Yeah, I know. At companies I've worked for in the past, I have always had access to this type of information. But now that I'm potentially undertaking a project on my own, I need to do a little research on the market, and don't have access to the market info I once had. Was hoping there was some good low cost (free) resources out there to get started with.

Anyone out there know of some goods sites for researching the software market? How many sw companies within the US? What there size, revenue vs. the number of people in the organization. That type of information would be great. Thanks

Thanks for your comments, appreciated. I guess I'm having a problem figuring out what is "on the line". I've been in the sw business for 12 years pretty much doing the same thing for different companies. So I have pretty good knowledge about the subject matter. However, the company hired me because of my knowledge in this area and to say I can't create a product around this knowledge sorta ticks me off, even though they hired me. Hope that makes sense!! (My knowledge strictly comes from an understanding of sales related issues, not the internal structure of how the product was put together. In other words, I never saw code, or had anything to do with the code.) Anyway, several people have suggested in this forum to approach my former employor (which sounds reasonable) however, I don't think anything good can come from it. They don't have anything to loose by telling me, hey don't compete. We eventually want to compete in this market. I guess I'm just going to talk to a lawyer and really find out what my options are first. Thanks though.

Hey, Mike, I worked in the sales side of the organization, so most of the information I had access to was of a sales nature. I didn't work in a PM capacity. I really didn't have access to this type of infomation. Sales folks are pretty isolated for obvious concerns. The problem is: what consistutes confidential, proprietary or trade secret info? Anyway, I think I used to work with you at Symantec. Worked on the NDA (Desktop administrator product) back in the 90's.

yeah, there was a confidential information agreement but I never signed it. It seemed a little broad and they never followed up. However, there are some things I can't or shouldn't do, even though I really want to such as contacting fromer prospective customers. Not going to do it. I plan to meet with someone this week to discuss the legal aspects of what I can and can't do. However, if I can get by on the legal stuff, what other problems, issues, may arise. It's a huge market opportunity and I'd really like to pursue it. One of the reasons they hired me is that I was knowledgeable about the area prior to working for this company, it's just they actually created a sw app around it. Doesn't prior knowledge account for anything, I guess from a legal standpoint.

Hi all, Since reading the previous thread on starting our own biz, I thought this was kind of appropriate. I currently was let go from my employor a couple of months ago. I really liked their product and understand from a high level what their target market, competition, marketing programs, etc. (By the way, I was not a developer for the company and I'm only a hobbiest programmer. My background is product management) Anyway, the company targeted enterprise customers and was priced accordingly. I know there is a huge market for a similar type of product in the small to medium sized businesses at a lower price point. I however, feel somewhat guilty about begining a process to compete with my former employee (even though I would be targeting a different market segment) given what I learned while I was there. However it such a good opportunity. Should I feel guilty? Are there any issues I should be aware of? Thanks