The Magic of Software

My entire career has been in software, and I have taken it for granted. Only when I recently started considering brick-and-mortar businesses, I truly appreciated the magnificence of software businesses. 

If you know how to code, you can create and sell software from your bedroom, with little investment or risk. You don’t have to sign leases, buy expensive tools or materials, or hire many people. It's so much easier and quicker to go from idea to MVP. 

Software also has tremendous leverage. Once written, it can serve millions of customers with little marginal cost and high margins. Aside from dealing with the occasional fires, you are free to direct your time and resources to innovate (or chill). Compare that to running a restaurant where you (or an employee) have to bake a pizza for every single customer, over and over again. 

And the reach of software is limitless! You can live in an idyllic village in India, like the CEO of Zoho, and sell your software to the Fortune 500. 

And lastly, software businesses tend to accumulate advantages over time, through flywheels of growth, data, network effects, and capability. 

It’s no surprise that many of the most valuable businesses in the world are software businesses. I guess I will continue to resist the urge to open a cafe, hospitality, or entertainment business.

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