Don't be afraid of the platform

Thursday Feb 16, 2012 by Timothy Jones - CEO, Buzzient

One of the paradoxes in building a large internet services or software company is the challenge of building a platform. That is, creating a technology base upon which your own applications are developed and run, but also can be used by your partners. A true platform enables the partners to create powerful services for their customers without having to reinvent the wheel of basic capabilities. For a number of reasons, however, developing platforms is not easy to do. Rule No. 1: Whatever you do, don’t mention the word “Platform” To start, most investors will NOT invest in a platform up front.  The word “platform” in an investor presentation is a dog whistle to VC’s to start checking their blackberries for the ferry schedule to Nantucket.

This is in spite of the fact that some of the most valuable and powerful companies in technology did precisely that, create a platform. Microsoft (Windows), Sun (Java), Intel, Oracle (DBMS) have all historically dominated their respective markets by selling applications on top of an integrated platform. Of those, however, only Sun Java was sold and marketed as a platform from the start. The rest led with applications, then years later revealed belatedly that they were, in fact, platform technologies.

Rule No. 2:  If you can’t resist a Platform approach, hide it as an “App Store”

Recently, the en vogue way to sell a platform is not with techno-speak platform language, but rather positioning as an “App Store”.  Everybody loves a little retail therapy, so by positioning your application environment as an App Store where others can upload their wares developed on your technology, software vendors can deflect pushback to a platform strategy for months if not years. This is what Apple (iTunes) and Salesforce  (AppExchange) did successfully for a good period of time before really coming clean on their desire and intent to be platform players.

Rule No 3: When you’re ready to be a Platform, dive into it with reckless abandon

There comes a moment however, where even the most stealthy App Store provider has to just fess up. The smart developers start asking questions, new developers are clamoring for more documentation, and all sorts of enhancement requests are being thrown over the transom. At that point, there’s no use in fighting it. Declare yourself a platform and just go for it. Document your API, release it to the world and plunge headfirst into platform thinking. You’ll learn more than you’d ever guess. Just remember to breathe.

Timothy Jones is the CEO of Buzzient, Inc., a Boston based social media analytics platform for the enterprise. You can find this blog post, as well as additional content on the Buzzient blog, which is located here.  You can also follow Timothy on Twitter (@tbjbuzzient) by clicking here.

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