Starting an iOS development company
May 24, 2013 7:42 AM Subscribe
I work at an airfare company as a junior mobile developer. My best friend and I are thinking of starting a new company and we are considering making it an iOS development company. I already have some good app ideas that I could implement within a short period of time. She already has a corporation on file that she paid a good sum of money for.
My biggest pitfall is hiring a designer. I can do the development and I feel that marketing would not be a weak point of this endeavor, however the design is where the problem lies.
How feasible is it to start an iOS development company? How much money would we need? Does it make sense to do so? Are there any good resources available for us, including monetary?
Response by poster: So far my friend has $10,000 to put into something.
posted by antgly at 8:19 AM on May 24, 2013
posted by antgly at 8:19 AM on May 24, 2013
Most smartphone and tablet apps don't make money. And the hardest thing is not development but marketing. Do not underestimate how challenging marketing is. So if you are counting on this endeavor to be your main income source, you are taking a very big risk. To reduce that risk, what you could consider doing is offering development services to other people or companies on a part-time basis while you also develop your own apps. That way you won't have all your eggs in one basket. For design you can find good designers on places like Dribbble, or if you want to go more economical look on Elance or Odesk. But keep in mind, not all graphic designers are good at the interaction design aspect of UI design - they may only be good at visual appearance design. I have experience developing apps so feel free to MeMail me if you need further input.
posted by Dansaman at 8:21 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Dansaman at 8:21 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
This is the same best friend who wanted to start a niche shoe and/or adult toy store two weeks ago, right? On preview, yeah, it's that same best friend.
If you have app ideas that you can implement, there's nothing stopping you; code them up, pay the $99 iOS Developer Program fee, and put them on the app store. If you don't quit your day job in the meantime (hint: do not quit your day job in the meantime) you will have no other expenses other than your time.
How feasible is it to start an iOS development company?
Think less of it as "starting a company" -- anyone can form an LLC for a couple hundred bucks, it's not actually that relevant to anything except your taxes -- and more as "making things that people want to use."
Will that be feasible? Well, you can make a start by searching for existing apps that may be similar to the ones you have in mind to build. If you find lots of them, then your ideas probably aren't as good as you think they are (because lots of other people have had the same idea). If you find none, then you either have a unique new invention or you have something that nobody actually wants. If you find a few, but they're not very good, and you're certain you can improve on them in specific and substantial ways, then maybe you've found a profitable niche.
The worst thing that happens, assuming you don't quit your day job or otherwise spend money on things you don't need, is that your app goes nowhere but you've gained some experience and learned a few things. This is also the most likely thing that will happen. The gold rush is long over; the days when anybody could make some money throwing just any old thing into the app store are gone.
It's not clear what your best friend brings to the table. You're the developer, okay; what are your friends' relevant skills? Working with close friends is dangerous; it risks the personal friendship and muddies the business relationship. How will you resolve conflicts? Who is in charge of what?
Are there any good resources available for us, including monetary?
I absolutely promise you that zero people want to invest their money in a junior mobile developer with no entrepreneurial experience and his best friend. Don't go looking for outside investment. You won't find any, and even if you did you are nowhere near ready to start spending other peoples' money yet.
So far we have $10,000 to put into something.
Put it into the bank. You don't need it to start coding, and it's at least an order of magnitude too small an amount to consider hiring people with.
If you code up something you think is really promising but it needs some visual polish, then maybe you can spend some of that money on an interaction designer. (If you were an experienced dev who knew what he was getting into, I wouldn't suggest coding first and designing later, but I think in this case you probably want to spend enough time working on it to be sure it's really going to be a thing before you fritter away your money.)
posted by ook at 8:24 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
If you have app ideas that you can implement, there's nothing stopping you; code them up, pay the $99 iOS Developer Program fee, and put them on the app store. If you don't quit your day job in the meantime (hint: do not quit your day job in the meantime) you will have no other expenses other than your time.
How feasible is it to start an iOS development company?
Think less of it as "starting a company" -- anyone can form an LLC for a couple hundred bucks, it's not actually that relevant to anything except your taxes -- and more as "making things that people want to use."
Will that be feasible? Well, you can make a start by searching for existing apps that may be similar to the ones you have in mind to build. If you find lots of them, then your ideas probably aren't as good as you think they are (because lots of other people have had the same idea). If you find none, then you either have a unique new invention or you have something that nobody actually wants. If you find a few, but they're not very good, and you're certain you can improve on them in specific and substantial ways, then maybe you've found a profitable niche.
The worst thing that happens, assuming you don't quit your day job or otherwise spend money on things you don't need, is that your app goes nowhere but you've gained some experience and learned a few things. This is also the most likely thing that will happen. The gold rush is long over; the days when anybody could make some money throwing just any old thing into the app store are gone.
It's not clear what your best friend brings to the table. You're the developer, okay; what are your friends' relevant skills? Working with close friends is dangerous; it risks the personal friendship and muddies the business relationship. How will you resolve conflicts? Who is in charge of what?
Are there any good resources available for us, including monetary?
I absolutely promise you that zero people want to invest their money in a junior mobile developer with no entrepreneurial experience and his best friend. Don't go looking for outside investment. You won't find any, and even if you did you are nowhere near ready to start spending other peoples' money yet.
So far we have $10,000 to put into something.
Put it into the bank. You don't need it to start coding, and it's at least an order of magnitude too small an amount to consider hiring people with.
If you code up something you think is really promising but it needs some visual polish, then maybe you can spend some of that money on an interaction designer. (If you were an experienced dev who knew what he was getting into, I wouldn't suggest coding first and designing later, but I think in this case you probably want to spend enough time working on it to be sure it's really going to be a thing before you fritter away your money.)
posted by ook at 8:24 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
There's a New York branch of the Small Business Administration. New York City Small Business Services. Empire State Development’s Division for Small Business. These are your tax dollars at work; use these services to develop a business plan. I bought a small business when I was 27, and the SBDC was very helpful. Being a small business owner is a huge amount of work and huge amount of risk. I learned a lot, made money, sold my business profitably, and would definitely do it again. But I also worked weekends and holidays and lived on a shoestring. Do the research; it's worth the time spent. if you do end up needing a designer, consider MeFi Jobs.
posted by theora55 at 9:36 AM on May 24, 2013
posted by theora55 at 9:36 AM on May 24, 2013
The iphone App market is totally saturated, with zero room for new entrants. Windows Phone's app store has a thousand times fewer apps than the iPhone app store. You have a better chance of appearing in search results and making sales, if you go where the competition isn't. If you don't want to try Windows, then try developing for Android.
posted by monotreme at 9:44 AM on May 24, 2013
posted by monotreme at 9:44 AM on May 24, 2013
Don't waste your money on designers and other so-called experts, unless you already know and trust someone. You are probably capable of pulling off a mediocre UI design. If not, read up and develop some skills. Design goes code-deep and you as developer are in a good position to understand all the interacting parts of your app.
Don't waste your money on corporate plumbing (yet).
Don't waste your money on marketing. There are a zillion shady PR firms willing to take your $10k and provide very little. Word-of-mouth beats anything else. Give users easy ways to share your app with their friends.
That $10k will be best spent buying 3,333 cups of coffee while you work on your apps (or better yet, a nice French press)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:34 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
Don't waste your money on corporate plumbing (yet).
Don't waste your money on marketing. There are a zillion shady PR firms willing to take your $10k and provide very little. Word-of-mouth beats anything else. Give users easy ways to share your app with their friends.
That $10k will be best spent buying 3,333 cups of coffee while you work on your apps (or better yet, a nice French press)
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 10:34 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
"We should open an iOS app development shop" is this decade's version of "We should open a bar."
posted by twblalock at 2:38 PM on May 24, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by twblalock at 2:38 PM on May 24, 2013 [4 favorites]
Actually, you'll have the best luck trying to score contract gigs. Not that you'll necessarily love what you're doing.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:19 PM on May 24, 2013
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 3:19 PM on May 24, 2013
Only about 5% of iOS developers make more than $10k a month from iTunes sales, so unless you expect to develop apps to other companies (say as a marketing gimmick) I warn you to be very careful.
You may very well be part of that 5%, but as others have said, odds are not in your favor.
Send me a private message if you want to talk in more detail.
posted by DreamerFi at 6:52 PM on May 24, 2013
You may very well be part of that 5%, but as others have said, odds are not in your favor.
Send me a private message if you want to talk in more detail.
posted by DreamerFi at 6:52 PM on May 24, 2013
Wow, lots of negativity here. Yes, it's a risk. But it's not quite as bad as people are making it out to be. Most people fail, but that's because most people are just not very good at running a business or selling a product. It doesn't have anything to do with the App Store. Saying it's "oversaturated" is kind of ridiculous. I guess we already have all software we'll ever need and we should just stop developing it?
The thing I see a LOT of people do wrong from the get-go is thinking the hard work stops at the idea. It doesn't. The idea is maybe 5% of your potential to succeed. The rest of it is this:
- Thoughtful, thorough marketing. Learn about App Store SEO, build a great website, pitch a great story, create a fabulous launch video, collect email addresses from potential customers, write interesting blog posts, engage with people on social media, advertise, get featured on the App Store, etc etc etc. You must do not one but ALL of these things and do them well.
- Growth. Does your app spread itself to other customers? Think about how you might build in simple viral features like inviting & sharing. Have a strategy for how people find your app.
- Product. Is the app useful? Beautiful? Fast? Usable? Are you a good enough developer to move and iterate quickly? Are you collecting metrics to determine if your app is successful? Is it best-in-class for what it does?
- Did I mention marketing? Do as much as you can stand and then do about 20% more. Who are you selling to and why should they buy it?
And FWIW, you can build a successful app using only UIKit. I did it and ended up featured as App of the Week. Don't feel like you need textures and gradients and whatever to build a good app. You do need a decent UI, but many software developers have a pretty good grasp of that. If you don't, read Apple's Human Interface Guidelines a couple of times.
posted by annekate at 8:06 PM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
The thing I see a LOT of people do wrong from the get-go is thinking the hard work stops at the idea. It doesn't. The idea is maybe 5% of your potential to succeed. The rest of it is this:
- Thoughtful, thorough marketing. Learn about App Store SEO, build a great website, pitch a great story, create a fabulous launch video, collect email addresses from potential customers, write interesting blog posts, engage with people on social media, advertise, get featured on the App Store, etc etc etc. You must do not one but ALL of these things and do them well.
- Growth. Does your app spread itself to other customers? Think about how you might build in simple viral features like inviting & sharing. Have a strategy for how people find your app.
- Product. Is the app useful? Beautiful? Fast? Usable? Are you a good enough developer to move and iterate quickly? Are you collecting metrics to determine if your app is successful? Is it best-in-class for what it does?
- Did I mention marketing? Do as much as you can stand and then do about 20% more. Who are you selling to and why should they buy it?
And FWIW, you can build a successful app using only UIKit. I did it and ended up featured as App of the Week. Don't feel like you need textures and gradients and whatever to build a good app. You do need a decent UI, but many software developers have a pretty good grasp of that. If you don't, read Apple's Human Interface Guidelines a couple of times.
posted by annekate at 8:06 PM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I'm going to disagree with you and zoo; your biggest pitfall is possibly that the company you currently work for owns your app ideas. You'll want to familiarize yourself with the law in New York and also review the terms of your employment contract (eg, if you signed an agreement, usually called something like a Proprietary Information and Inventions Agreement).
posted by MikeKD at 9:36 PM on May 24, 2013
posted by MikeKD at 9:36 PM on May 24, 2013
The gold-rush in iOS apps is pretty much over, but I think there is still plenty of opportunity to successfully enter the business.
I wouldn't do that by quitting your job and spending a big chunk of your savings. Instead, I'd suggest doing it as a side-project and doing as much of it yourself as possible. A friend recently left his job at a large software company to focus on his one-man app business. Before he did that though, he spent about two years developing apps on the side. He isn't yet making a living off his apps, but the overall trend is good. At first, he was doing an app every month or two. As he's gained experience, that pace has slowed. He's picking his targets more carefully and, for the most part, putting more work into them.
Most importantly though, he's been putting more and more effort into thinking through the entire user experience, with more and more focus on how people discover the app.
He's really enjoying learning about new disciplines that he hadn't given a lot of thought to in the past, but I think he's also aware that he may be drifting away from the thing that interested him in the first place, building things. I've been kind of coaxing him along in some aspects, encouraging him to think more about how he drives awareness of his apps, to maximize his existing installed base when launching new products. I think he's going to get to the point where he realizes that he needs to find collaborators so he can focus more on what he's best at, and pay them with cash or a revenue share to do what they are best at.
Think about everything that has to come together for an app to succeed, or even break-even when considering opportunity costs. As annekate suggests, building it is only part of the puzzle. Designing it, for any of value of design that doesn't include: the *entire* user experience and business model, isn't enough either.
So, bottom line, start small, move quickly, examine the results, and repeat the cycle, either by iterating your existing app, or starting a new one. If you size things right, you should be able to go through that cycle four or more times in the next year though nights and weekends of work. Budget a little money for ads and such. In a years time, you are going to have learned a lot, and you'll have a much clearer idea of the sorts of resources you need, you are going to be smarter about spending any money you need to spend, and much more credible if you try to bring in some outside investment, and much more likely to meet investor expectations and retain control of your apps and your company. And, if the stars line up just right, you might even have some revenue coming in that provides more than beer money.
posted by Good Brain at 9:44 PM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
I wouldn't do that by quitting your job and spending a big chunk of your savings. Instead, I'd suggest doing it as a side-project and doing as much of it yourself as possible. A friend recently left his job at a large software company to focus on his one-man app business. Before he did that though, he spent about two years developing apps on the side. He isn't yet making a living off his apps, but the overall trend is good. At first, he was doing an app every month or two. As he's gained experience, that pace has slowed. He's picking his targets more carefully and, for the most part, putting more work into them.
Most importantly though, he's been putting more and more effort into thinking through the entire user experience, with more and more focus on how people discover the app.
He's really enjoying learning about new disciplines that he hadn't given a lot of thought to in the past, but I think he's also aware that he may be drifting away from the thing that interested him in the first place, building things. I've been kind of coaxing him along in some aspects, encouraging him to think more about how he drives awareness of his apps, to maximize his existing installed base when launching new products. I think he's going to get to the point where he realizes that he needs to find collaborators so he can focus more on what he's best at, and pay them with cash or a revenue share to do what they are best at.
Think about everything that has to come together for an app to succeed, or even break-even when considering opportunity costs. As annekate suggests, building it is only part of the puzzle. Designing it, for any of value of design that doesn't include: the *entire* user experience and business model, isn't enough either.
So, bottom line, start small, move quickly, examine the results, and repeat the cycle, either by iterating your existing app, or starting a new one. If you size things right, you should be able to go through that cycle four or more times in the next year though nights and weekends of work. Budget a little money for ads and such. In a years time, you are going to have learned a lot, and you'll have a much clearer idea of the sorts of resources you need, you are going to be smarter about spending any money you need to spend, and much more credible if you try to bring in some outside investment, and much more likely to meet investor expectations and retain control of your apps and your company. And, if the stars line up just right, you might even have some revenue coming in that provides more than beer money.
posted by Good Brain at 9:44 PM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]
MikeKD makes a good point and you should definitely figure out what exposure you might have on any sideprojects. On the other hand, more likely than not, it isn't going to be worthwhile for your employer to claim rights to your apps, even if they could do so. A significant part of the value of your first excursions into being an independent app developer is going to be carried in your head, not revenues. That said, any users you accrue are an asset that you can leverage in future releases, provided that someone else doesn't end up controlling the apps/developer account.
posted by Good Brain at 9:50 PM on May 24, 2013
posted by Good Brain at 9:50 PM on May 24, 2013
I'm not convinced that most programmers can design a decent UI. Even if the visual appearance is OK, interaction design is a whole other story. Good interaction design means every single aspect of an app works exactly as an average/typical user expects it to act, but it's hard for a programmer to think like an average user and know what is expected because a programmer's mind has an entirely different relationship with software. So my advice is at the very least make sure you test again and again with average users to make sure what is clear, obvious, and/or normal to you is the same to them.
posted by Dansaman at 10:45 PM on May 24, 2013
posted by Dansaman at 10:45 PM on May 24, 2013
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No. Your biggest pitfall is trying to do something that hundreds of thousands of other people are also doing and failing at. A company that makes money from iPhone Apps is in the same general area as a company that makes money from WebApps.
It happens, but the tech world is littered with startups that have tried and failed.
Ideas are a dime a dozen. You can have all the great ideas in your head in the world. That's not going to make any difference. The iPhone store is littered with the bones of awesome ideas.
Creating great products with great execution means nothing either. You need to to succeed, but it's not going to help you succeed. Again, the iPhone store is littered with thousands of apps that look and work great.
What you need to succeed is flawless execution and as much luck as the Karmic Gods can spare.
But...
Saying that - It's a fun thing to do to take time off and try and make something that you want to make, and I'd heartily recommend it. Find yourself the nearest groups for people that are doing the same as you. This would include startup groups and iPhone App groups. Make friends in the area. Read news.ycombinator.com. Get yourself up to speed with Lean Startup.
You'll need a years minimum wage for whomever is doing this, and a couple of grand for the other stuff. Even though it's fun you're pretty much guaranteed to fail, so don't remortgage anything or get loans for this stuff. Save it up and then treat the time you spend programming as a holiday.
Nobody will give you any money to do this. However, this in't going to stop people telling you that they will give you money for doing it. "Just pay $99.00 and we'll introduce you to Angel Investors." Never, ever, ever, ever give an "investor" money to look at your product or introduce you to good people.
posted by zoo at 8:09 AM on May 24, 2013 [1 favorite]