Why kids (rightly) hate the enterprise

I had a great time talking to a group of Stanford kids yesterday as part of a VC quick-start program where teams compete for spaces in a summer program that gives them office space and a bit of guidance toward building a company that they can then pitch to VCs at the end of the summer. Sort of like an entrepreneurial boot camp.

Let me state that these kids (and man did I feel old) are smart. Book smart, socially affable and well aware of how you become an entrepreneur in the Valley. They also are smart enough to recognize that developing software is a different game than it was 10 or even 5 years ago.

Only one group was developing code that would be installed as opposed to delivered as a service. The "enterprise" team didn't have much of a choice as their product was more software infrastructure/plumbing than it was a service.

As I drove back to San Francisco I thought through why the enterprise is really pretty boring, even if it pays better than anything else. Note that all of these words are mine and that we didn't cover this too much in the discussion.

So why does the new generation eschew on-premise enterprise software?

Enterprise software is slow-moving -- It's been argued that innovation in legacy products occurs on the fringe. This is exemplified in open source, where developers scratch their own itch as well as in software as a service, where Salesforce and other companies found weaknesses in customer delivery.

Installers, maintenance and professional services -- Unless you have experience already with any of these things they are not interesting. I'm not sure they are interesting even if you have experience (they're not, I'm being nice). Every VC will tell you that "pro serv" is not a good business model.

Colleges (and grad schools) don't teach software history -- The only slightly negative thing I can say is that the kids weren't terribly well-versed in software history. Of course, as good Stanford folk they knew every VC and were obviously aware of big companies. But they really didn't care. No one coming out of school today is looking toward behemoths for new ideas or even technological breakthroughs. That said, the enterprise is where the money is.

Basking in the warm glow of VCs -- Ask a recent Stanford grad about venture capital and odds are they can rattle off three or four VCs who spoke at their classes. Ask them who wrote Unix or where it came from and you get blank stares. I suppose it all comes down to what you want to retain, and the Valley is constantly reinventing itself but I miss the days when Dennis Ritchie was a star.

Enterprise = old people -- Sitting in a room as mid-thirties guy with a bunch of young twenty-somethings, I felt old. And not because the group was updating their Facebook status (they weren't) but because they weren't carrying any of the enterprise baggage that so many of us are saddled with.

When you think enterprise software do you think high degree of innovation or cumbersome and expensive?

My discussion with the group was eye-opening and makes me think that the Valley and venture capital, while certainly due for a correction, will continue to churn out great new technologies. My only regret is not forcing them all to give me stock in their new ventures.

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.

[hymanroth]

I would leave a comment, but since you never engage with the comments, there's not much point

[daverosenberg]

I do the best I can--we don't get comment notifications.

[mpeskin]

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat the failures of the past. That's why the valley is full of kids who know how to pitch to VCs but have limited technical chops and no perspective.

[mikekrause]

In this economy, I wish even the smartest of kids the best of luck finding a job anywhere in tech. This ain't the 90's.

[Random_Walk]

Dunno... being a septic tank repair guy certainly isn't glamorous, but if you've ever had to have one pumped-out? You'd realize immediately from the invoice that the owner of 'JoeBob's Sump-n-Pump' makes enough money to not really care about glamor... he can go buy that by the case-load.

Same-same with enterprise software. I'm very sure that the vast majority of Larry Ellison's income doesn't come from the results of a glitzy UI coding team. I'm doubly sure that whoever runs Quantum (backups? Oy vey, that can't be sexy!) could really give a damn as to how glamorous the phrase "deduplication" sounds as he pays cash for his next six-figure tagged sports car.

OTOH, I'm someone who happens to have seen the same crap happen with highly-paid kids who could barely script HTML(!?), only to watch them desperately seek jobs at the local burger stands after the dot-bust and WYSIWYG web-page editors obliterated their formerly lavish lifestyle (the morbidly hilarious part was when they discovered what their stock options were really worth...)

I got laughed at and looked down at quite a bit by former peer students for going into *nix systems administration back in the day, but I'm still here doing what I love to do, and watching my career growing nicely in Enterprise IT. Most of those former peers OTOH are doing something else, usually nowhere near the tech industry, let alone in a 'sexy' position.

[paulej]

Perhaps another reason why enterprise is not attractive is that it's hard to jump in there. Go build something and then try to push it into the enterprise. It's an up-hill battle sometimes. You might have the best product on the block, but folks (rightfully) want to do some comparison shopping, then perhaps some testing, then somebody has to budget for the person's time and the product (including support contracts), etc.

With fortunes to be made in the consumer space by a massive number of users, it seems folks would want to target that space, instead. Oh, and if you can make money without actually selling a tangible product, that's even better.

[sanjayb]

I work in the Enterprise software world. And yes it is boring. At a time it was interesting with the boom of the Internet. We learning Javascript, HTML, Java Servlets, Struts, etc, etc. That was more than 5yrs ago. Once it's in, it stays in and barely changes. Better to be safe and not take risks. Cutting edge technology never gets adopted to the Enterprise space. And if it does, it's not cutting edge anymore. On the flip side Enterprise software does pay decently to cover the bills. These young whippersnappers might work with cool technology but I figure the majority of them have a hard time making ends meet.

[jessiethe3rd]

The Enterprise space is what it is...the very nature that it took being small first to become an enterprise is stability in itself. Enterprises often times forget what it is to be daring and agile - that's is what cost them to lose marketshare when they do. Overall, an enterprise is a fine oiled machine with little apetite for taking big risks. Most kids are risk takers and with the economy the way it is today there'll be far less companies taking a lot of risks. It's good though, these young kids will try diferent things coming out of collegue - they'll start up some fantastic business that gains customers :) The sad part is they'll be then gobbled up into one of these larger businesses... by that time they can retire or start their next venture with the capital they gain..

[jwreed2345]

When you think enterprise software do you think high degree of innovation or cumbersome and expensive?

I think reliable, mature and complete.