How to create great mobile app startups like Too Good to Go or MobilePay!

 Are you fed up of the grind of a regular 9-5 job where you go to work and do what you're told?

What if you could make a difference to people’s lives like Too Good to Go or Mobile Pay.

These startups took a problem and they solved it. Today everyone else benefits from these services. 

Does this idea fire you up at night and make you constantly think about what you could do and what a difference it would make to the lives of people?

That my dear friend, is the startup spark.

What are the steps to setting up a startup? 

1.      Find a simple problem which needs solving by the most number of people

 

2.      Get your hands dirty by working with the users and providing a solution

 

3.      Hustle, look at new ways, build new relationships, create an application which can exponentially grow with your user base

 

Research the problem more and more, look on social media to see more people who are facing the problem, which you are trying to solve.

The more you dig, the more you'll reach that innovative solution which will improve the lives of people around you.

In the beginning, you will think about what you can do yourself.

Then slowly, you will start thinking about what mobile platform you could build, which could make a difference to the people around you.

To build the platform, you need to first build the relationships, understand the needs of the users, then the needs of the vendors who you might need to connect with the users and then finally the complete ecosystem.

Once you identify the problem you are going to solve, you are then in the position to ask who will benefit the most from your solution, and pay you for it. 

There are two directions to take.

One is towards the long term, where you build a great platform, and then grow and grow, and then the growth of the subscriber base on the platform, lends itself to monetisation. 

The other is that you provide a direct service and earn a direct commission on the service you provide.

The most important thing here, is how you will be able to financially sustain yourself, so that you are able to comfortably leave that desk job and still be able to ensure financial independence, the key is to keep your current job and run your startup, till the startup gathers momentum to the point where you are earning enough to commit full time.

So to get into app development, means you need to think of two things:

• Creating the app itself (customer facing)
• Creating the database where all the information which is needed by the consumer is stored and then made easily accessible to the mobile application, or the website(where the backend work gets done).

The key point is growth, how can you ensure that more and more people use your mobile application, and support your startup and get a benefit as well. For that you need to think about a cross-platform app, one which works across Google Android phones, Apple iPhones and on the desktop, the more the accessibility, the more the user base for your startup.

So the first thing is to work on your business plan, then your pitch deck, if you are seeking funding.

Once you are ready to make the plunge and launch your own application, then start sketching how you want the app to look, and what you want it to do. 

Think through what the user will see and even try a few drawings to ensure that you have an idea of what you want. At the same time keep trying different applications on your phone and reach that Wow concept in your mind, because the simpler you design the application, the closer you will get to low cost mobile development.

Look at what you can tie up with, how much you can prevent reinventing the wheel. 

Now you know what you want to make, the next part is the business model, how will you earn money by developing the app. You need to look at multiple revenue streams, because as you develop the app and get more feedback, you need more choices around what will work and what won't.

So you start designing the look and feel and then wonder if there was a one size which fits all, a cross platform app which can be designed once and rolled out across multiple device platforms like Google Phones or Apple Phones. 

Actually there is, it’s called Xamarin, a startup itself, which is now a part of Microsoft.

Xamarin is a platform which focusses on the user experience using Xamarin Forms, where you can craft the look and feel of the application and then just let leave the rest to the developers who will take the design, then execute it to create an application which will work on Google Phones, Apple Phones and even on desktops. 

So you just focus on your business revenue plan and then hire an app agency who will then do the rest of the technical work, so that you can focus on the experience and how to deliver more value to the user.

So what are the benefits of Xamarin.Forms?

• By building applications for all three major mobile platforms, the developers can save 75% of the work, where only 25% of the work is towards creating device specific implementations.
• Users demand fluid applications that look and behave as they belong to the same device. Xamarin.Forms creates a consistent look and feel to the application, which is consistent with other applications on the same device.
• With Xamarin, you spend less time writing code and deliver better results while continuing to generate ideas.

And what do you need to look out for, like what disadvantages are there?

• You need to have great developers who are comfortable with the platform, using languages such as C# and .Net. So having a development team with the right resources, is key to a smooth execution on the Xamarin platform using Xamarin.Forms.
• It is a newer platform so that means more bugs and fewer engineers to manage them.
• The app includes additional modules called libraries, so the size of the application is bigger and it may be slower due to lags in connecting and integrating updates to the device software in Google or Apple smartphones.

Are there options? 

Yes, other than Xamarin, the other platforms available are:

• React Native
• Flutter
• Cordova
• Ionic Framework
• PhoneGap
• Native Script
• Swift (Only for iPhones)
• Android Studio (Only for Google Android based smartphones)
• Apache Flex
• Unity (More for gaming applications)

So now you have an idea, may the best approach, is to find the right app agency, who can execute and create the best mobile application for your awesome startup idea.