What Kind of Software Would People Actually Pay For?

Most interesting. A related insight: people will often not think much about what they pay in a social context, but be brutally penny-wise in non-social contexts.

This explains why restaurants can have huge margins, but coffee shops rarely do. It's normal to see people working alone at a coffee shop for hours after paying $1.99 for a coffee. Such behavior is uncommon in a restaurant -- the common script is to go out with friends or on dates to eat socially. A restaurant can charge more for ambience and service. $$$$ coffee shops on yelp are at the level of Starbucks.

Thanks Reg, I was hoping you'd see it!

Excellent piece. The idea of the expensive hobbies is actually something that I had not thought of and is certainly another very interesting vector for offering services people will pay for.

That was the big idea I came up with when I was trying to get outside of B2B. Consumers buy stuff all the time - America's economy is built on that! So if we can't make something that American consumers will buy, what does that really say about software entrepreneurs?