Engineers: Build businesses not apps

I mean, its very very hard to get it right the first time and hit one out of the park, so you have to try a million tiny things to find some things that stick. The trick is knowing when you're on to something and when you need to double-down. If you can't do that yourself, get outside people involved when you think you have something. If everyone walks away disinterested, you may not have anything yet... keep going.

I'm launching a business soon and I must say, there's a lot more that goes into it than I expected from the get go. Pricing plans, the front-facing website -- what information goes on it, how do I sell it, what do I focus on, etc -- logo, business cards, hosting options, funding, lawyers, incorporating, beta testing, etc... There's so much extra stuff involved and decisions to make.

It's really not for everyone though; so engineers, keep building apps if thats what you like to do. If the other stuff excites or interests you, then do that. Just know that if you want to build a business, there's a lot of extra crap you'll have to do that is gonna either suck, or if you're like me, excite you even more.

In the Milo.com example, it seems they succeeded because they were able to establish relationships with the big retailers. Yet I doubt that, had the author picked up the phone and called these retailers, he would have had any luck. It's possible, but business deals seem to be a lot about "relationships". Would the solution be to partner with a business person? Maybe, but how would you go about finding that person? They should be someone with knowledge and relationships in the particular business area (here, retailers), and yet it seems most of the successful business partnerships seem to have been between people who knew each other for a while (e.g. college friends, etc), probably because trust is essential. And yet in that case, it seems very difficult to find a matching relationship between the people involved and the "business idea" / "epiphany".

It would be interesting to learn about how an engineer can learn more about the business-side of things, and how to successfully partner with business people.

It turns out the same kind of detail oriented "hacker"-minded thinking that goes into coding can be applied to a lot of other things. Just takes patience and the willingness to be a beginner again.

There are better and cheaper ways to keep track of good ideas than a GoDaddy account!

The thing is, as with apps, there is always room for competition. So what if someone "takes" your idea first? You can execute on it too and build something worth paying for; maybe even a better one.

Though this wasn't the point of the article, this sector specific point is worth considering for any online business trying to do "local."

I think the app stores are letting us developers test our little apps without a business in the foreseeable future, which I think is great. If the app is a success then we can think of building a business around it.