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MenuBest way to fund my app for a startup? The programming phase is a lot of money.
Should I get an investor, cofounder, or raise money on kickstarter? I've teamed up with Zapporoo for my app.
Answers
Hi, check outmy response to another question similar to yours. I hope it helps. Overall what you need to do is grow your community of users, or depending on the app generate enough sales or interest typically before any investors considering joining you. Not impossible to get investors early on, but your best bet is through kickstarted if anything.
My responses tend to get UpVoted by other experts.
Check it out
https://clarity.fm/a/8032
SaaS and app devs tend to rush out and start blowing money on their idea before doing a critical thing:
Identifying target customers and getting buy-in BEFORE beginning development!
I have sold apps before programming was begun. I had a group of customers who had paid us to do the work before we started. And this is the right way to do it.
The idea that you're going to develop some software because YOU like the idea, and then go out and find a market for it once it's ready, is nothing other than gambling. You don't have to gamble. Find the customers first. And if you can't find the customers first, move on to the next idea.
Apps typically fall into one of two categories in my experience - an app to support an existing business, or an app that IS the business - but the path to success for both are similar. In both cases you are creating an app to fill a perceived need, and the steps you should be going through are the same as you would with any new business. Too often I see entrepreneurs rush headlong into building the product - a step thats a ways down the road from the idea stage. Be sure you've properly defined your business model - what problem are you solving, who will use it, who are your competitors, how will you sell / distribute it etc - that's a long discussion in itself, but be sure you've passed through that stage before you begin thinking about how to actually build the product.
These days, there is a lot we can do with design before we have to actually write any code. Products like Invision allow us to create screen based design prototypes that we can show customers, get feedback on, iterate on, etc. You don't have to be an engineer to use these design tools, and if you do need to hire a designer for some help, they are a lot less expensive than experienced mobile coders.
My advice is to be sure you've covered you business basics first, mocked up your product without any coding, received some great feedback from real users, and only then set out to code your product.
If you are ready to code, your best bet in my experience is to find a technical co-founder that shares your vision and will partner with you in the enterprise to create the first working version of the app. Hiring a fee for service person or firm is of course an option - the challenge with that is they will build exactly what you tell them to build, without the creative and business input that a technical co-founder will bring to the table. It's not always easy to find that person, and it does come with risks of course. Raising money on KS for an app is tough - what can you offer the funder? It depends of course on the nature of the app you are building, but KS is a stretch to fund apps in my opinion. I'm not familiar with Zapporoo so I can not comment on their services.
I hope that helps and would be glad to have a short call with you to answer your questions.
Best success,
Ward
Related Questions
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What is the generally agreed upon "good" DAU/MAU for mobile apps?
You are right that the range is wide. You need to figure what are good values to have for your category. Also, you can focus on the trend (is your DAU/MAU increasing vs decreasing after you make changes) even if benchmarking is tough. Unless your app is adding a huge number of users every day (which can skew DAU/MAU), you can trust the ratio as a good indication of how engaged your users are. For games, DAU/MAU of ~20-30% is considered to be pretty good. For social apps, like a messenger app, a successful one would have a DAU/MAU closer to 50%. In general most apps struggle to get to DAU/MAU of 20% or more. Make sure you have the right definition of who is an active user for your app, and get a good sense of what % of users are actually using your app every day. Happy to discuss what is a good benchmark for your specific app depending on what it does.SG
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Where can I find programmers willing to join a growing mobile start up for equity only?
You won't find anyone worth adding to your team willing to work for equity only, no matter how compelling your product and business is. The realities of the talent market for mobile developers anywhere is such that a developer would be foolish to work only for equity unless they are a cofounder and have double digit equity. Happy to talk about hiring and alternatives to full-time hires.TW
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Whats are some ways to beta test an iOS app?
Apple will allow a developer to register 100 UDID devices per 12 month cycle to test via TestFlight or HockeyApp. Having started with TestFlight, I would really encourage you NOT to use it, and go directly to HockeyApp. HockeyApp is a much better product. There is also enterprise distribution which allows you far more UDID's but whether you qualify for enterprise distribution is difficult to say. As part of your testing, I'd encourage to explicitly ask your testers to only register one device. One of the things we experienced was some testers registering 3 devices but only used one, essentially wasting those UDID's where we could have given to other testers. Who you invite to be a tester should be selective as well. I think you should have no more than 10 non-user users. These people should be people who have either built successful mobile apps or who are just such huge consumers of similar mobile apps to what you're building, that they can give you great product feedback even though they aren't your user. Specifically, they can help point out non obvious UI problems and better ways to implement particular features. The rest of your users should be highly qualified as actually wanting what you're building. If they can't articulate why they should be the first to use what you're building, they are likely the wrong tester. The more you can do to make them "beg" to be a tester, the higher the sign that the feedback you're getting from them can be considered "high-signal." In a limited beta test, you're really looking to understand the biggest UX pain-points. For example, are people not registering and providing you the additional permissions you are requiring? Are they not completing an action that could trigger virality? How far are they getting in their first user session? How much time are they spending per user session? Obviously, you'll be doing your fair share of bug squashing, but the core of it is around improving the core flows to minimize friction as much as possible. Lastly, keep in mind that even with highly motivated users, their attention spans and patience for early builds is limited, so make sure that each of your builds really make significant improvements. Happy to talk through any of this and more about mobile app testing.TW
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What would be the cost to program an an app like Whatsapp? iOS only.
Well, the biggest cost here wouldn't be in the app, but in the server infrastructure. As usual with connected apps, people often forget they have to be connected to servers. The app itself is just a view to what the servers provide, so it's not the major cost. 20K $ to 100K $ should be enough. On server stuff, I expect it to be a lot more, particularly if you aim for a wide audience (several million $). On a Whatsapp clone, I'd consider: - solutions for performing calls through servers, not that easy. Look at what Twilio provides. WebRTC is an upcoming protocol that will ease that (web & mobile). - solutions for API, IM and user accounts management. Look at StackMob or Parse which are MBaaS (Mobile Backend as a Service). Hope it helps!AJ
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Pre-seed / seed funding for a community app... valuation and how much to take from investors?
To answer your questions: 1) Mobile companies at your stage usually raise angel funding at a valuation equivalent of $5,000,000 for US based companies and $4,000,000 to $4,500,000 for Canadian companies. 2) The valuation is a function of how much you raise against that valuation. For instance, selling $50,000 at $5,000,000 means you are selling debt that will convert into shares equal to roughly 1% of your company. 3) I would encourage you to check out my other answers that I've recently written that talk in detail about what to raise and when to raise. Given that you've now launched and your launch is "quiet", most seed investors are going to want to see substantial traction before investing. It's best for you to raise this money on a convertible note instead of actually selling equity, especially if you are intending on raising $50,000 - $100,000. Happy to schedule a call with you to provide more specifics and encourage you to read through the answers I've provided re fundraising advice to early-stage companies as well.TW
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