Daniel Jalkut, the developer behind Red Sweater Software, has a great post up about how he’s inspired by the success of the folks at Panic. Panic has become one of the best known names in independent Mac software for good reasons. They make excellent software and really listen to their customers. I personally am a big fan of Coda, which I used to build this website.
While I take inspiration from Panic, they seem so far off that it’s sometimes hard to identify with them. Daniel, on the other hand, is a great inspiration for me. He’s built a successful one-man business on top of some great apps. He is known throughout the Mac community for quickly responding to user needs and he just makes you want to use his software. So, Daniel, you are an inspiration to me. I look forward to the day when Useful Fruit Software elicits the respect that Red Sweater Software does today. I hope that one day Pear Note can be the first thought that comes to Mac users when looking for note-taking software in the same way that MarsEdit is the first thought for Mac users looking for blogging software.
Useful Fruit is growing well, which is inspiration in and of itself. Stories like these of those companies a little further down the road combine with this inspiration to really get me excited about the future. I hope I can continue to use people like Daniel as a guide to help me know when I get off track (and feel free to let me know if you see me doing so). Despite what you see on the news, the future is bright.