The Whole Story
Entrepreneur. Pioneer. Founder. CEO.
In a few short months, there was more money being generated by the software than by the coffeehouse itself. Nick weighed his options and closed The Raven and the Sparrow. He set to work filling orders and answering tech support questions by himself for the first year. With a $500 computer and sleeping on the old coffeehouse floor most of the time, he earned his wings. By hiring a software developer moonlighting from Microsoft, he was able to improve the program in terms of appearance and functionality and raised the price to $49. Then he began to think about what to offer next. One program lends itself to another in the software world and Nick formed a team of developers, tech support and sales staff and they all thrived in the grassroots atmosphere of the coffeehouse-turned-office.
Ideas were scribbled on scraps of paper between phone calls and trips to the post office to ship orders. No idea was ever thrown away. Eventually the time would come for the brainstorming sessions and new programs were born from this free exchange of ideas. One of the key elements in all of the software developed by CoffeeCup Software was its usability for the "Ordinary Joe" (and an equal number of "Janes"). This is not to say that the software was simple or limited to beginners. On the contrary, the programs were based in pure HTML coding which makes them appeal to the intermediate and advanced user for their flexibility. Unlike many other HTML-creating programs, CoffeeCup products do not use proprietary-type coding which limited the user to editing solely in that particular program. This means that if a user should choose to use CoffeeCup products in conjunction with other web site creation tools, there was no incompatibility factor.
On the marketing side, Nick personally developed alliances with his customers and all of the major software and shareware download organizations on the Internet to establish a wide network of availability for his software. A longstanding relationship CNET Networks was a valuable asset to Nick in giving CoffeeCup enormous exposure through its Web, wireless, television, radio and print content. In addition, a similar rapport with Tucows provided additional exposure through its well-known download site. Over the years, Nick worked to establish connections with software publications worldwide resulting in thousandsof articles and software reviews printed worldwide in magazines and on Websites. This continuous exposure was fundamental to his success. In order to sustain this exposure, Nick ensured that CoffeeCup Software continuously evolved by frequently adding new features to existing software and developing new software as the technology evolved like Java and Flash. With a current product line of over 20 Web design software titles CoffeeCup grew dramatically over the 11 years Nick was the CEO and the chief idea master.