These are glory days for those interested in computers, particulary: Programmers.

The big five (google, yahoo, microsoft, ebay, amazon) are buying more than one company a week - google alone is picking up startups left and right. These are actual sales; unlike the dot com bubble of the late 90s, you become an actual millionaire, not just on paper. If you want to splurge, it’s up to you. There won’t be a VC with veto power of large financial transactions to rain on your parade and ride your startup into to the ground.

However: there’s a lack of programmers in this land of opportunity. It’s so bad that I openly oppose ’stealth mode’ (not going public with your startup idea until you are ready to launch it) - there are so many ideas and so few implementors out there, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. Only if you have some specific marketing goal that justifies stealth mode should you go for it; don’t do it just because you’re afraid someone’s going to rip off your idea. It doesn’t happen, not right now.

It’s even worse, in fact - You don’t even need an idea! You can just take a successful idea, and localize it to your own country. You can rip off just about everything, and while you may not exactly be hailed as a visionary paragon, apparently you don’t get sued, you do get popular, and you do get bought. You don’t even need design skills though I’m sure they help.

You just need to know how to program, on your own. That’s about it.

This get-rich-quick-scheme actually works, and if you’re a (good) programmer, you’ve got most of the skills you need to toss your name into the hat already. What are you waiting for?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 15th, 2007 at 9:04 and is filed under evangelism, programming, startup.