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Software Success Stories

Software Developer Success Stories

Software Success Story: RIT Labs

by NotePage, Inc.

Ritlabs SRL is a software company specialized in communications products. Users of Ritlabs software range from home users to government institutions, and wide spectrum of small and large businesses including Banks, Financial, Aerospace, Gas and Oil producers, IT software, and hardware companies. Since Ritlabs creation in 1994 their user base has grown to include thousands of customers. The following interview has been conducted with Stefan Tanurkov, who leads the development team and is a co-founder of Ritlabs.

1. How did you start marketing online?
After the first release of our email client, TheBat!, was out, we started submitting to different download web-sites. At some point in time, the number of sites became 30, probably at the moment the number is higher. We were lucky to gain the wide popularity quickly.

2. How long have you been involved with software development or marketing online?
Since Ritlabs SRL was founded in 1994, we have always had software development profile. At the time of creation, our program Dos Navigator was our main product. We began marketing actively online in 1997 when TheBat! came to the market.

3. What factors or marketing ideas do you attribute your success to?
Probably the most important factor to mention is that we develop software that is oriented to bring high value to end-users. Also, we have developed strong partnerships with our dealers and resellers worldwide. Last, but definitely not least, we were persistent during the years and weren't afraid to make mistakes.

4. At this time your product line is fairly small, do you have plans to expand it?
Yes, we have plans to expand the product line. Right now, we actively develop and maintain our "TheBat!" line products such as TheBat!, BatPost and TheBat! Private Disk. Some products developed before are still maintained officially and some not, as they became out-of-date for today's users.

5. Will you create a new brand for future products or will you build on your current brand?
Yes, when we expand the product line, depending on the type of the product a new brand name could be used.

6. What advice would you give to developers starting out?
Don't be afraid of "hard times", don't be afraid to make mistakes. Our practice is not to borrow money and basically we would recommend it to others, whenever this is possible. Also it would be much easier for new starters if they are better prepared in advance when starting.

7. I understand that much of your success is as a result of licensing agreements, what advice can you give to developers regarding negotiation or license partners?
We don't think our success came mainly from the license agreements. Definitely legal issues are essential in the intellectual property field and should not be underestimated. For the startups who can not afford high fees of legal advisors, we would recommend to learn from licences of bigger companies in the market.