I don't think you had a failed poker software business. You wrote, released, and announced some software. That's simply step one, and the very minimum. Next, you need to iterate, which may include adding features found in other software, creating a web version, and more. I see very few lessons here, and they are on how to fail.
I have a small software business, and I always say that 95% of the business value is not produced in the compiler. Its marketing, support, marketing, SEO, marketing, advertising, marketing, documentation, marketing, etc.
Oh, and there is some software involved, too. But product quality only goes so far if your strategy for marketing is "I put it up on the Internet and eventually people find me". (That _can_ work but you have to have God's own luck AND an amazing product.)
Here's another lesson for you: if people are not buying your software, the answer is NOT to charge less. You can't convince people who aren't at your site to buy by offering them a discount -- they can't see the discount. On the other hand, folks who then see the discounted price as the "normal" price mentally value it to match. And software which only costs $10 is worthless. You are selling me a tool to _make money_ and can't justify a price higher than $10?
(I leave it to your imagination what I think of the "Make it free and try monetizing with ads!" advice you'll find elsewhere in this discussion.)
I sell software which is so trivial that technical types have difficulty believing it sells at all. My customers love me, and are happy to part with $25. And I should really get around to raising that one of these days. Should sell about $20k this year, which isn't quite quit-the-day-job money but on an hourly basis works out to "pretty freaking sweet". Not to crimp the startup style here but, erm, charging people money for value remains a decent business model.
Yep, you're right. As I mentioned in the post, I use the word "business" liberally for lack of a better term. If there had been a future for the product I would have iterated, created a web app, etc, but I decided it wasn't worth the effort. As far as the lessons, figuring out how something fails is strongly tied to figuring out why it succeeds.
Good decision. It seems like you have a lot of talent and can make a LOT more money in a vertical other than poker. Also, it will probably be more enjoyable in another domain.
My 2 cents. We tried to a business in the lottery space once because it seemed there were no good tech companies there, there was a ton of money at stake, and lots of innovation to be done. But after a short time it was really demoralizing to be in that type of vertical. Fail fast and move on!
