solely on advertising for revenue. As the market changes and dollars shift away from online advertising or even towards more effective online advertising, you’ll see a lot of these companies simply dissolve.
- I believe one is coming in the Rails community too. In most technologies, it takes a good deal of effort to bring your first application online. Rails has lowered this bar so far that people who launch one application consider themselves experts. No matter the language, no matter the technology, a single application doesn’t make you an expert. We’re going to see a purge of the under-qualified people – like we did in 2000-2002 with "web developers" – and and unfortunately, some great people are going to get caught in it.

Steve: What would you like to see happen over the next 18 months for Casey Software?
Keith: In the past, CaseySoftware was a team of five with projects like http://Mobile.FoxNews.com and other big names under our belts. I put much of that on hold last year and only now getting back into the thick of things. We’re currently a team of three, but I see us growing back to five by the end of the year and potentially a few more shortly after.

The two products we’re working on should be the core of our growth for the next six months but a few ideas on the drawing board will roll out between now and then too. My primary concern and goal is to keep moving. We’ve been stationary for too long and ended up missing some opportunities as a result.

Steve: Sometimes I like to close these interviews with advice to the small businesses out there. Since you are an expert in building software and working with startups, what advice would offer those getting ready to dive into the startup game and build their "killer app"?

Keith: Get the first version out quickly. Trim down the features, trim down the complexity, shop around with existing components, and simplify the design to get the first version out there. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it needs to be useful. There’s no sense in spending a lot of time and effort on features that your customers may not need or even want.

If you want to reach out to Keith, go to his site CaseySoftware.com for more information or to hire him for your next project.

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