Devshop.com is a hosted project management application for software projects. I took Devshop for a test drive a few months ago at the beginning of their beta and found it to be straightforward, but took a pass on it because it felt like it was focused on larger projects. It seems that Devshop is a legitimate competitor to most major project management software, and at 24$US per seat per month, it is priced well, although that could definitly add up for larger teams.
There would be a good reason to pay for Devshop however, and that is their approach. Devshop focuses first on requirements and also focuses on time estimation and actively measuring progress against the project schedule. Devshop also brings the entire development team in to the same enviroment, so you don’t have to worry about updating MS Project files or emailing spreadsheets between team members.
Their “squash the risk” approach, which addresses the most real need of project managers, is what will help make Devshop successful. I think that being focused on Software Development, and only Software Development means that Devshop can keep innovating features that affect their niche audience directly, rather than a lot of the bloat that you get from more general purpose project management vendors.
Devshop is based in Ottawa, Ontario, and they have 5 employees. They were founded in September 2005 and their software went in to public beta just over a year later. To date, Devshop has been funded to the tune of $200, 000 and they are currently looking for angels to top off a second round of funding.
Considering what they have done with the small investment they have taken so far, and the fact that 2000 customers totaling over 7000 users are using Devshop already, while it is still in beta, is a pretty good sign of things to come.
Depending on their plans, I would also think that Devshop will have some pretty attractive exit opportunities. Everyone from Borland to Sun and Microsoft will need a tool like this in their back pocket and will be willing to pay to scoop up the market leader.