Hands up, who has a software contract? ✋
Atom CTO September newsletter
Welcome to the latest Atom CTO newsletter where we share tech news and stories for founders and entrepreneurs who are starting and scaling businesses.
Editor’s Note
For some time now I’ve been puzzling over why people seem to treat tech and tech projects differently from other high value activities. For example, if you’re hiring a contractor to do some works on your house, and I mean major works, you’re unlikely to hand them over the cash and let them have at it.
You’d sit down with them, go through the plans, make suggestions and then look to put in place some sort of contract that protects you in some way if things go wrong.
With tech, many business owners seem to treat the process more like handing over your car to get a servicing - you’re giving an expensive, prized possession over to an “expert” and are not really thinking about a contract, you’re just assuming they know what they are doing and when they tell you that you need to spend more, you tend to pay them - all with no contract in place.
Tech done well does cost money, it does take time and yes, more often not it costs more and takes longer than you initially thought and so any sensible business owner should cover their risk by putting a sensible contract in place.
But people don’t do that.
Working with start-ups it is not unusual to see them giving work to a random developer in a distant country that they’ve probably only ever seen face to face over the web once before the camera gets turned off permanently. To be honest it doesn’t have to be a distant country, these things happen in good old Blighty too, but the important thing is that someone hands over money to someone else with no contract in place. We may not be talking large sums but they are significant sums - all the money a business has in some cases - so why on earth are these companies not protecting themselves?
I have no clue.
To me this is a mystery and so what we can do at Atom CTO is to help people understand why a contract should be in place and its not just about de-risking things if something goes wrong, it is also about protecting IP, showing investors that you have good rigour within your business etc. etc.
To that end, I recorded a podcast with our own legal representative, Rustam Roy, to talk through the importance of software contracts and what you need to think about in order to protect yourself. It is linked below and well worth a listen.
As ever, if you are interested in learning more or have a tech challenge you need to solve, then we are here for you! Email bhairav@atomcto.com
Bhairav Patel
Managing Director
Atom CTO
Interesting Insights
Latest events and articles in tech and entrepreneurship collected by the Atom team:
You’re probably already familiar with the project time-cost-quality triangle, but in reality it’s not as simple as it seems. Read more here about tradeoffs and limits of control. ⚠️
Have you ever felt paralysed by a decision, unable to decide on a way forward? You might benefit from second order thinking which suggests a thorough framework to turn you into a super thinker. 🦹🏾
Sometimes, having the vision is the easy bit. Next comes product development which can be mighty difficult. Read the latest article from Bhairav on the 6 Keys to Product Development. 🗝️
If you have a business idea, how do you differentiate it? Here’s a practical guide about how to identify the unique benefits of your product. ⭐️
Leadership is a skill which like any craft, requires persistence and learning. Here’s a two parter about the principles of good leadership. Part one - Part two. 🎺
So, what exactly does a CTO do? Find out what 26 C-Level experts think about the role of the modern CTO ⛰️
Atom CTO Podcasts
Understanding product management and idea validation 🧠
Experienced product consultant Diana Matei chats with Bhairav about how to determine whether a product idea is worth pursuing and how best to validate it.
⭐️ Essential guide to software contracts 👨🏻💻
A commonly overlooked aspect of starting a business is the software contract which outlines the expectations between the software developer and the customer. Bhairav talks to legal expert Rustam Roy about the benefits of legal contracts for tech work.
New AI-powered podcast bot
We’ve recorded hundreds of hours of podcast recordings. But we realise that not many of us have time to listen to the whole back-catalogue. 🤖
You might notice in the bottom corner of our website that we’ve added a clever AI bot which taps into all the startup and entrepreneurial expertise from every podcast episode. Simply ask it your burning startup questions and you’ll receive a concise and insightful answer based on every podcast expert interview over the past few years.
Tech conferences coming up - see you there!
The next few months for Atom CTO are going to be super busy! If you also happen to be attending any of the following conferences, please drop by our stand and say hi 👋
Sifted - stand B105 (October 2-3, London)
The Business Show - stand B1970 (November 13-14, London)
APAC Tech Trade Mission (14-18 October, Kuala Lumpur)
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Keeping in touch ✉️
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