.png)
You want one of your own app for your startup? Have it developed and get off to a full start? Then this guide could make the decisive difference between the success and failure of your startup. So sit back, make yourself a coffee, and take the next 4 minutes so you don't make the mistakes that other startups have already made before you.
It's simple — we've probably supported more startups in the past 4 years than any other agency out there. The magic word here is cooperation. Because we not only work directly with our customers, but above all with other major agencies, which we actively support in the area of user experience. An individual developer may have 2-3 projects per year that they work on; in UX/UI design, we work on over 30 projects per year. So we know exactly what works well and which mistakes you should definitely avoid.
If you want to have an app developed for your startup, one thing in particular should be clear to you: your app must generate more money in the long term than it costs to develop. Unfortunately, what sounds so logical is often ignored in reality. Many founders fall into a kind of “feature frenzy” and do not realize that, for example, a chat function can only generate additional profit in the rarest cases.
We therefore always recommend that you carefully consider beforehand which features your mobile application really needs in order to keep the initial development costs as low as possible. Every euro that you invest in your app must be at least doubled in the end so that the investment is worthwhile in any way. In the beginning, this is a good idea: so-called MVP, which combines all basic functionalities of your app. Decide exactly how you want to monetize your app beforehand and create a business plan. This also helps you not to panic during development. An app can certainly generate “passive” profits in the long term, but you have to invest first. As a rule, a development project should pay for itself within 3-5 years, from which point on, you will earn a net profit.
Scope creep is when the specifications for the software to be developed change during development. This not only leads to rising costs, which quickly break your budget, but above all to annoyed developers. Therefore, before development, it is absolutely necessary to provide a detailed UI/UX design to build your app. This not only helps developers know exactly what should be developed, but also that you know what the final product will look like before development. Especially at the beginning of the app project, it makes sense to record every screen that your app will later have and describe it in as much detail as possible.
You will quickly notice where there are still gaps in your planning and which weak points your app has. However, we strongly advise against implementing the entire UX/UI design yourself. You need to understand that the design is the blueprint for your app - if this is poorly planned, it can not only be really expensive later on, but can also lead to the complete failure of your startup. It is not without reason that even large software developers with many years of experience rely on our team. Or would you design the construction plan for your house completely yourself and accept the risk that it will collapse later?
At the latest after you have obtained a few comparative offers from various development agencies, you will certainly think about having your app developed in India. Due to low wages, the costs here are often only a fraction of offers from Europe and in Germany, too, an agency model has now become established, where only the management level is local, but the developers are in India. Why not? Isn't that how big players like Microsoft do it?
It's simple: If you outsource your mobile app development to the other end of the world, you no longer have control over your project. About a third (!!!) of our inquiries are now projects that were “developed” in India and are not working properly now. The problem with this is that although the customer has saved money, it has often already invested in the 6-digit range. The problem with this is that it is often more effective to completely restart these projects than to repair them.
The rule here is: if you buy cheaply, you buy twice. That is dramatic — this is no longer an isolated case. Ignorant founders without a technical focus are often promised heaven and end up with a pile of shambles. For big players like Microsoft, this approach only works because every developer in India has an internal supervisor. As a result, the requirements are extremely tight and the quality of the code can be directly controlled.
In general, communication between you and the team that develops your app should always be as direct as possible. We always create a Discord server for this purpose, on which our developers not only communicate with each other, but also directly with project managers and customers. This means that you are always in the loop about what we are currently working on and queries are also easier to answer.
A typical mistake that we see with many founders is that they focus too much on the product. Of course, in the end, your app must be user-friendly, work well, and generate profit, but the latter in particular is only possible if you also have customers. It is therefore advisable to address the issue of product market fit and customer acquisition as early as possible. We always recommend that you start a first Product-Market-Fit Test before making a fairly large initial investment in developing an app. It may look like that a landing page is created for your app, where it is presented with all its future features.
Important: the website must appear as though I can download the app right away, even if it doesn't even exist yet. A social media marketing campaign with corresponding ads is then set up. Through the marketing campaign, you can now get an initial sense of whether users would be interested in your app - the more users click on your ad, the greater the likelihood that they could become paying customers later on.
It also makes sense to offer pre-registration on the website so that interested parties are notified by email as soon as the app is online. In the end, user clicks are not “free” and you can quickly reach potential customers as soon as you launch your app.
“But the whole thing should go live in 2 months,” we hear such statements over and over again, even though the customer hasn't even finished the preparatory work, let alone has a design. The great impatience of these founders then means that the project becomes astronomically expensive (no, 4 developers don't develop twice as fast as 2) or that the quality of the product suffers.
We therefore categorically reject inquiries that involve an unrealistic timeline. Not only does the quality of the app suffer from too short development periods and crunch time, but the mentality of the developers also suffers massively as a result.
In software development, nothing is more important than a motivated team that works closely together to develop a high-quality mobile app. Developers should not only provide agency services, but should also be part of your team. This is the only way to successfully implement a project.
Do you want to talk to our team about your project and just hear what we could do for you? Then simply book a free video call with us now!
.gif)
