Review of "Eric Sink on the Business of Software"

Eric Sink on the Business of Software
Eric Sink
Apress (March 20, 2006)

This is a book targeted to people (more specifically, programmers) who are thinking about starting a software business, or are working in a startup or small software business.

The author is the founder of SourceGear, an Illinois based company which develops and sells version control tools for developers, and through his own experiences he shows us the lessons he has learned; many times by making a lot of mistakes.

The book is divided in four parts; (1) Entrepreneurship, (2) People, (3) Marketing, and (4) Sales. In each part the author answers the most common questions most developers have when thinking about becoming an entrepreneur.

He also tries to demystify many topics that are nebulous and obscure to most programmers, especially the ones that relate to marketing, sales and finances. He shows us that these topics are not as complex as they may seem and he even provides us with algorithms that we can use to better understand them.

The nice thing about this book is that the author, not being a “business” person, but a programmer at heart, writes from that perspective, making it easy to relate to him, and see that he had the same questions, self-doubts and fears that most programmers have.

The content of this book is taken from blog articles the author has published on his own website, with some comments added at the beginning of each one. This means that (1) you could read everything on his web site (though I prefer reading from a book), and (2) there is some repetition of ideas that were said in a previous article.

Highly recommended reading if you have dreams of starting your own software business someday.