On this episode we talk with Dan Counsell, founder of Realmac Software, an award winning independent Mac and iOS development studio. They're the folks responsible for app such as Clear on iOS, and RapidWeaver, Ember and Typed on Mac. Dan covers why bundle sales are useful, why you shouldn't rely only on app stores, what can make a software company sustainable, and much, much more.
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Show notes

Dan Counsell: Blog, Twitter
Realmac Software: GitHub, Website, Twitter
RapidWeaver
Clear
Ember
Typed for Mac
Typed.com crowdfunding campaign
Milen Dzhumerov: Twitter, Website
Helftone

Transcript
Alexis: Dan, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to come on the podcast.
Dan: You’re welcome, thanks for inviting me.
Alexis: Before we get into the more recent stuff with Realmac Software, let’s do a quick history lesson. How did you get started programming?
Dan: Well I’ve always had an interest in computers growing up and I was lucky enough that my dad ran a print shop. He got into Macs very early on, so I grew up having a Mac Classic and all the old iterations of Power Macs at home, so I was very lucky from that perspective.
I never got into PCs and stuff like that, so I feel pretty fortunate. Yeah, I’m a die-hard Mac user.
Anyway, my dad brought home a Mac Plus I think it was, and we had HyperCard on there, and I was just tinkering around that. At the time, I must’ve only been 10 or 11 or 12 – around that age. I was playing with HyperCard, building simple games and little scripts.
From there, I got interested in that and then went on to building websites. I got a little bit interested in PHP, and then eventually ended up using REALbasic. By this time, this was on Mac OS 9, and that’s really when I released my first product. Again, I had a full-time job and this was just a hobby.
That’s really what set me off on this road of developing software and that must have been around 1998 or something, maybe; 1999 when I released my first app. So a long time ago now.
Alexis: How did your first app lead into Realmac? Was it a very quick transition, or was it a bit more patient transition?
Dan: Well the company wasn’t founded until 2002, and that’s when I finally quit. I was working in London at the time and I finally quit my job there and went full-time with this.  By that time, I had a couple of apps out – I think Button Builder and NavBar Builder – and it was just making enough that it matched my salary, except by quitting my full-time job I then essentially cut my income in half.
It was enough to be sustainable and luckily, I was living with my girlfriend at the time and she had a full-time job, so it was enough to cover the mortgage and everything, so we were okay and I decided to give it a go.
Alexis: Alright. Now that we’re somewhat up-to-date on how you got to Realmac, you have had many successful products – RapidWeaver being among them; Clear for iOS; Ember, which used to be called LittleSnapper, which I still have running on my Mac –.
Dan: Oh, you should upgrade!
Alexis: I should! I should! It’s just done what I’ve needed it to and I’ve been dragging my feet, and for that, I am ashamed [chuckling]. And Typed, which is more recent.
How do you decide what products are worth building?
Dan: I’ve always built products that I’ve wanted to use myself. I never look at a market and think, “There’s a niche there; we need to build this because no one else is doing that†or “This is up and coming, we should go and build that.â€
As a company, we’ve always focused on stuff that we want to use, because otherwise, you end up building a product for other people and not for yourselves. If you’re not using it every day and you’re not passionate about it, then it wanes, and that shows too in the product.