Kyle/Kerry/Lassosoft has gone dead quiet on the list, since August. The weekly infomails are no more, since June. What are they doing? I don't know, but here's hoping.

Look at the following graph for authors/threads on the Lasso list 2007 - Aug 2010 (the official stats stopped coming after that, another thing that stopped).
http://bildr.no/view/730908

The number of authors posting per month has declined from about 130-140 to 70-80, i.e. almost halved. It seems to be a fair assumption that on the whole, the percentage of Lasso users that are on the list is somewhat constant, so that the number of people on the list represent a pertentage of active Lasso users, i.e. paying customers.

I will *not* speculate on any numbers here, but AFAICS, Lassosoft has three revenue streams: Product sales, paid support and the Lasso alliance program. All three, of course, are dependant on the number of active users of Lasso. The alliance program, which is $1000 and $800 for new and renewal, is a yearly subscriptiion, but the support and Lasso products are sold per incident and per license. The last paid upgrade of Lasso before 9 was 8.5, which was released June 2006, over 4 years ago.

Of course, Lasso doesn't only sell copies when new versions are released. But it also seems to be a fair assumption that a percentage of *new* Lasso users find their way to the Lasso list. The list is very easy to find on the website (at least now, I don't remember before the new redesign). You can try to remember for yourself how many new people we have seen pop up the last few years.

Sorry for the long prelude, but it leads up to this: I think Lassosoft is really stretched thin now. They have one great thing going for them right now: Lasso 9. But they struggle in the market, even with that. The world has changed: The platforms/frameworks that are not free are typically niche, like Unity 3D, or they enjoy some sort of monopoly-like status, like Flash developer/server (for the time being). The rest are free, and some are provided as a tie-ins or vendor lock-ins: Xcode, .Net, or they are simply free because, well, because some people thought it would be cool to make something.

Lasso is competing against the latter category, and it's difficult. Not necessarily because Lasso as a product doesn't have advantages over these free alternatives, but simply, I think, because it is impossible to build momentum for a web platform when deploying a production solution is going to cost you $$$. It just doesn't grok with the people who's starting out, looking at the landscape.

So I am hoping Lassosoft at this very moment is sitting with some investors, showing them Lasso 9 and convincing them that it's a viable platform to compete technically with the others out there, but also telling them they need 5 years to build enough momentum that it is possible to run a business around a free base product (Lasso server) and the surrounding value-added products and services.

I apologize if I offend Lassosoft or anybody by this. I have tried to refrain from speculating, even though I realize I don't know the full picture. This is still the best possibility i can think of for Lassosoft. This comes from a place of wanting to help, and I hope others chime in also.

Lars

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