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My business idea deals with compressing the traffic coming out of web apps to the client. I can show the bandwidth differences with and without my software.

How do I know validate if companies will perceive the value of it? Do I black-box it by describing the integration plan & get feedback on integration costs?

I know a bit about the transmission demographics (bandwidth classification) - is there any way I can learn about SaaS and social media products/companies through the 'lens' of how their bandwidth is classified? (e.g. 10% images, 25% javascript, 50% HTML, 15% streaming content)

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Many people do this already, so the idea doesn't need any validation. – Kekito Sep 30 '12 at 14:07
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@Kekito: I think the question is how to validate that specific solution. – Chris Gerken Sep 30 '12 at 14:24
Your hope for bandwidth classification is a bit naive: it depends upon the nature of the service (Flickr vs Salesforce.com). I'd be impressed if you could beat the current caching/JPEG/PNG/GIF compression/gzip compression which is already widely deployed by any significant margin. – Mike Oct 4 '12 at 16:28
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@NewAlexandria - if you can compress all common compression formats by a further 15% then a patent might be worth considering... You might also look into the Hutter Prize. I was just trying to point out that for any particular site you can make a pretty good guess at the answer, but that there are no "typical" figures. – Mike Oct 5 '12 at 3:54
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Note that if you can significantly improve compression, you may also be able to improve latency - this might be valuable too. – Mike Oct 5 '12 at 3:57
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I would approach local potential customers with a proof of concept proposal to demonstrate the effectiveness of your software on their specific web app(s). Variables in the contract include

  • how much they pay you during the proof-of-concept,
  • proof points,
  • whether they give a public endorsement on successful completion of the demonstration,
  • whether they buy the product if the proof points are met, and
  • the discount, if any, that they get if and when the proof points are met

If your numbers are compelling enough, you can get some immediate income in return for medium-term endorsements and long-term customers. Your proof of concept clients are hedged in a way that benefits them, too.

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