>Just a curuiosity...

First - I don't think a "developor" whose primary concern is income or getting rich will ever become a millionaire. That kind of attitude usually produces less than desirable product.

But I have a story for you of a developer whose only goal in life was to write the best programs he could and make enough income to support that quest. It's a story of the fudiciary arrogance of the DOT-COM boom and the unpredictablity of world events, like 911.

This is either the greatest (or sorriest) programmer to (almost) millionaire fairy tale you'll ever hear.

I had been working on a financial system that developed "actuals" for institional fixed income portfilios. Brokerages used it to provide institutional accounts with portfolio performance and GASB/FASB compliance. It did some modeling - for example the system used Fabozzi's methods to determine the amortization of P&I derivatives, like CMOs, based on PSA or CPR. It also used the results to "shock" a Market price estimate.

I, and a few patrons, had dragged the project from dBase III through to VFP 6. It was a labour of love. Both The project was off and on for about 8 years. Some of the accounts managed portfolios valued at more than 500 Million bucks. I owned the copyright - and I billed really low hourly rates to enhance the product and add features. We were one of those happy little customer / vendor partnershps!

At one point an associate convinced me to write up a business plan and shop for investors. This was in the hey day of the dot-com. My plan was to grow a customer base. As with most DOT-COM "offers", the guys that "brokered" the deal that exchanged my copyrights and "do or die" work pathos for equity that I could convert to cash. We formed Newco1.

If you bring copyrights to the table and are a major founding share holder and your verbal understanding is that you will have a seat on the board of directors when the deal is signed sealed and delivered - make sure you get it in writing.

To sell Newco1 as a merger prospect to another shop that had developed a trade desk system ("futures"), I spent 6 months - 24/7 - writing code that sucked data from fee based data services to predict interbank rates accurately out to 1 year. It used simulations with names like "Monte Carlo" and "Black Sholes". It did a great job. If the result said the 3Month Libor or Yen to Dollar exchange rate would be such and such 8 months out, by golly - and surprisingly - thats what it ended up being.

He who knows what the interbank rates and cost of funds indexes will look like 6 to 10 months from today, could, dare I say, rule the world.

A one hour license (really!) fee was 5 Thoudsand Dollars. To buy a 1 year seat cost from 100K to 250K.

So I finished my work - and my Newco1 merged with the "futures" shop into Newco2. I got 1.6 Million shares of stock (still have em if you'd care to purchase some!:-). The big money houses that wrote the prospectus indicated the share value would be 16$ each when the IPO was offered (in about 6 to 8) months. This was 1999.

The merger occurred. This was when I realized the DOT-COM fraud. When the merger occurred, My equity went from 50% (Newco1) to 13% (Newco2). I was not on the board - I was now a contract worker - and my employement was at grace of Newco2's board.

First thing I noticed was that the directors, instead of approaching this from a marketing position - growing customers - selling licenses - etc - they went immediately into "offer/merger/funding" mode. They didn't care about end user sales - their goal was to sell the "story" (despite a shallow customer base) and convert their [finder's] equity in Newco2 to cash.

That's why the DOT-COM boom busted. The DOT_COM deals were not about customers or sales there were about betting on equity values of software projects (some were just ideas without a prototype - evun!) that barely had a toe in the market.

In addition to the "futures" model, I moved the project that was the basis (the copyright) that formed Newco1 from Visual dBase VII - a great product idea with a lot of problems (the heavy hitters like Levy and Stewart (i think) had left Borland for MS - to VFP 6. I was was surprised that all the features that did not work as advertized worked(!) in VFP 6.

When that was complete, I wrote a little program that interfaced with a Bloomberg service. It was for the "cheap" seats - users that did not want to pay for a full time Bloomberg console - but would from time to time want to purchase data regarding specific securities. The people at Bloomberg loved it. And I intergrated it into my (now Newco2's) Fixed Income Portfolio product with the hope that the product would appeal to the lower end of the market.

Software is like the car repair business. Look out your window - every once in a while, a Lexus will pass - but Corollas are always on the street.

Organically, the odds of growing a market that drove "Corollas" seemed to offer more promise than limiting service to "Lexus" drivers. There's only one Credit Suis or Bank of Boston - granted they'll pay - but there are thousands of regional and municipal banks and credit unions.

Newco1 was formed with the brother of "the" friend (a Series 7 - Broker) and another broker. Newco1 invested 30K for the "futures" and "actuals" copyrights I completed. The completion of those projects lead to a merger, Newco2.

AT some point, two of my "users" (one is still a friend) for my original copyright made the decision not to renew their licenses. Their reason: The two money guys that initially funded Newco1, were alleged to have witnessed (and not reported) or associated with a "hair cutting" scheme at their respective brokerages. "Hair Cutting" is when a broker or trader personally owns a large block of notes that were purchased below market. The "hair cut" occurs when a trader or broker buys the notes he owns into the firm's inventory for resale to a firm's client. It's unethical - it's illegal - and it forced my Newco1 funders and now Newco2 partners out of those brokerages.

And I didn't know about it. And becuae of the sensitivel legal nature - it will never be discussed across "recordable" media.

Anyway - We received their letters - and neither of my ex-users purchasing departments gave me a good explanation - how could they [overnight] remorse the licensing when the product was assuring them and their portfolio clients of a reasonable return - a solid GASB/FASB risk profile - and a lot cheaper than the "plan" offered it to new customers.

When I suggested I go speak in person with the two accounts that quit - my partners - who where now my bosses - and could without cause - fire me - suggested I forget about it - and just stay on the projects I had open.

In November of 2000, about 11 months after I signed an equity agreement - Newco2 fired me. That was their right - but my "firend", his brother and their associate - who were market and sales directors - did little more than shop on the internet - never made a cold call - they never set up a meeting (except once) - they never did sh*t - they kept their positions with Newco2.

How could they fire me? I was shocked at the loss of two long standing customers - their reasons seemed plausible - I took the notice to quit at face value.

I was in shock - I did not expect to be there forever. Business is strange - it corrupts friendships. One time my wife was leaving the "hood" and the friend that got the funding from his brother flagged her down, got in her 4Runner and advised her (before the Newco2 merger) to instruct me that I should give him more quity!

Strange.

So - as I tried to figure out why all my hard work resulted in me, a lead developer, being fired - I had lunch with my two-ex (but nice guys anyway users - I had signed warrants - unknown to them - to give them some euity for a project that they were participated in) and they told me that they quit because the board of directors of their firms instructed them that they could not do business with my company because of the allegations against my partners).

For about a year aftyer I was fired - the Newco2 board had attornies sending me letters demanding the I return my shares - or I would be sued for fraud.

My retort as always "Copulate You!" I was in shock when I was fired - a trip to DC to visit the Dad - Christmas comming up - and I was pale as a sheet and did not speak above a whisper for 4 months.

They eventually found out what really happened - but by that time - all the other stakeholders were counting their gold before they had customers.

We went back and forth until August 2001. In August 2001 - the Newco2 board offered, instead of a law suit, to purchase half my shares (at a discount - of course) - but it was more cash than I had ever imagined would be in my wifes hands at one time!:-).

After weeks of negotians and 5000$ of Attorney time we put together a purchase agreement and the board set up a meeting with Merril Lynch in NYC!

On September 11 - I was counting my chickens - thinking about a residence on the Island of Maui where I could write code till the end of my days inside a humble, but comfortable single walled house, writing the best programs the world would ever see, while my senses were bathjed in the esters of honesuckle and plumarias as aquamarine waves babtised the beach just down the hill from my "home office"! I was ready - and my partners were in NYC.

I decided just to lay in bed that monday. I bright morning sun made everything shine - I had on CNN - they reported a private plane had accidentally hit one of the towers. A few minutes later a commercial jet not-so-accidentally (it seemed) hit the other - they rest is history.

It took a week for the three board memebers to get out of NYC. Finally, the CEO - (and Chairmen of the Board - note you never want the CEO to be the Chairmen of the Board) - told me what happened.

He had just had a "hand shake" with the guys at Merryl Lynch. They were going to put together the docs - and he was to go back latter - sign the docks - fly back home - and transfer a bunch of money into my [wifes] bank account.

Ag=Fter the "agree to agree: hand shake - he took the elevator down - he was an MIT PHD - he knew New York - and it was a beautiful day - so he was going to cruise on the streets while he waited for the papers to be completed.

He said when he came out of the building (he did not immediately now what happeded) that the sjy was full of pappers - dust - and building debris.

I have still not moved to my house in Maui - I have not made apeeny of my "millions" in equity.

Moral of the story - the gold is in your heart - do what you enjoy - never count your chickens before they hatch - and never waste your time trying to be a millionaire from software development and sales. Wealth is a candle to read by at the end of the day and happy educated shiney children.

Life is a lottery game. If you desire wealth form your copyrights - and you think about it [too much] - you will loose focus and the result of your efforts might not achieve the desired affect!

Have fun - get laid - and program program program - or you'll wind up living in a van down by the river!:-)

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