What are the top concerns of software companies in Southern California nowadays?
LS: Big concerns for software companies today are when, and how much, should they invest in order to capitalize on the recovery going forward. Most of our members are recovering from the downturn, and their resources are currently lean. If they invest too much to soon, before business begins taking off, they risk becoming depleted. If they continue to be conservative, they risk losing market share to more aggressive competitors when the upturn does occur. It becomes a question of accurately predicting the timing, and the rate, of the recovery. Another concern continues to be the protection of the intellectual property that is inherent in software. Illegal copying of software has always been a problem, but it was manageable in the domestic market. Many of today’s high potential markets have a different attitude toward protection of intellectual property — that it has no value if it is intangible, so protection is much more difficult. Another issue is that software is now increasingly e
