The first time someone thinks of a good software idea and...

The first time someone thinks of a good software idea and develops it, it takes a long time and costs a lot.

Copying a software product takes a shorter time and costs less. Why ? Because all the problems have been solved.
I've seen this time and time again. A classic Australian example ....

The Fairlight CMI - the first sampling synthesisor in the world. A revolution in music. Used to cost about $50,000 - $100,000 each.

A few years later, Akai, Yamaha, Ensoniq, were selling sampling synthesisors in the $1000 - $5000 range.

Better, cheaper, quicker.


The only way a software product can stay on top is if ...
- it is better than it's competitors (cant think of any examples)
- it has such a signicant market share, that it has an effective monopoly (think microsoft windows, google, youtube, ebay, amazon)

or it has patented technology, which prevents others from copying it without royalties.
(Fairlight didn't patent their sampling technology)


Then if the products is profitable, and has significant sales, it doesnt take long for the myriad of software companies out there to put 2 + 2 together and think "maybe we can do this for less".

So in answer to your questions ...

"1) Do it in a significantly shorter timeframe to get the product to market quickly?"
Yes

"2) Find a client to bank roll the project?"
not that that I know of. The days of easy capital are over.

But it wouldnt take much to come up with proposal, pitch it at a potential client, or a venture capital fund, and float such an idea.

Think of the pitch ... IBA did this for $300 million, We can do it for $30 Mill (maybe even less ??).


I keep tripping over this figure ... $300 M. That is a heck of a lot of money. That's the sort of money required to build sky-scrapers, roads bridges, and tunnels, not software.
Software usually doesnt cost that much ! You dont need bulldozers, cranes, tonnes of concrete. All you need is a couple of guys in a room.


However, you can count the number of software developers in the word in millions, if not 100's of millions. Each and every one of them could potentially take on a project like this.