The process from getting from an idea to an iOS App in 7 steps

1. From an Idea to an iOS App
Andrei Radulescu
Co-Founder & CTO
SayHappyBirthday
andi.radulescu@gmail.com
@andiradulescu
0744 264 358
Mobile Apps Meetup 16/05/2013

2. 1. The Idea
 What Is The Value Of An Idea?
 The value of the idea alone is:
 nothing
 zero
 zip
 Nada
 Don’t keep your idea secret
 You should talk about it to almost anyone who will listen

3. Benefits of talking to people
 You’ll get suggestions for improvements
 You’ll discover flaws
 You’ll learn a lot more about the sector/industry.
 You’ll learn about competitive products that exist or are
being built
 You’ll refine your sales and investor pitch
 You might even discover your idea is a bad idea

4. 2. Motivation
 Build an app as a hobby
 Build an app to make loads of money
 Build an app because you have too much money and
you want to spend it
 Build an app to change the world - entrepreneur

5. 3. People
An app is not a one man show.
 Talk about your idea passionately! Others might like it and
work with you as co-founders
 Build a completely dedicated team:
programmer, designer, business person
 Make your app noticeable! From icon to UI/UX, your app
should be scream Download me!

6. Some quotes from Quora
 “Developers will only work for free if they have a strong
connection or affection to the project or you as an
initiator”
 “Paying a programmer will get you more attention”
 “Producing an app isn't hard – marketing is harder”

7. 4. Tech
 Native app vs HTML5 vs hybrid app
 Why go native?
 A lot of frameworks/APIs/SDKs
 Faster than any web or hybrid app
 Most reliable and most responsive experience to users

8. 5. Business Model
99 cents is the new free!
 Free
 Premium: buy once, use forever
 Freemium: giving away service to users and making
money when some opt to pay for additional features

9. Why Mobile iOS first?

10. Careful entering unknown markets

11. 6. Prototyping
 Use a prototyping tool (InVision, Fluid UI, Prototypr)
 Make small increments
 Use analytics (Heatma.ps, Google Analytics, Flurry)
 Use tools that ease your life (TestFlight, NewRelic)
 Iterate, iterate, iterate
 Launch faster

12. 7. Launch and Marketing
 Airbnb had 3 launches until it hit success
 Some tips:
 Have an awesome landing page and drive traffic to it
 Get “Featured” by Apple
 “Make an amazingly great product and charge money for
it” – Phil Libin
 https://www.udemy.com/startup-and-go/ - Founder Institute
- fi.co

13. Back to .. The value of an Idea
 The value of the idea alone is nothing, zero, zip, nada
 When you combine an idea with a great team and
execution, it can start to have potential
 But the real value remains zero, until it gets
tested/evaluated by real customers
 Last tips:
 Build for yourself
 Hire smarter people than you

14. 8. Case study

15. BirthdayCards iOS App
 Facebook SDK for
login, friends and
share
 Backend done in
Rails and hosted on
Heroku
 We are building a
mobile first
distribution platform
for interactive
birthday cards
 Addressed to end
users and brands

16. BirthdayCards iOS App
 A new generation of
cards, online &
mobile cards that
are interactive
 Addressed to end
users and brands
 You can customize
any element of the
card and send it by
facebook or e-mail

17. BirthdayCards iOS App
 It’s interactive, not
static – “it’s not the
same gif” for
everyone
 Themes are very
different, made by
very talented
illustrators, that we
promote

18. Your app can be next!