Idea 297 of 500. Cluster 15: Software, services and the remote desk
A Sri Lankan software product, not a services firm: one tool, sold by subscription to the world
The mechanism, from the book
The proof exists in Malabe. What is missing is a thousand small versions of it.
Every idea in cluster 15 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Pick the one tool you would build and write a single page describing what it does, who it is for and what it costs per month. Show it to 20 people abroad who do that job, through the professional groups where they gather, and ask for a pre-order or a signed letter of intent. If nobody pays before it exists, change the tool before you write the code.
- Who pays first
- A small business abroad with one specific, recurring problem, which pays monthly for a tool that solves it better than the big platforms.
- What leaves today
- Engineers here are paid by the hour to build other companies' products, so the subscription revenue and the ownership stay abroad.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. ThreeWhat We Have Already Built
The stock exchange in Malabe
More from cluster 15
- 296Remote-work hubs in Kandy, Galle and Jaffna with fibre, power and a lawyer who knows the tax
- 298Bookkeeping for small British and Australian firms, in their time zones: the software keeps the books, and a qualified accountant here checks them and answers the client's questions
- 299Lawyers here checking the contracts and filings that AI drafts for foreign law firms, since commercial law here follows English law, the higher courts work in English and the lawyers are here
- 300AI set up and looked after for small businesses at home and abroad: the booking replies, the invoices, the product descriptions in five languages, for a monthly fee
- 301Architecture and engineering design for firms in the Gulf and Europe: the drawings made with the new tools, and an engineer here who checks that it will stand up
- 302Video editing, animation and game art studios selling to studios abroad
Idea 297 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.