We have recently increased our marketing efforts and have received a lot of requests to define what it takes to build an application (mobile or web). In this guide, we will give you a high-level overview and good insight of our process of building an application from inception to conception.
We have recently increased our marketing efforts and have received a lot of requests to define what it takes to build an application (mobile or web). In this guide, we will give you a high-level overview and good insight of our process of building an application from inception to conception.
Ideas are worthless, execution is everything #developerXStartUp
Every successful startup or individual entrepreneurs I met with a successful exit knows their target audience better then they know themselves. Spend some time getting to know your audience, tell them your idea, get feedback, make adjustments, and get validation that your idea will work. Also, take this time to learn about the market, your competitors, and create a business strategy to get to know the challenges you’ll face through the process. I can’t stress enough how important this is for every startup.
Building an application can be a large investment before you see any results. It takes time to build an application, test it, remove bugs, and then release it to the real world. Cost and time can increase if working with the wrong development team. As a matter of fact, not having the right team is the top 3 reasons for failure in tech startups according to cbinsights.com.
The second biggest reason startups fail is lack of capital. Be prepared to invest between $50,000 and $100,000 dollars to build a high performing scalable application. The average cost of running an engineering team with a product manager is $268,000 per year (1 senior engineer, 1 junior developer, 1 product manager). Software engineers are in high demand so good talent is scarce in today’s market.
(All the information is average salary provided by Glassdoor and I rounded up to the nearest thousand)
Another way of bringing your idea to fruition is networking and finding a technical co-founder and partnering up. Get on your nice clothes, get on meetup.com and attend as many technology events as possible. Network and pitch your idea to anyone that will listen and at the end ask if they would be interested in becoming CTO and your technical co-founder.
With finances in order, seek out a talented UI/UX Designer. You will work very closely with the designer to provide an elegant solution to complex problems. The design will also help define user interaction, flush out important details, and gets your idea out of your head and into the real world mockup. At the end of the design process
Don’t rush through this phase, really spend some time with design and define the actual functionality of the application. Use interactive design to define user interactions and sections. The more time spent defining requirements and functionality the better mock-ups will be provided to the developers, which can save you a ton of money and time.
The designs are done and you know exactly what you want (or at least to this point you do). Now it is time to find a developer that will bring your prototype to life. From my experience people usually go one of four ways:
I love it when entrepreneurs find a true passion for software development and they dive deep into learning how to code and applying what they learn in real time. The drawback is development takes time and especially for someone new to coding, it will take a lot longer to complete even the smallest tasks.
If you are lucky enough to partner with a technical co-founder make sure your co-founder can actually get the job done. We have been approached by many startups because they just didn’t have the technical expertise to get through some of the issues you face when developing an application and releasing it to production. I believe experience is crucial in developing applications from scratch.
In my honest opinion, I would never recommend working with an overseas team. I am not just saying that because I want you to work with DeveloperX but because I have never experienced working with a good overseas team. I’ve worked with Fortune 500 companies and well-known startups and every piece of code we have ever received from an overseas team were horrible. The code usually introduces 10932 new bugs, makes 234 API requests, and isn’t optimized but solves the 1 issue on a ticket. I am not saying every overseas team is horrible but in my 10+years of experience, I haven’t run into any scalable solutions.
Hiring DeveloperX is the best choice for your startup, especially if you don’t have a CTO or technical co-founder. We have over a decade of experience in building highly scalable enterprise software. Our technical expertise and experience will accelerate any startup to getting a prototype created and a minimum viable product in-front of your users. Learn more about how we work.
It is really hard to determine exactly how much time a project is going to take to complete because every project is different. By having mockups and defined requirements, application development takes an average of 3 to 6 months to deliver a minimum viable product. The delivery time can drastically change if the requirements consistently changed during development.
In conclusion, building a GREAT APPLICATION takes time, dedication and isn’t as easy as many assume. I have provided you with a high-level overview of how to get started from inception to conception of building an application (mobile or web). If you are looking to partner with an experienced and dependable technology partner give us a shout at hello@developerx.io or send us a message below.
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