Leverage your prior relationship and gently remind him that the focus MUST be on building the next top company in the space and as you so rightly state, "it WILL sell itself".
We DO have to get out of that "in business to go out of business" mindset. We have something special and could build a major "going concern" and be on everyone's radar -- as a scary competitor to be feared.
Shout it from the mountain tops! We WILL be noticed @ a $20 million run-rate. Clients will breed clients. Sales will generate sales.
Analysts will line up to write glowing reports.
It will NOT happen overnight, but 2012 could be a year that helps us quickly forget the sins / missteps / accidents of 2011.
So, John wants (allegedly) to build the company and sell it instead of building another Microsoft. So what? As long as he wants to build it. I've worked for independent software companies. The owner builds it. His family is happy to have the money but not interested in making long sales trips or working 24 hours straight to support a new product. The company gets fat bloated and complacent. The owner gets old and sick. He leaves most of his money to charity and dies. Who's to criticize John if he doesn't want to go down that path?
Don't forget patents in evaluating the worth of Iceweb. Crap companies like RIMM and PALM are worth something just for the patents. It will only take a few enterprise sales to make the customer base worth acquiring. The product is already top notch.
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