Bob Browning's blog

In part 1 and part 2 I described how we started the business, and the business model. There was at least one opportunity that came up that didn’t go anywhere.

A few years into the project an opportunity came up. A New York based company was in financial difficulties and was for sale. It was quite affordable, in the low six figures, which we could manage. I was keen on us taking it further,

What the company had was a database of products with a list of characteristics or functions of each. Here is a small section from the Risk Management Systems database¹. Each column represented a product. This must have needed a massive amount of work by people with very high skills.

This would slot right into the bobsguide.com database. It was information that had a lot of value and which we could charge a premium to view.

It also moves us toward the market for benchmarking and research reports. This is a lucrative business, producing independent reports on individual products, or small groups of products. We would need to bring in consultants to do the work of course, but if you go round trade shows you will find copies of these reports on many stalls. They add credibility to any product². Bobsguide.com was a recognised brand with contacts in every major technology company. We might need to spin it off with a fancier name but the possibility was there,

But it was not to be. I couldn’t convince the other directors that we would recoup the cost in the time before we sold the company. They had a point. I couldn’t really argue.

Part 1: The casual start.
Parr 2: Why just a directory?
Part 3: A missed opportunity?

1. I still have a printout of a page – after 20 years! ↩︎
2. Here is the marketing pitch of a leading research company: https://www.forrester.com/bold/create-content-that-fuels-demand/ ↩︎