You no longer need to be a Bill Gates or Larry Ellison to build a successful software company, as Dane Maxwell of the Foundation will demonstrate in this interview.
A couple of years ago, Dane din’t know how to write a single line of code. Today, he rakes in more than a million dollars each year through his software company.
Wanna know how he did it? Read on…
Could you introduce yourself ?
My name is Dane Maxwell, an Iowa boy. Love my mom and dad. Love building things. I’m a builder. You can’t stop me… it just happens. From the earliest ages I would build forts out of scrap wood in my neighborhood. Home-schooled until 7th grade and then picked on for most of public school, I figured out how to be alone and build things. I was a lonely builder.
I show people how to live with tremendous freedom. But not just anyone. I help the people who have no idea how to get started. I help the absolute novice and beginner, and the pro’s alike.
I created The Foundation to make friends with other entrepreneurs and teach them freedom through software. I did it all for the friends. I didn’t like being lonely. It is the greatest friendship making machine I’ve ever personally seen. To date, we have 1,400 people making friends in the program.
What are the benefits of building a software company?
Fact: It is the most lucrative business model of the 21st century (Tweet that).
Could you introduce yourself ?
My name is Dane Maxwell, an Iowa boy. Love my mom and dad. Love building things. I’m a builder. You can’t stop me… it just happens. From the earliest ages I would build forts out of scrap wood in my neighborhood. Home-schooled until 7th grade and then picked on for most of public school, I figured out how to be alone and build things. I was a lonely builder.
I show people how to live with tremendous freedom. But not just anyone. I help the people who have no idea how to get started. I help the absolute novice and beginner, and the pro’s alike.
I created The Foundation to make friends with other entrepreneurs and teach them freedom through software. I did it all for the friends. I didn’t like being lonely. It is the greatest friendship making machine I’ve ever personally seen. To date, we have 1,400 people making friends in the program.
What are the benefits of building a software company?
Fact: It is the most lucrative business model of the 21st century (Tweet that).
There is no greater business. This is not opinion. It is factually and statistically proven. The most valuable companies from sale price perspectives are recurring revenue software businesses.
For me, everyday more than $3,000 gets deposited into my bank accounts for the string of SaaS businesses I own. And then number grows every month.
You have a ton of choices with your life. And time to learn any skill you want too. I highly encourage people to get into the business of owning software.
We all have 24 hours in a day. If you want to turn time into making the most money possible, invest your time into building the skills of software ownership.
With software, you build wealth in the fastest way I know how. Software as a service is the greatest vehicle for wealth in the 21st century.
Let’s say I don’t know how to write a single line of code and I’ve no idea, can I still create a software company?
Absolutely. That’s how I started. It’s how I teach all of the students at The Foundation.
How do you overcome the fear of starting your company?
You need confidence that everything will be ok no matter what. There are a number of ways to get confidence. Here is the shortcut… the way you gain fast confidence is by getting into a community of others who support you unconditionally.
Could you walk us through the process that the Foundation use to help people create businesses?
Step 1 – Mindset: Rebuilding your mind on truth and abundance
For me, everyday more than $3,000 gets deposited into my bank accounts for the string of SaaS businesses I own. And then number grows every month.
You have a ton of choices with your life. And time to learn any skill you want too. I highly encourage people to get into the business of owning software.
We all have 24 hours in a day. If you want to turn time into making the most money possible, invest your time into building the skills of software ownership.
With software, you build wealth in the fastest way I know how. Software as a service is the greatest vehicle for wealth in the 21st century.
Let’s say I don’t know how to write a single line of code and I’ve no idea, can I still create a software company?
Absolutely. That’s how I started. It’s how I teach all of the students at The Foundation.
How do you overcome the fear of starting your company?
You need confidence that everything will be ok no matter what. There are a number of ways to get confidence. Here is the shortcut… the way you gain fast confidence is by getting into a community of others who support you unconditionally.
Could you walk us through the process that the Foundation use to help people create businesses?
Step 1 – Mindset: Rebuilding your mind on truth and abundance
Step 2 – Idea Extraction: Finding painful problems to solve
Step 3 – Sketching those problems on a piece of paper
Step 4 – Pre-selling them to customer
Step 5 – Building the product by outsourcing the creation using pre-sale dollars, risking nothing of your own money.
Step 6 – Launching at 1k a month (that is our target for launch).
To start of, how do you pick an industry and how do you find the pain?
Go to your warm network. Ask what your dad or mom does, or your uncle. If they are in a lucrative business industry, you’d start your conversations there.
Can you give us 10 typical questions that you ask companies when you contact them to understand their pain?
With idea extraction, it’s not about having 10 questions to ask. It’s about being present with the customer and responding to their first answer.
I repeat. It’s not about the first question, or even having 10 to ask… it’s about how you respond after they answer the first question.
You can ask questions like…
What are the most annoying emails you receive?
What software programs do you use that are frustrating?
Do you use Microsoft excel to hack together any problems right now?
What are the most important activities in your business, and are they hard to do right now?
In the last week, what have been the most challenging things for you?
But if you don’t know how to guide the conversation further than the first question, you’re not going to get to consistently find gold. If you want to find gold, you need to really develop your level of presence and confidence with these finding pain conversations.
How do you finance the development of the software?
Generally three ways.
Step 3 – Sketching those problems on a piece of paper
Step 4 – Pre-selling them to customer
Step 5 – Building the product by outsourcing the creation using pre-sale dollars, risking nothing of your own money.
Step 6 – Launching at 1k a month (that is our target for launch).
To start of, how do you pick an industry and how do you find the pain?
Go to your warm network. Ask what your dad or mom does, or your uncle. If they are in a lucrative business industry, you’d start your conversations there.
Can you give us 10 typical questions that you ask companies when you contact them to understand their pain?
With idea extraction, it’s not about having 10 questions to ask. It’s about being present with the customer and responding to their first answer.
I repeat. It’s not about the first question, or even having 10 to ask… it’s about how you respond after they answer the first question.
You can ask questions like…
What are the most annoying emails you receive?
What software programs do you use that are frustrating?
Do you use Microsoft excel to hack together any problems right now?
What are the most important activities in your business, and are they hard to do right now?
In the last week, what have been the most challenging things for you?
But if you don’t know how to guide the conversation further than the first question, you’re not going to get to consistently find gold. If you want to find gold, you need to really develop your level of presence and confidence with these finding pain conversations.
How do you finance the development of the software?
Generally three ways.
- With the pre-sale dollars from customers. (what most students usually do).
- Partnering with a developer for revenue splits or equity (what some students do).
- One “king customer” is so excited he funds the entire thing (what I usually do).
A few places…
- Odesk.com is great.
- Rentacoder.com is where I got my start (now bought by freelancer).
- We just hired top talent from LaraJobs.com
Get into the business of software. Take time to learn the skills of software ownership. These skills create wealth.
Source: TheBecomer
Source: TheBecomer
Hello, my name is Flavian Mwasi. I'm an online marketer, entrepreneur, personal development and success coach.
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