[crcoffey]

That doesn't put fulfilling the need of such a project beyond the reach of any qualified coder to try and fill the gap himself.

It doesn't cost much for, a group of friends in college to start working on a project, or some colleagues meeting to throw ideas around, it costs nothing, and might be the beginning of such a dream.

It just takes an idea, and the will to take the risk.

[dmix]

You'd still need to build relationships with companies or have some experience with a "normal" company and identify a problem that is common among a bunch of similar businesses.

I wouldn't put much money on a just out of college programmer's ability to come up with a great problem that needs to be solved... without some exposure to the industry in question.

That's where the years part comes in.

Although I am confident a qualified programmed could solve the problem in question with little effort. Marketing is the hard part.