OK, I gotta start with just the obvious one: Where do you see spam going from here? Increasing? Decreasing? Is there a legitimate fix? Companies have thrown out concepts of sender filering, server verification, etc…some of which is implemented. Is there a true “fix” ou there? And if there is, what does that mean to companies like OWN and their messge filtering services? It’s the old adage of “If we stopped all crime, then we would have to put millions of cops out of business!”

Good question, I’ll bounce it to Karl.

On the side note, pretty easy way to win an iPod considering you’re dominating the comments

If i got to have lunch with what would i like to talk about?

My first question would be?

What are you having to drink?

My serious question would be about community/partner created software…

You’ve blogged at length about how Exchange Defender, Shockey Monkey, etc has grown through development via partner suggestions. Where do you draw the line? People don’t always need what they think they need?

This one is sort of a twist on something both you and Karl have written about before:

How do you keep up with the amount of information available when trying to stay up to date on product information/changes across the landscape of IT? Take Exchange 2007 for an example. You can test betas, subscribe to the beta mailing lists, take webcast training, in-person training, etc. Then you need to learn what has changed at RTM or SP1, or even best practice change in between. So you can subscribe to the Exchange blog, but that may not give you all the real-world answers you need. So do you find Exchange MVP blog and read all of those also? And recognizing that Exchange may not be a specialty, but one of many products that you support. You can’t do this for all of them, or you don’t have enough time left to actually work, but you don’t want to be caught with your pants down if a client asks you about something you haven’t heard about yet. How do you deal with this?

Thanks!

I’m a one person shop just starting out. I do not want to change the world, but I do want to build a sustainable business that can provide great service to clients and thrive in any economy. In past posts, you have been a little hard on us newbies, but that is okay. Everyone needs a little hazing now and then.

I read your blog faithfully, and Karl’s too, because I respect your position in the IT community, the experience you have in the SMB space, and the amazing businesses/products you have built and share with the SMB space.

I have a few clients and want to find some tools that I can use to better support them as I grow. What can Shockey Monkey and Thieving Weasel and all these other things do for small IT shops just starting out, looking for tools to use to grow their business. How do they increase my ability to provide great service to the end client???

Thanks Vlad!

Brian,

Can you email me your mailing address? I could not find your name/email/IP in the logs as I’ve already nuked them but we’ve discussed about making an entire show out of this so I think you more than deserve it.

Please drop your addy to vlad@vladville.com. Thanks!

-Vlad

Hey Vlad - Awesome news! Sent you an email w/requested info. Wasn’t able to listen in on the conf. call, but will download the mp3 when it is posted. Thanks for everything.

BB

OK, so I’m way late on this. Maybe you can answer my question in a future blog-post.

With all the changes you’re making (and sure to be making in the next month), how are you dealing with letting stuff go? All the responsibilities you’ve been carrying, how are you handling passing those off to other folks? How hard is it for you to say “Here, run with it” and truly keep your hands off of it?

What are your employees doing to help you keep your confidence up during those transitions? What type of feedback are they providing so you don’t wake up with cold-sweats in the middle of the night?

Our company is growing and the pains are obvious. The owner started as a one-man shop. In addition to him, we’re now up to 8 techs plus a full time accountant with plans and opportunities to keep growing. We’ve defined a management team and psuedo-department roles that would alleviate a lot of his stresses, but he obviously doesn’t have the strength to let us manage all those tasks for him. He can’t not have his finger on all of the pulses running through the organization. I believe those of us in the management roles have proven ourselves as capable of holding those positions, so he shouldn’t have anything to fear.

What would you recommend we, as direct reports, provide back to him? And how can we guide him in to the client-facing role that he should be filling?

Thanks,
Mike