Selling research software is a tough way to generate big returns: there are dozens of competitors, most markets are small, and technology changes fast. Some companies are trying to create one-stop shopping solutions for large clients, building consulting and training businesses onto software sales in order to leverage up per-client fees. Others are creating one-stop-shops of a more democratic kind by exploiting the Web. Instead of selling to bioinformaticians, they're aggregating often easy-to-use versions of bioinformatics software and selling affordable subscriptions. But their real revenue generation model may be context-sensitive e-procurement: pointing out to customers which reagents to buy and then taking a percentage of the selling price.
by Roger Longman
In 1996, three American bioinformatics start-ups were funded by different groups of important venture or corporate backers—NetGenics Inc. ,...
Join thousands of industry professionals who rely on Scrip for daily insights
Already a subscriber?