The key will be creating a minimum feature set that gets his product into the hands of clients

I think Atomic Reach faces two distinct challenges. One is developing the video side of its software, while the other is marketing the program’s value to potential customers.

If adapting the software to video is key to their long-term success, Atomic Reach needs to assess the technical staff currently with the company and figure out the best way to ramp up capacity. They could hire several people to meet that staffing need, but it’s usually more cost-effective to contract out development to an external company with expertise in the type of work that needs to be done. This frees up resources to keep sales and marketing talent in-house, which can help get the finished product in front of more potential customers.

It’s also important that Silver keep a laser focus on what functionality will attract customers. The key will be creating a min- imum feature set that gets his product out of the pre-revenue phase and into the hands of clients. This will allow the company to start generating cash, and get the customer feedback it needs to develop a rich, useful feature set.

It’s also crucial that Silver target the right customers, and I think the company’s strategy of going after large businesses producing lots of content is bang-on. They’re the ones with the interest in — and cash to pay for — this kind of ser- vice.

But acquiring early adopters and selling effectively to these companies will require some ‘goldplated’ real-world examples. Silver should build some solid case studies of businesses who’ve used his software and seen tangible results, and present them to other Fortune 500 businesses. If he does this, and builds a feature set that meets the needs of his market, the software may stand a real chance of catching on.