Talking CFD

In this episode I'm talking with Haysam Telib, CEO of Optimad a Turin-based consultancy & software house working in the freeform deformation & shape optimisation space. We cover some ground, including:

• how consulting is a great way to get ideas for products your customers would buy but....

• why transitioning from consulting to products is MUCH harder than you might imagine (& it's not just cashflow that's difficult);

• how open-source & open-innovation are shaping their business model;

Links

Optimad – http://www.optimad.it/

This week I’m joined by John Chawner, President & Co-Founder of Pointwise, the company behind the CFD meshing software of the same name. John & I discuss what it takes to build a CFD business with longevity, including:

• why it’s more important than ever to have a laser-focused value proposition in order to communicate with the growing CFD market;

• why you don’t need to reinvent the business “wheel” to have a successful CFD business;

• why we’re not likely to see a Pointwise solver or post-processor any time soon.

Shownotes

• Pointwise – http://www.pointwise.com/

• Pointwise blog (always-worth-a-look) – http://blog.pointwise.com/

• Pointwise on Twitter – https://twitter.com/Pointwise

• Pointwise on YouTube – https://youtube.com/user/CFDMeshing

I'm joined in this episode by aerodynamics expert & software developer Patrick Hanley to talk about the business that he has built over the past 20+ years around his suite of aerodynamic software. We get into:

• how Patrick's philosophy of "putting the biggest program on the smallest machine" guides the development of his toolkit;

• why downloadable software is not dead or dying IF you do it right;

• how Patrick has taken the best bits of a SaaS/cloud business model & incorporated them into a downloadable product;

Links

Hanley Innovations - http://www.hanleyinnovations.com/

Today I’m lucky enough to catch-up with David Heiny, one of the five co-founders of SimScale - the impressive cloud simulation platform for FEA & CFD. We touch on:

• how software-as-a-service might help to bring simulation into design processes that currently/traditionally don’t benefit from FEA & CFD analysis;

• how introducing a community aspect to their platform has helped lower the barriers to entry for new users & incentivised the exchange of know-how;

• the importance, as they see it, of having a freemium business model with a useful free tier, rather than just a free trial;

• venture capital funding in the cloud simulation space;

Links

SimScale - https://www.simscale.com/

In this episode I'm joined by Paul Bemis to talk about the lessons he's learned building CoolSim - the data centre airflow modelling application - including (but not limited to ;-)

* their client-server approach to building a software-as-a-service offering on top of Ansys Fluent;

* how that client-server setup gives them a distinct advantage when it comes to the all-important customer support;

* the merits of focusing on a niche market and becoming a domain expert in that niche;

* plus why teaching via webinars has become one of their strongest marketing & customer acquisition channels.

Links

CoolSim - http://www.coolsimsoftware.com/

I give you a little intro to what Talking CFD is intended to be & who I am.

I also give you a heads-up about the upcoming, end-of-season roundtable where you can get involved & ask questions to past interviewees.

I also urge you to jump on the mailing list if you haven't already done so at http://www.talkingcfd.com

In this episode I chat with Wolfgang Gentzsch of UberCloud - the company trying to enable HPC for simulation via the cloud – and we discuss:

* the evolution of UberCloud from an idea through the experimentation phase, vendor marketplace phase to a provider of computing as a service;

* building a community of interested parties - end-users, software providers & infrastructure providers - learning what they need & then building it;

* how Docker has shaped the evolution of UberCloud and just how important it will be in simulation software provision;

## Shownotes

UberCloud - https://www.theubercloud.com/