Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Anthony Stevens
It’s almost a tautology that startups are founded by smart, motivated,aggressive people. These qualities are all great – and necessary, but there’sone situation that these qualities can work against you. It’s called the “NotInvented Here” syndrome (aka “NIH”), and refers to the impulse to re-invent everythingyourself. In a tech startup, it means that you or your team will have to fightthe urge to write all sorts of software because you can’t find anything “outthere” that exactly meets your needs.
My friends and I used to joke that there were three pieces of software thatevery developer wrote at least once in their lives:
- Time tracking software
- Content management software
- Logging software
Why? Because (a) everybody needs it and (b) it’s so easy to explain therequirements for each. But unless your primary business is in (a) timetracking, (b) content management, or (c) logging, you shouldn’t roll yourown.
Why? There are several reasons:
1) In a startup, time is your most valuable resource (more valuable thancash, even). You should spend your time doing what you do best. Writing utilitysoftware takes time away from your own niche, your own secret sauce, your ownactivities that add unique value.
2) Somebody out there has already done it better than you can. Don’t believeme? Look harder. Often times, there’s a lot of hard thinking that has goneinto making these pieces of software _seem_ easy. Elegant, even.
3) TCO. Yes, you’re supposed to think about the total cost of ownership. Look at the following chart:
What this chart is supposed to represent is that the initial cost ofdeveloping a piece of software is overshadowed by the cost of maintaining thesoftware over time. The day you release (labeled “R” in the graph) is only the beginning. Maintenance caneasily represent 70% of the total cost of a piece of software. Even if youthink you can “bang it out”, it’s a new piece of software that’s going to eatresources from now until you retire it.
4) Scaling. You can’t write ten new software applications by next week, butyou can download and install ten (or twenty) new software applications. Opensource and freeware solutions abound for almost every utility task you can thinkof.
Look, every competent developer fights the NIH urge. It’s natural and showsthat you have a healthy amount of confidence and a go-getter attitude. It’salso true that 3rd party software, of any type, and at any price point, hasproblems. Recognizing that means you have a healthy respect for quality and“doing it right”. However, look at your startup with a broad perspective, andask yourself – daily, or hourly – whether the time you’re spending writing codecouldn’t be put to better use, and whether or not an acceptable alternativealready exists. Note I didn’t say “perfect” – I said “acceptable”. Unless it’sthe very heart of your business, the criteria for “acceptable” may be lower thanyou think – and, by making the choice to use 3rd party software, you may befreeing yourself up to devote the time it takes to make the unique assets ofyour startup as close to perfect as possible.
