SoftCity Bizspark partner

Bruno Vanryb and Roger Politis are the founders of Avanquest Software, a French software development company that began in 1984 with a $2,000 investment. Today, the company has 520 employees, $110 million in annual revenues and offices all over the world. Always looking for ways to stay ahead of the curve in an ever-changing industry, Avanquest's management team created SoftCity, a social commerce community built around software experts. Developed as an independent entity sponsored by Avanquest, SoftCity offers BizSpark Startups and developers an online sales and marketing channel that provides instant access to consumers. SoftCity's main objectives are to bring developers together around a strong community and to offer them an opportunity to sell their software while sharing their passion and discussing with their peers.

Q: What's unique about SoftCity?

Bruno: What's very unique is that the buyer can have direct exchanges not with the seller of the software program but with the developer itself. Every developer on SoftCity is in contact with the users, the experts, and the customer, which has not been done anywhere else.
Blaise: SoftCity is an open, self-service platform. Once a developer has a product, he can connect to SoftCity, complete the contract, and submit his software. The developer is the one who determines the name of the software, the pricing, descriptions and other aspects. As soon as the SoftCity team has validated the software, the product is ready for sale. There are never any fees to the developer – they can join for free. In exchange for SoftCity's marketing efforts, the developer just agrees to pay a commission on its software sales. By the way, we never ask for exclusivity – developers can sell their applications wherever they want.

Q: Why would someone use SoftCity?

Bruno: Developers use the site because they have complete control over how products are marketed. Plus, they can interact directly with consumers to determine how the product can be improved or expanded. Customers use the site because they receive incentives to purchase products and interact directly with developers. Now, what's also important is that the developer can receive incentives, too. Obviously, he receives a large percentage of the sales price of his own product but, in addition, he can receive a percentage of the revenue generated by his own user base as they purchase products from other software developers.
Blaise: There are two equally important aspects to SoftCity. First is the Marketplace, where users can download, try and buy products. Second is the SoftCity Café, where everyone can discuss the products. Anyone who contributes to these areas of SoftCity receives SoftDollars, a virtual currency. SoftDollars are redeemable in different ways. A consumer, for instance, might use SoftDollars to get a discount on software. A developer, though, might receive more money and more royalties through SoftDollars.

Q: How do you market SoftCity to users?

Blaise: We market SoftCity through the users of our community and we use a viral marketing approach. For example, we just sent out 800,000 emails to promote four of the largest developers on SoftCity. We also have teams that write articles and product reviews or that reply to user questions. Of course, we also work hard on search engine optimization (SEO) to ensure good placement on search engines. There's so much that we do – we're not afraid to spend money to sell the software our developers create.

Q: How does SoftCity help developers?

Bruno: We have all kinds of development tools available free to developers. I don't know any small, independent developer that can build those tools without spending millions. Developers can also transfer their online support forum, databases and other tools to SoftCity so they don't have to worry about management of those items. Wade Goodman, our Business Development Manager, can help developers learn more about what's included.

Q: How does BizSpark fit into SoftCity?

Blaise: With BizSpark, we can provide Microsoft development tools to developers before they ever need SoftCity to sell a product. Once that's done, we help them provide the way to market. So it's really a complementary relationship between BizSpark and SoftCity – developers start out using the best tools on the market to develop their products and then can market those products easily.

For more information, contact Blaise Rabaud at brabaud@softcity.com