Has anyone used SurveyMonkey before? (a website to buy people's feedback to test out if your product can sell)

I am not sure of the specifics you're asking, it seems like a lot of technical data. This might help in your search for these statistics though: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/networking/a/linkedin.htm http://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2014/01/21/how-linkedin-is-thwarting-your-job-search/ http://mashable.com/2014/06/19/linkedin-job-search-app/ http://www.cio.com/article/2403150/linkedin/10-linkedin-tips-to-boost-your-job-search.html

The art of the "cold pitch" is definitely something that needs to be worked on, and doesn't come naturally to everyone. A couple of quick tips: 1. 4 is not a big enough target group, you've got to cast a bigger net. Try pitching 20, and aim to get 3-5 responses. 2. When sending a cold email, really think about what you are offering them. Whilst you'll get the odd good egg that simply wants to help - you can't expect entrepreneurs and small biz owners to take time out of their day to answer your questions. To counter, why not tell them you're conducting research in the space, and would be happy to send the finds/reports back to them in a nice format, which could in turn help their business. 3. Don't give up, keep hustling. Try changing around the emails slightly, track which emails convert into responses, and fine tune from there. Good luck and feel free to book a call if you want to chat more. Best James.

The best day to launch your app is either Wednesday night or Thursday, because the iOS App Store changes features every Thursday and you may get featured that day as "New games..." "New app..." etc. Ideally all your marketing/PR/advertising efforts should start that day (Thursday) because Apple likes it when an app is being privately promoted at the same time it's being featured. Yes AdMob could work for you but please know that there are many other ad placement companies similar to AdMob that can work for you too. You need to see what kind of clients they have, if they match with your niche, etc. Usually this is a trial and error process, you start with several ads and you see which works and which doesn't, you improve, you cut them. etc. Good luck

Having gone through this multiple times either in new startups or for side projects, here is how I would approach turning your idea into an app. 1. Defining the Minimum Viable Product Your first goal with any new idea should be about proving the idea and finding a market that wants the app you want to build. Achieving that quickly is probably one of the most important thing. To achieve that, you will need to write the specifications that will constitute your MVP. The MVP is basically the simplest expression of your idea to prove it. This step should not cost you much as you can do this on your own. 2. Design the app Before starting any development work, I would suggest you work with a good UX/UI designer to create wireframes and mockups of the app based on the specifications you came up with in step 1. You can find good designers in meetups & hackathons or on website like Dribbble or 99designs. If you want to reduce your costs, you can give shares in the project to the designer. Otherwise, it really depend on the size of the MVP but I would say it will probably cost between $5K-$10K. 3. Develop the app Once you have the specifications and the design of the app, you now need to find a good developer that will build it. Again, you can find good developers in meetups & hackathons or on sites like Github. If you want to reduce your costs, you can give shares in the project to the developer. Otherwise, it really depend on the size of the MVP but I would say it will probably cost between $10K-$25K. For this part however, I would recommend the developer becomes part of the project as his engagement will most likely be higher. 4. Test the app This step is not only about making sure the app is bug free, it's also making sure the app does what was intended in the specifications. To test the app, you can use platforms like BrowserStack or SauceLabs which gives you access to multiple devices/browsers. You can do this step on your own so the cost will be for the subscription to the test platform which would be around $100/month. Hope this helps and good luck with your project.

I think it is a good start. From my experience, people don't really know what they want -- they only think they do. An example of this is when Steve Jobs announced the iPad. There was collective confusion (more so than any other time Apple has done something). Now, we couldn't imagine our world without it. That said, the participants of your survey will likely answer within their comfort zone or what they are familiar with. This is what they *think* they want. If you base your entire business model on what people think they want, you will end up duplicating what they are already accustom to (your competition). Getting a sense of your market is a good thing, but you most have the "secret sauce" that will woo your potential customers away from their routine. I don't know what type of restaurant you are aiming for, be it fast food, causal sit down, unique and interesting, or 5-star quality. Based on that, price becomes very subjective. There is a very unique, one-off restaurant I enjoy visiting when I am traveling in Southern California. It is priced higher than any other restaurant in the area, but I am not paying for the food or even the service. I am paying for the way it makes me feel and the environment they maintain. The participants of your survey will likely not be considering intangibles like this when they answer. Keep this in mind, but don't build your entire business around it. Questions to validate your business model may include: - How important is the selection of adult beverages? - How important is the selection of healthy choices? - How important is a family-friendly environment? - How important is the quality of food (we don't always go where the food is best) - How important is the speed of service? Based on your question, I am guessing you are going for a family-friendly, speedy, inexpensive alternative to McDonalds, Burger King, or Carl Jr's. These companies have deep pockets to fend off upstarts. Your value proposition will need to be rock solid to defend against the giants of the industry.