This is almost like asking the meaning of life... I think a lot has to do with your personal and corporate philosophies. Have you taken time to map out what you want to do/be and what your ethical standards, core values, etc are? You are really putting the cart before the horse.

To answer your questions posed below - there is no 'best strategy'. Some companies succeed with one while others succeed with the other. And success can be defined many ways. Is it successful to you to have a company with a few loyal employees that builds quality products and has long term relationships with clients? Or is success building up a large organization with a lot of employees that are just hour workers, that build mediocre products for a lot of customers?

One consideration - if all you are looking to do is build a company quick so that you can sell it, then the quick route would be best. But if you want to build long term relationships and create a place that serves clients, employees, etc - then you will need to go slow. I personally would look at getting a 1,2,5 year plan in place and see what your motivations are as a group. You might be surprised what others are interested in doing when you open up for discussion. Some might want to build up and cash out quick while others might want to be in the business for a long time.

I would suggest you hire a consultant to help you with this...



>What would you say is the best way to penetrate a market?
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>By approaching each potentiel customer little by little.
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>The advantage of that approach is that it'll give us time to adjust, tweak and have a better control overall because we go at our pace.
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>The disadvantage here is that the competition will probably make a move to get rid of us by whatever means are necessary.
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>By investing a lot upfront. That is by hiring developers, salespersons, ...
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>The advantage of that approach is that we'll manage to get on the field of the competition in a way that it'll be too late for them to react because we'll cover all the potential customers fast.
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>The disadvantage is the it'll put pressure on our business. By going that direction we'll have less time to react to possible mishaps. we'll be forced to sell fast to pay for all the investments. And keep the machine rolling afterwards.
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>So the big questions here.
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>Is it still possible to take our time to get in business and stay in business?
>We don't really have the choice and we must start big right away?
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>As always thanks for all the feedback.