Some Silicon Valley software companies, like Evernote most prominently, have declared that they want to be 100-year companies. For Evernote, that helps their business and "elephant never forgets" strategy/moniker. But that made me remember an adage that I heard about Netscape that was generalized into the statement:
Software companies have a 7 year lifespan, before their tools, technology or technical debt cripple them.
Do you think that is true? The more interesting question might be - if you were to start a software company with the goal of longevity what decisions would you make differently than where you work now?