Your idea is a (tick all that apply):
[ ] Social
[ ] Discovery
[ ] Cookery
[ ] Video
[ ] Gaming
[ ] Music
[ ] Shopping
[ ] Business
[ ] Technical
tool which makes peoples lives easier by:
[ ] Giving them things for free that they used to pay for.
[ ] Showing them interesting things in their local area.
[ ] Allowing them to do things anywhere that they used to have to do at home on a PC.
[ ] Allowing easy access to relevant information about what’s in front of them.
[ ] Suggesting things they can do or make which they wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
[ ] Suggesting new content based on the content they or their friends consume.
[ ] Giving them discounts when they buy via your app.
[ ] Making tasks take minutes that used to take hours.
[ ] Creating a new way of sharing things with their friends.
It won’t work because:
[ ] It only starts providing value once a critical mass of users are using it.
[ ] You don’t have access to that data.
[ ] You’ve solved the “how do I make money from this” problem, but not the “why do people need this” problem.
[ ] You’ve solved the “why do people need this” problem, but not the “how do I make money from this” problem.
[ ] No-one will donate money.
[ ] No-one will pay for something which they can get for free elsewhere.
[ ] You’ve invented a great feature, but not a great product.
In addition:
[ ] There are already hundreds of people doing similar apps, and yours offers no clear difference.
[ ] Why wouldn’t Google just do it themselves instead of buying your company?
[ ] You don’t know enough about the market you’re targeting.
[ ] You don’t personally have the technical skills required, nor a technical guy on the team.
[ ] You don’t personally have the business skills required, nor a business guy on the team.
[ ] You don’t have a team, it’s just you – much though it pains me to say it, single founders are statistically more likely to fail :(
However, so long as you’ve ticked a total of two or fewer boxes in the above two sections:
[ ] You can start out in a smaller market (eg: just the UK instead of the world, indie bands instead of all music, Indian cooking instead of everything, horror films instead of every film) and build up from there.
[ ] You can get a quick minimal version of the product out within the next month and see how it goes (opportunities multiply as they are seized – once you have a product out there, new possibilities will become clear).
[ ] You can try to get investors to fund you so you can make the deals and/or hire the talent you need.
[ ] You can forge ahead without a business model, in true dotcom bubble style. Perhaps you can pivot later, or a business model will arise.
But finally, don’t let me stop you from trying! I have neither launched a successful business nor failed to launch one, instead I’ve committed a far worse sin – I have not yet seriously tried to. I spend a lot of time spotting what’s wrong with things and coming up with ways to improve upon them, most of which end up as blog posts, projects at work or items on a todo list. I’m still waiting for my killer app idea to strike me, and this post outlines the general process I go through to decide if an app idea is worth developing. It’s currently a first-revision so I expect I’ll be tweaking it from time to time. Your input is greatly appreciated!
The format of this post was inspired by the “Why your solution to fighting spam won’t work” text file by Cory Doctorow.
#1 by Chris on June 3, 2011 - 9:01 pm
“I have neither launched a successful business nor failed to launch one, instead I’ve committed a far worse sin – I have not yet seriously tried to.”
I.E., you have no qualifications as you have not actually TESTED anything you dish out as advice.
“I spend a lot of time spotting what’s wrong with things and coming up with ways to improve upon them, most of which end up as blog posts, projects at work or items on a todo list”
Those who can, DO, those who can’t, TEACH. Sound familiar?
You are yet another reason among millions the Internet is muddied up with useless information.
The NUMBER ONE reason anyone’s web app doesn’t work is simple for almost every one that doesn’t work:
YOU aren’t DOING enough. (Just like the author!) ;-)
#2 by Howard Yeend on June 10, 2011 - 11:50 pm
Mmm, did you read the part where I said “But finally, don’t let me stop you from trying”…?
edit: also, I mean, this isn’t really intended to make people give up! It’s intended to make people stop and think about problems or issues they might not otherwise have thought about.
#3 by Laurent on June 21, 2012 - 7:24 pm
Nice post, you’re right about one thing in particular : people very often spend far too much time thinking at the beginning of a new project. They have to ask themselves questions like the ones you put here if they want to avoid failure. All of this must be part of a global strategy.