The Remarkable Effect by Ton Dobbe - a book review

With seven books under the belt, a number of first-time authors ask me for advice about book-writing. I am honest with them. I tell them to me the most enjoyable part is the extensive research, interviews for case studies etc. Don't just opine - let your interviewees and facts speak for you. I also tell them how painful the multiple versioning and editing, the case study sign off process is. I warn them marketing requires lots of time and travel and is not cheap. That often scares off many of them.

When Ton Dobbe of Value Inspiration told me he was working on a book, The Remarkable Effect: The Essential Book for Tech-Entrepreneurs-on-a-Mission I knew he was disciplined enough to write one, even though he humbly says in the book,

"I never aspired to write a book. I never thought I actually could do it in the first place. It’s fascinating how you can surprise yourself by just starting and then committing."

He did not just write a book based on opinions, he did lots of research. In his case he did so through interviews on his weekly podcast - he just crossed the century mark. You can find them here.

Having participated in a couple of those podcasts, I know how much work he puts into them, and how he has mined them for the book. There are tens of emerging and established software companies in the book, and he invokes Seth Godin, Tiffani Bova, Tim Ferris, Geoffrey Moore and many others along the way as he describes the 10 traits of successful, sorry remarkable, software companies (click on image to enlarge)

While there are plenty of CRM, HCM and infrastructure software companies he describes, I was particularly interested in those that play in untapped verticals and geographies (I have writing about many of them in the Glo-Ver series here). His book includes Aerobotics from S. Africa focused on farming, Xeneta from Norway focused on container freight, Corti.ai from Denmark focused on surgeons, Fracta which helps water utilities with predictive maintenance around pipes,  and many others.

I was especially impressed with his storytelling style. He is an avid surfer (and I hope he contributes on that topic to my Hobby/Passion series on New Florence) and he weaves the book around conversations during a trip he takes with the CEO of a FinTech company. That's a bonus - you will get a lesson in geography. The crow would fly in a straight line across his home on the Mediterranean to the stunning waves of the Atlantic Ocean, but Ton went from home in "Javea to Valencia, where I’d take the train to Barcelona, get on a Ryanair flight to Porto, where I’d pick up a rental car and drive to Nazare, which is about two hours away from the airport, right in between Porto and Lisbon."

After reading about so many software companies in the book, will that dissuade future software entrepreneurs? I hope not. I am quoted in the book saying:

"Cloud Business Software is twenty years old now. NetSuite was born in ’98, Salesforce was born in ’99. However, if you do a breakdown by global world region, by industry, by business process, only about 20% is filled. So, the vendor community hasn’t delivered enough. And on the other hand, the buyer community has been very slow to adopt it".

Entrepreneurs will definitely benefit from the community he is growing that he calls the Remarkable Effect Tribe.  

One final bonus - the book will make you hungry. At various points of the journey he describes, he also shares Spanish and Portuguese meals he and his companion enjoy including jamon de bellota, salchichón, bolo de caco and pão de Deus. Better have some tapas ready!