What is the best way to cost effectively get rid of bugs before launching an app?

Hi there! Best of luck as you complete your college degree. From experience I will try to give you some insight into the world of startups and mobile apps. First some things to consider: 1. You live in a world of social klout 2.Apps must (specially iOS) must be very well developed, otherwise the users themselves will filter you out. 3. Apps must be relevant if you want to succeed. You've have probably seen this, a lot of paid apps go for free for a while when their sales begin to stall or never actually make any pay back to the developers. Free is an easy way to get users and thus paid advertisements or in app purchases (if they are good enough to keep) Assuming you will have all 3... Let's move on to your question: Most investors won't entertain an idea alone, specially if you haven't any prior successful experience in running a startup or app development company. Some do however, consider depending on your social klout, learn about growth hacking and consider growing your social relevance before the completion of the app. As mention by Ryan Holiday, a blogger not too long ago got investment for a book from a simple screenshot of his followers' requests for the same topic... he decided to write a book and through his community market it. This was a no brainer for the publisher investor. With that said, an often unspoken rule of networking is that you don't ask for favors in your first intro. You don't do that in your personal life, you shouldn't do that in your professional. Make friends in the right place, build relationships with a backbone in honesty, mentorship and through time as they see you work and guide you they themselves begin to entertain the idea... In the future, when you ask, your chances are much better that way. Get yourself a team, find a developer to mentor you and help you improve as you learn. Most new entrepreneurs think that their product at launch is their "final-good enough for a while- product" and is not! Complete opposite, you must realize that your initial launch is nothing more than the 1st iteration of the many to come if you want your community of users to stick with you and share their experiences with others as you help them and improve their lives by listening to their suggestions and issues with your app. If you have a developer this will become easier in the long run as well as tell an investor that you are capable of being a leader, even if is of 1. Best of luck, give me a call if you wish to talk a bit more :)

Re-visit your marketing strategy. Which is to say - re-visit your business model (which should very directly point you in the direction of your highest probability marketing strategy). And (get ready to not like me for saying this...) stop focusing on those numbers. The number of visitors per month and the number of downloads are only relevant as they directly relate to conversions and sales. And those things are only relevant as they directly relate to bottom line revenue and margins. It's easy to get caught up in "vanity numbers"... those numbers that "feel good" and provide you with a sense of validation. But until and unless they translate into bottom line income for the business they are just numbers that make you feel good (versus wisely chosen key metrics that indicate the health and viability of your business). If this was helpful to you please let me know how else I can be of assistance.

My experience with online communities is mixed. Those work best if you have a value proposition that appeals to a large mass for a short period of time - i.e. a game. For something like healthcare I'd imagine you are looking to have people engage regularly and for an extended period of time. That is going to take more time to convince people to use your platform. You should be looking for your core user. If you developed personas and user stories, you can use those to identify groups to start with and expand from there. A beta test with a few hundred core users is better than 1000s of users that don't fit your model. If you didn't develop personas or user stories, I'd recommend taking time to go back and think through those. Either way, I'd be happy to help you get started. Best, Brian

Simple answer. Wait. Happy to discuss this in more detail in a call if you feel that there might be circumstances beyond the actual user experience that might compel a pre-mature launch, but generally speaking, the app should be in a state of polish prior to app store review. Use Hockey App or Enterprise Distribution to continue to get user feedback before launching to the app store.

If I had to pick a single efficient and affordable way of getting in front of a targeted audience I would have to recommend Facebook in-stream ads. You control the budget, the target group and the message and they are, right now, offering the highest conversion rates for mobile apps. Keep in mind that your app needs to be amazing - that's the most effective strategy of all...