App Idea but no Computer Science/Programming background/knowledge
What would be people's suggestions for someone who has a great app idea, but doesn't know anything about building an app, CS, programming, etc.?
http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/15/stop-looking-for-a-technical-co-founde…
This article comes to mind. While it's not directly aimed at you, since you haven't asked for a technical co-founder, it gives some good advice on what to do. To give a tl;dr:
PM me your idea and I'll send you over a working app free of charge
Freelancer.com odesk.com fiverr.com (use for logos and design stuff)
bump...
Network with some tech savvy people and partner up with the one you work best with.
Just gather the right people (easiest) or learn it yourself (hardest).
Sold off a small startup in college to a mid-size healthcare software firm. Had an idea around computational radiation oncology techniques for brachytherapy delivery in non-small cell lung cancer. But like you, I had no clue how to properly build the idea.
So I took the easy route and gathered the right people: 2 biomedical engineers for lung/radiation delivery mapping, 1 computational engineer for black box development and machine learning, 2 CS majors for end user interface and coding (probably only needed 1 of the guys, looking back on it now...), 1 hospital-based radiation oncologist who served as an adviser.
The venture was successful, but the buyout wasn't as much as we thought (very low $, ~32% IRR post angel VC money), but developing the product was exciting the whole way through.
PM me if you have any questions.
Christ dude. What's your undergrad background in?
Thanks for sharing that advice! How exactly did you get your "team" together to do it? I'm in a similar process, but don't know where to start to make those type of connections.. Thanks!
I'm an investment banker with a great app idea. And I don't know what to do next. (Originally Posted: 09/18/2014)
Hi all.
First of all, little about me - I'm 22, purusing MSc studies at EE target - you probably don't know anything about this school. I've interned at two Big 4 places, in TS and M&A teams, now work as an IBD analyst at some local, quite prestigous investment house in modeling/infrastructure team.
But I have a passion for tech. I've always wanted to do IB and be placed at tech group. Or ideally, work at Google/Facebook/Twitter as a Corp Dev analyst. Or join VC firm. Anything related to tech. Now, I've come up with a great application idea. I mean - I know it can be sh*t, but I really feel it's great and has potential to be the 'Tinder material'. I have serious problems:
I have such a plan - prepare business presentation about my app - not quite a business plan, rather business overview - nice 30 slides pitch. And send this to investors.
But I have another questions:
Those may be silly questions - but I don't know how start-up world works - so any input would be appreciated.
Cheers!
I was/am in a similar boat in terms of idea but no ability to execute.
You can Google around and find firms that will develop your idea for you. They obviously take a large share of the economics, should there be any. Anything is greater than zero, right? Or it would seem $5k to $10k is a reasonable estimate of cost to get going.
I haven't done anything though myself, because I am lazy. I still think it's a good idea, would be a lot of fun to execute, but I don't have the bandwidth right now. Also realize though, that if you do get something going one way or another, it'll be a big investment in time.
Let's say you build an app and wake up and all of a sudden you have 100,000 downloads or a million... think of the negative reviews / bug fixes / etc that will need to be handled. $10k to launch an app is then followed by a lot of your own hours or outsourced hours ($) to keep things going.
My advice would be to find a partner and you can operate as the non-technical partner who focuses on the business side etc. Otherwise you could hire a programmer but I think you'd be shocked at how much it would cost to bring your product to fruition.
I don't really know much about the VC world but I assume you would need to have some prototype first? Might be worth checking out www(dot)ycombinator(dot)com to get a feel at how far products are along when they go to bigger investors. Seed investors are the first step of investing, this will help you get the product off the ground.
www(dot)paulgraham(dot)com/start.html Reading all of this will give you some insight.
I've heard this so often, everybody thinks they're going to be the Winklevoss twins and have "the next Facebook" stolen from under their noses. Not something you should be worrying about (at this stage in particular).
Hope this helps.
Wu_Tang_Finance, thanks a lot.
Do you think it might attract someone to fund it even if I don't have technical model, but detailed and planned vision?
delete
You're not going to get VC funding if you don't have a plan in place that gets you to revenue and/or positive profit and/or (possibly) massive user adoption
Everything you do would be work towards achieving those metrics.
Any VC funding you get would just be the investor taking a cut out of your company. In return for this you would get liquid cash. You could use this to cover your marketing expenses or something. But the VC isn't gonna pay for you to hire a developer to make your app cause why would they ever do that. They have 100 other applicants they can invest in.
Pretty sure the #1 thing that any VC would tell you at this point is to learn to code. You will be a terrible CEO if you don't know how to code (how will you manage deadlines? How will you know if your coders are slacking? How will you know if your infrastructure needs upgrading? How will you critique the product's functionality if you don't know how it was built? How will you work with your coders to prioritize solutions to technical challenges? How will you plan the rollout process if you don't know what needs to be coded first vs last? How will you answer VC/clients asking technical questions?)
Angel investors are your best bet until you get some traction. Build an alpha version - it doesn't have to look good, it just has to work.
You have three options, 1) Learn how to code (likely inefficient use of your time), 2) Find a technical co-founder (likely very hard unless you have someone in yiur network because everyone would rather have a salary), 3) Pay for a programmer to make a beta version (in my opinion yiur best bet). Without a functioning prototype (and preferably user adoption numbers), no one will give you money, unless you have a rich crazy uncle. Think about it, if you won't take any risk with this, how are you gonna convince them to do it?
Thanks. My friend - solid mobile developer - will do the prototype for me. But it's just the prototype.
There is no way I will learn how to code - there is massive amount of knowledge and I have no time to do it - I believe I can use my time in more efficient way. About being a terrible CEO - I disagree, knowing how to code is essential in mobile apps business, but I'm convinced it's not one way street - without this knowledge I can also make it.
I get it - don't hit VCs. But - with powerpoint business overview and prototype - I guess I can aim for angel investors?
Yeah, that's the thing, I haven't even thought about any valuation model because I don't have a f*cking clue what put in it - this app is the clear no revenue model (Tinder, Hot or Not, etc.) I'd rather thought about budget - can I put it instead of valuation? Because, like I assume, there is no point putting in those non-number valuation methods like Berkus Method or Risk Factor Summation Method because, for me, they are completely useless.
If you are still working on this/ interested shoot me a pm. I have some solid exp with this and interned at a VC where I saw a lot of this.
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