Software engineering skills alone are definitely not enough.
There are a ton of these heaps of bills, sure, but they aren't lying around on the floor so much as on hilltops and mountains, to abuse an analogy.
It may help to think of these opportunities as a form of technology arbitrage. In order to take advantage, one or more people have to a) understand the technology, b) understand the problem domain c) understand the workflows and d) identify and communicate effectively to the people who can actually make the decisions.
How many people do you know who are both competent and interested in all of these aspects? It's not that any of these skills are particularly rare, but they are rare in the same person and there aren't natural communities, for the most part, of people who can do all aspects.
Another issue is sometimes (often, really) the technology aspect is the smallest and least interesting part of the problem.
There are a ton of these heaps of bills, sure, but they aren't lying around on the floor so much as on hilltops and mountains, to abuse an analogy.
It may help to think of these opportunities as a form of technology arbitrage. In order to take advantage, one or more people have to a) understand the technology, b) understand the problem domain c) understand the workflows and d) identify and communicate effectively to the people who can actually make the decisions.
How many people do you know who are both competent and interested in all of these aspects? It's not that any of these skills are particularly rare, but they are rare in the same person and there aren't natural communities, for the most part, of people who can do all aspects.
Another issue is sometimes (often, really) the technology aspect is the smallest and least interesting part of the problem.