Lots of startups develop Windows software out of necessity, because there is demand for it. I bet this is not the world domination plot that's on your business plan. Try getting money for something like "we plan to make our money on shrink-wrapped software for Windows" I see you work for communities.com? I took a casual look and it appears that you real product is some protocol for "realtime rich-media network", whatever that might be. This is different. A lot of startups gets started in hopes of owning some new medium. A lot of those are getting pommeled by Microsoft too, but that's a different story. ( Examples are Netscape and HTML, Real and streaming video, etc ). It is too early to tell if all such startups are doomed, but it certainly looks like there is an option of being squished by Yahoo instead of Microsoft. I am a believer in freedom of choice and I think every startup should add a bit of networking hardware to their plan to give themselves an additional option of being gobbled up by Cisco. Seriously though, if Microsoft would be more like Cisco they wouldn't be destroying their developer base quite as much. Networking companies routinely get started for the sole purpose of selling out to Cisco.
On Mon, 5 Jun 2000, Bill Frantz wrote:
> At 04:57 AM 6/3/00 -0700, Andrei Moutchkine wrote:
> >I
> >heard not a single startup planning to develop software for Windows has
> >been funded in the last ten years or more.
>
> This statement is a bit strong. The company I work for is a pre-IPO
> startup which develops both client and server software for the Windows
> platform (among others). My last paycheck didn't bounce, and the company
> is less than 10 years old. That money came from somewhere. :-)