Excellent Business Opportunity
Discussion
For the past five years I've worked intensely on developing the worlds first web-based "operating system". For the past year Google have been teasing people the idea and many, many people think that's what they are aiming for, acquiring companies like Writely (a web-based wordprocessor) in order to build up their web application library. The buzz around this is awesome. Allow me to give you an idea of what scope a web application would have: from any computer in the world you access a virtual operating system. You never need to backup, install or maintain it, it's multi-user, so you can build up a community in your environment, be it business or just for family and friends. Applications that look and feel just like Windows can be installed instantly in just a few clicks...applications that stunninly efficient, fully integrated and often exceed their traditionally desktop counterparts. Because the webOS is just like an OS, you can choose applications for almost any task: Calendaring, Contact Management, Blogging, To-Do lists, a huge library of applications available now and that will grow rapidly once developers get hold of the platform and realise just how quick and easy it is to put them together.
Isn't all that wonderful? This just scratches the surface, the WebOS itself is breeze to operate, with a comprehensive raft of customisation options, highly secure, and with an SDK that simply blows anything else on the market out of the water. For developers everything is there, from multiple editors that feel like real desktop wordprocessors, with wordart, spell checking, advanced colour and various dialogs...all of this available to any application with just a few lines of code.
So this webOS is a work of art, developed with passion and not one issue that has not been addressed. I have it now, I've wrote it and its wonderfulde. Just me, I've beat Google, Microsoft and everyone else who's been conteplating the idea, but not just beat them, gone way beyond what people might expect from such a system. I wrote not just the operating system but another 40 web applications for the platform that people who see it are just jaw-dropped at the scope of it all. One reviewer said: 10 out of 10, fantastic, Speaking from a DHTML standpoint, WOW WOW! This thing is awesome!
www.dhtmlcentral.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16292&SearchTerms=convea
That was in 2003. Since then I've addressed everything anyone ever said they thought needed changing and more, so much more that I could spend days writing about every little feature.
Now, this is my baby and I am a software developer. I am not a businessman and I also have no money. My time has been solely spent developing, and this has meant that what I have here, which should really be setting the world on fire, is going nowhere. For example, a web-based email client OddPost, a SINGLE web app, was acquired by Yahoo for $30 million dollars. Now, imagine not just a single web app, but 40 of them running inside of a web operating system, where you can run multiple applications side by side and click between them like Windows, where they interact and detect each other presenting further options and sharing data, totally seemless...what would that be worth?
Do you see my dilemma? This thing should be worth tens of millions to a company looking to dominate, in fact, create a whole new audience. There is nothing like this available on the web. For someone with a little capital to spend on some servers and a little bit of marketing, you could pioneer the web operating system market. If it wasn't acquired by another company in two years I would be stunned, it would have to be, the threat would be immense. There is so much you could do: launch a free webOS to the public, sell developer versions, sell the platform and build a site selling a la carte web apps from third party developers, package up bundles as I have done, such as an Intranet Suite...extranets, portals, communities, really, the scope is limited as you are dealing with a webOS and as such it can be used for just about anything a current can do, with the advantage of being fully modular and managed. Over five years later and I'm still thrilled by the possibilites, if only I had the money and the nouse to market my baby.
So I am looking to sell it. I'm not being greedy, I just desperately want to see my creation do what it should be doing, and that's beating the so-called pioneers in this industry. Just me, a bloke from the north-east, hardly tech central, managed to get this all out because I had this vision back in '99, its just that on my own obviously things take a while, website to develop, documentation, support, contract work to support me. If I'd had a team this would have been wrapped up three years ago and been 20 times what it is now.
If you, or someone you know, is interested in taking on my project then do please drop me an email: alan.carter@convea.com. I'm looking for offers above £160,000. That's simply the amount of money its cost me to develop in lost salary (well actually a lot more than that considering the hours I've put in). I would be looking for a small percentage of any future acquistion too, but other than that if you think you get this the attention it deservers I would be on hand to help you with anything at all you need, I want it to rule! It bloody well should, it breaks my heart to see other things, far, far lesser projects get bought out for such huge sums of money and I scrimp around barely able to get any attention whatsoever.
Oh yes, the site is at: www.convea.com. Go check it out, try the demo. I should point out the demo is the old version, about a year old. I'm about to upload the very latest version of oneVision (the webOS), so if you want to try the demo later today or tomorrow, that's when you'll see just what it is I have here. It will blow you away, I guarantee it. It's a massive, massive system, if anyone wants to talk about it too, contact me and we can talk it over, there's really so much in there that features just get lost in mass.
Thanks for reading. If you know of any investors or techies looking for such a project, do please point them in the direction of the site too, I would really appreciate it. Anyone could recoup the 160k in three months, from then on its pure profit, all you need to do is put an exit opportunity together and get under the noses of the big hitters...most have so much cash floating around that it NEEDS to be invested, Convea is/must be worth a punt to them? Maybe I'm wrong, but years of watching this industry tells me otherwise, I'm just not the businessman to make that happen.
Cheers,
Al
Isn't all that wonderful? This just scratches the surface, the WebOS itself is breeze to operate, with a comprehensive raft of customisation options, highly secure, and with an SDK that simply blows anything else on the market out of the water. For developers everything is there, from multiple editors that feel like real desktop wordprocessors, with wordart, spell checking, advanced colour and various dialogs...all of this available to any application with just a few lines of code.
So this webOS is a work of art, developed with passion and not one issue that has not been addressed. I have it now, I've wrote it and its wonderfulde. Just me, I've beat Google, Microsoft and everyone else who's been conteplating the idea, but not just beat them, gone way beyond what people might expect from such a system. I wrote not just the operating system but another 40 web applications for the platform that people who see it are just jaw-dropped at the scope of it all. One reviewer said: 10 out of 10, fantastic, Speaking from a DHTML standpoint, WOW WOW! This thing is awesome!
www.dhtmlcentral.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16292&SearchTerms=convea
That was in 2003. Since then I've addressed everything anyone ever said they thought needed changing and more, so much more that I could spend days writing about every little feature.
Now, this is my baby and I am a software developer. I am not a businessman and I also have no money. My time has been solely spent developing, and this has meant that what I have here, which should really be setting the world on fire, is going nowhere. For example, a web-based email client OddPost, a SINGLE web app, was acquired by Yahoo for $30 million dollars. Now, imagine not just a single web app, but 40 of them running inside of a web operating system, where you can run multiple applications side by side and click between them like Windows, where they interact and detect each other presenting further options and sharing data, totally seemless...what would that be worth?
Do you see my dilemma? This thing should be worth tens of millions to a company looking to dominate, in fact, create a whole new audience. There is nothing like this available on the web. For someone with a little capital to spend on some servers and a little bit of marketing, you could pioneer the web operating system market. If it wasn't acquired by another company in two years I would be stunned, it would have to be, the threat would be immense. There is so much you could do: launch a free webOS to the public, sell developer versions, sell the platform and build a site selling a la carte web apps from third party developers, package up bundles as I have done, such as an Intranet Suite...extranets, portals, communities, really, the scope is limited as you are dealing with a webOS and as such it can be used for just about anything a current can do, with the advantage of being fully modular and managed. Over five years later and I'm still thrilled by the possibilites, if only I had the money and the nouse to market my baby.
So I am looking to sell it. I'm not being greedy, I just desperately want to see my creation do what it should be doing, and that's beating the so-called pioneers in this industry. Just me, a bloke from the north-east, hardly tech central, managed to get this all out because I had this vision back in '99, its just that on my own obviously things take a while, website to develop, documentation, support, contract work to support me. If I'd had a team this would have been wrapped up three years ago and been 20 times what it is now.
If you, or someone you know, is interested in taking on my project then do please drop me an email: alan.carter@convea.com. I'm looking for offers above £160,000. That's simply the amount of money its cost me to develop in lost salary (well actually a lot more than that considering the hours I've put in). I would be looking for a small percentage of any future acquistion too, but other than that if you think you get this the attention it deservers I would be on hand to help you with anything at all you need, I want it to rule! It bloody well should, it breaks my heart to see other things, far, far lesser projects get bought out for such huge sums of money and I scrimp around barely able to get any attention whatsoever.
Oh yes, the site is at: www.convea.com. Go check it out, try the demo. I should point out the demo is the old version, about a year old. I'm about to upload the very latest version of oneVision (the webOS), so if you want to try the demo later today or tomorrow, that's when you'll see just what it is I have here. It will blow you away, I guarantee it. It's a massive, massive system, if anyone wants to talk about it too, contact me and we can talk it over, there's really so much in there that features just get lost in mass.
Thanks for reading. If you know of any investors or techies looking for such a project, do please point them in the direction of the site too, I would really appreciate it. Anyone could recoup the 160k in three months, from then on its pure profit, all you need to do is put an exit opportunity together and get under the noses of the big hitters...most have so much cash floating around that it NEEDS to be invested, Convea is/must be worth a punt to them? Maybe I'm wrong, but years of watching this industry tells me otherwise, I'm just not the businessman to make that happen.
Cheers,
Al
Thing is, how good is web technology at dealing with really interactive, graphical applications?
Is the API as rich as that in Windows, allowing spreadsheets to draw graphs, have arrows from here to there, scrolling windows within windows, drag and drop etc. etc.
I like the idea a lot, but I suspect if you compare the applications people really use to those in this environment then I suspect it will always be wanting.
Is the API as rich as that in Windows, allowing spreadsheets to draw graphs, have arrows from here to there, scrolling windows within windows, drag and drop etc. etc.
I like the idea a lot, but I suspect if you compare the applications people really use to those in this environment then I suspect it will always be wanting.
As a user, I wouldn't be keen - running Windows is clunky enough without having to go on something hefty through MSIE which isn't that reliable, plus then you have the issues of data security (eg working on customer data), and more stuff to go wrong if I start thinking too much about this.
Don't wanna ruin your pitch so Ted please delete if this is an inappropriate post.
Good luck.
Don't wanna ruin your pitch so Ted please delete if this is an inappropriate post.
Good luck.
PetrolTed said:
Thing is, how good is web technology at dealing with really interactive, graphical applications?
Is the API as rich as that in Windows, allowing spreadsheets to draw graphs, have arrows from here to there, scrolling windows within windows, drag and drop etc. etc.
I like the idea a lot, but I suspect if you compare the applications people really use to those in this environment then I suspect it will always be wanting.
Hi Ted,
Thanks for your earlier comment.
I think that intensive, interactive graphical applications are next to impossible to do in a browser unless you cheat and develop a plug-in. Still, go the plug-in route and you could build Photoshop in a browser if you wanted too- look at the power of Flash. But no, the real strengths of web-apps are in data driven applications and web services.
Here's an example of where a webOS kicks a little ass. You run a small business: go sign up for an account and install Calendar, Contacts, Knowledge Base, To-Do Lists, News & Events, Discussion Groups, CRM, Project and Document Manager - takes you a few minutes and you have a multi-user system that's going to handle all of your contact management, customer relationship management, calendar and scheduling, document management, project management and Instant Messaging. You can use the system in the office then go home and have access to the exact same environment (apps and data). You can create client specific accounts and you have an instant extranet. You never need to backup, worry about data-loss, security issues - its fully managed end to end. Now imaging you want to do a bit of marketing: you go into the contacts module, build a distribution list of the clients you want to target, write up a document and click send: it's done. Even better, you want to target new clients so you transparently access the Business Link web service that will return you a mailing list of all the solicitors in the north-east: they appear in your CRM app and you manage those as you would your existing clients, closing opportunities etc. It's not a Doom 4 graphical wonder but for a business I reckon its pretty cool.
That's just a business example, but you could be doing all of this for free. Look at the popularity of community sites: how many groups would like an environment where they could manage their photos, blogs, discussion boards, IM's etc?
There's a lot in the background that isn't immediately obvious, for example: dispersed groups of people working on projects. In oneVision you could have users from all over the world right there in your O/S, it automatically translates dates and times to localised times, everyone has access to the document manager and forums etc, I guess its quite hard to explain it and why people don't often grasp the possibilities!
Here's another example: a web developer gets a contract to develop a new web solution for (say) an estate agent. They buy oneVision, the webOS, which is instantly multi-user, multi-site, fully modular, secure, it even has built in contextual help authoring! A few lines of code and you have a new module thats logging new homes for sale: in days you have a completed system. The client is over the moon with the massive value-add they have just seen on their project, but, not only do they have their custom module, they have the >WebOS<, they can visit any site and download and install any other module to compliment their house selling module, they might want project management, accounting...the beauty is they can go completely web based now and build and add as they choose, isn't that great? What's even better is it's a platform too, that they can extend whenever they want, they could easily link the house sales database to their website and manage the entire company from within oneVision, and all of this is costing them next to nothing.
It's a new concept see, you really have to think quite big to get out of the old single-shot web app mentality.
Anyway, like I said I'm pretty cr*p and trying to sales pitch it, which is why I've held it up for so long already. Google are trying to get this thing out, so are Yahoo, MS can't really do it yet as it would destroy their sales model.
Maybe you are right though, I could be blinkered and it might well be a shit idea, maybe I need to move on and do simple that is simple to explain to people?
Thanks for your feedback anyway (and you other guys).
What it comes down too is that I want a 355, I've waited nearly 20 bloody years for my Fezza and worked myself to death and I'm still no closer to my dream!! Boohoo! Its tragic, if I had spent my time writing one little silly email client I could have had a few million squid in the bank, but no, I had to be clever and go way over the top
Bugger!
shadowninja said:
As a user, I wouldn't be keen - running Windows is clunky enough without having to go on something hefty through MSIE which isn't that reliable, plus then you have the issues of data security (eg working on customer data), and more stuff to go wrong if I start thinking too much about this.
Don't wanna ruin your pitch so Ted please delete if this is an inappropriate post.
Good luck.
All comments welcome Ninja! Especially the negative ones.
Fact is though, it's an exceptionally lightweight application, far faster than .net or Java. Once it has cached its primary scripts you would be hard pushed to notice a difference in performance between it and a desktop application. I've hand optimised this thing to death, customised caching methods, conditional includes, optimised javascript...and it's really very, very modular in that 99% of the applications are using the API so virtually everything is being cached and re-used. In fact, it will out-perform Outlook on load times! Applications take around 2 seconds to load, all intensive datasets are XML based, load on demand and optimised for networks...if you experience it on a LAN I bet you would be surprised. The thing is, it looks heavy: window chrome, buttons, menus, splitters etc, but really its just visual, there's hardly any heavy graphics, its all CSS based. WoohoO!
Security: you should take a look at what I have in their. Adaptive self-monitoring security, data-safe libraries, SSL compliance, I've even wrote a custom C++ ISAPI filter than monitors *every* transaction between the user and the server. The backend is fully transactional so no cascade failures. I've had this in the field for nigh-on four years with people racking up gigabytes of data and not one report of any security breaches of loss of data. It's certainly not just knocked up, there's no chance of XSS or SQL injection, I actually have a 32 point QA checklist for every *file* in the project, every user input is wrapped, every file includes a security include that performs 8 seperate transaction validations and there is a seperate "enforcer" include that is part of every database-action file that ensures that the user permissions and user profiles information is enforced. The UI is abstract, all data access is treated as if it could be hit directly and not through the UI. You can even set an option to suspend or warn a user if the system thinks their activity is suspicous: every database access is given three levels of sensitivity that determine what actions to take when a suspected violation is detected, so for example, anyone triggering a critical violation (usually an administrator level database action) is instantly suspended, whereas a moderate violation (attempted read of user-level data) might result in a warning. You can also set it to ban a user after a given number of warnings, really quite comprehensive. Run all this through 128bit SSL with the ISAPI filter running and it really is pretty secure
You might have guesses that security is one of the things I've really focused on. MSIE is a fantastic platform too. It might feel a bit dodgy if you tend to surf dodgy sites, but honestly, I use it at least 12 hours a day everyday and this app is putting a mighty load on it, yet it comes out shining. Maybe you should take another look and what's possible!
Wow, I'm rambling (see I told ya I could go on and on about my baby!).
Thanks though, it gives me an opportunity to try and quell concerns.
cirks said:
All looks interesting and I'll have a proper read of your site etc but you say you're not a businessman yet you write quite an impresive 'pitch'. So, asking the blindingly obvious, why haven't you pitched this to a technical VC firm?
Because as soon as the VC's learn I'm on my lonesome and not part of a team they lose interest. I don't know why that is, I mean I've demonstrated years of commitment and the fact I can put it together but the couple that have enquired just have daft requirements. One wanted to see sales figures and lots of other businessy stuff, completley missing the fact that I'm essentially just coming out of development.
Swines they are really, so inflexible.
And in answer to your question: it's only really now that I can sit back and really say I can spend time actually pitching this around. It's only just got the point where I am happy with it and can say its matured to the point where if it doesn't take off now it never will. Marketing and businessy stuff takes a lot of time and before I needed that time to develop, it really has been non-stop.
Are you trying to wind him up?!Would I be right in thinking that something like this would require high broadband speed, but low processing power on a computer. If this is the case. Surely the best application would be in developing countries with second hand (worthless computers). Slovakia, other eastern europeen blocks, even China have the broadband, but few can afford the PC's. This could be a very cheap solution.
Thats all totally useless, if I have fundamentally misunderstood whats going on here.
Thats all totally useless, if I have fundamentally misunderstood whats going on here.
If it's as good as you say it is, then this is a very interesting product with massive potential if done right. However, you will not sell it to anybody on your own. You absolutely MUST have somebody on board that can run with the business and can use your product as a vehicle for growth.
Be honest with yourself - a business is only worth what someone will pay for it. At the moment, as it's not geared up internally for sale, it is probably not worth much, if anything. I would strongly recommend that you negotiate a significant equity stake with an entrepreneurial industry specialist who can create a credible and sellable business model for the product. His time would be his investment. Once that person has helped you, your share alone will be worth a hell of a lot more than £160k. You could do worse than to arrange a meeting with someone like Doug Richard.
Best of luck with it.
Be honest with yourself - a business is only worth what someone will pay for it. At the moment, as it's not geared up internally for sale, it is probably not worth much, if anything. I would strongly recommend that you negotiate a significant equity stake with an entrepreneurial industry specialist who can create a credible and sellable business model for the product. His time would be his investment. Once that person has helped you, your share alone will be worth a hell of a lot more than £160k. You could do worse than to arrange a meeting with someone like Doug Richard.
Best of luck with it.
It looks good, very fast, stable - but it suffers from "yeah, now what?" problem. Like a few years ago when when people bought a PC booted it up into Windows 3.11, and said "yeah, now what?". You need a killer app. An O/S on its own is just an O/S, and while techies might appreciate the efforts that have gone into it, users will want to see it DO something. It needs an "office" product if its to appeal to the business market, and you need to be able to import/export MS Office documents to get people started. Add a functional small company accounts package to that and you'll be beating money off with a stick.
You also need to expand your team, get some backup in terms of product support. The one man band issue is a real concern for anyone who might consider investment because its an all eggs in one basket deal. Get two or three talented developers on board, get them 100% up to speed, and suddenly you (or rather the company) become a more credible investment.
You also need to expand your team, get some backup in terms of product support. The one man band issue is a real concern for anyone who might consider investment because its an all eggs in one basket deal. Get two or three talented developers on board, get them 100% up to speed, and suddenly you (or rather the company) become a more credible investment.
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