189 karma · joined June 18, 2011
Assuming the idea is valid, I'd concentrate my efforts on a single country club. Not a public course, but a country club. Golfers that are serious about using golf as a networking tool probably belong to a club (again, something to validate). You'll obviously need to get the club to sign on regardless whether you're pitching them directly or not.
Once you've got the club's permission, there are a number of things you could do:
You could partner with the club and offer an exclusive (but limited) co-branding opportunity. So the app would be a "service" that the club offers to help members network. This would add credibility to the app and make members more likely to take interest in trying the service.
You could negotiate a deal with the pro shop to give away discounts or free memberships to the app with purchases.
Anyhow... you get the picture. My point is to start with a focus, don't spread yourself too thin. If the app takes off, you can always expand.
Think about Facebook's strategy. They started out just focusing on one school and then branched outward to other ivy league schools before finally branching out to all colleges and then the public.
There are countless examples of artists producing work at breakneck speeds; Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, Frank Zappa, Issac Asimov, Alexandre Dumas, etc... I could go on and on.
In my mind, this belief is best illustrated in the rapid rise of startups who have an interesting idea, but very little market validation or plans for monetization.
As with most complex topics, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Ideas are not worthless, but they're certainly not worth much. To be valuable (in a business sense) an idea must also be coupled with a strong need or desire derived from knowledge of the market. Add to that a strong plan for execution and you've got something of value.
I'm certainly not suggesting that these elements are always known from the beginning, but for an idea to grow in value, I think these factors need to be taken into consideration.
I don't think it occurs to many people to seek out and use memory tools. However, there are groups of people who do have a very specific need for these tools and actively seek them out. I'm thinking of people like medical students, language enthusiasts, etc... Anyone who has an immediate need to learn and recall large amounts of information.
By intentionally limiting the scope of what you offer, you can better target prospects and tailor your offer to fit their needs like a glove.
01. Getting information into Anki. You've already got this covered pretty well. The ability to clip notes from around the web or add them via other methods is wonderful. Think of a tool like Evernote or Clip.to
02. Poor Quality Decks. Let's face it, finding a good pre-made deck in Anki can be a challenge. You can easily solve this, simply offer your users a variety of high quality decks. The better the quality of the decks, the more value. It can take a REALLY long time to make a good deck, I'd gladly pay a modest fee for a well made deck that saves me hours of prep time.
03. Bad Design & UI. I love Anki, but she isn't the prettiest girl in the room and she isn't always easy to get along with. A little bit of elegant design and thoughtful UI would go a looong way in boosting the perceived value of your product.
I think you have to consider that most people are using tools like Anki to memorize larger sets of data rather than the names of a few people or a nice quote. Tools like push notifications and text messages are just not an efficient way to digest that much information. I wouldn't mind getting a quote pushed out to me a few times in a day, but compound that by 100 or more items to memorize and suddenly your phone is blowing up every 3 seconds. No bueno.
If I were in your shoes, I would do away with the push, email and SMS notifications altogether. I like the idea of clipping items from around the web, because that actually solves one of the biggest pains of using Anki, which is organizing and typing all your items into the program (assuming there isn't already a stack available). You could even allow users to "clip" to a specific notebook to better organize their items.
Instead of sending notifications, I'd create a spaced-repetition mobile app and/or web app that allowed users to access their clipped items. That way, users can access your tool at their own discretion, but still get the benefit of having a tool to gather their information.
Anyhow, that's my 2 cents. Great job and good luck!
In the book he talks about the "12 Standard Forms Of Value". These 12 forms of value cover pretty much any business you can possibly think of. In other words, if you're in business and making money, you're using at least one of these twelve methods.
I hear so many developers complaining about their apps not getting exposure on the app stores, but guess how many of them have put any serious sweat equity into building their business outside of the app stores? Hardly any is the correct answer to that question.
The whole world of internet marketing is open to you. Build a brand for yourself, cultivate a community. You think the only way to get people to download your app is through the app store? The only time I go the app store is when I want something specific. I find ALL the apps I use through search and social.
You need to think bigger to survive. Yes, competition is increasing- nobody gets a free ride in this world. But there are advantages to being small and nimble in this market. You just gotta think outside the store.
By nature, I've always been a perfectionist and tinkerer, and while there are benefits to that mentality, there are also severe drawbacks. The inability to start or finish projects being at the top of that list. I've found that setting (and sticking to) aggressive deadlines provides me with a focus and directive that I simply can't get from working any other way.
There is a liberating feeling in the idea of not coveting any single project or piece of work. This sounds counter-intuitive, but when you see each piece of work as a result of whatever constraints you're working within, rather than a cherished opus that will define your life for years to come, it releases a lot of pressure and allows you to focus. I think it's safe to say that a lot of artists wouldn't be where they are were it not for their willingness to experiment often and fail often.
However, I will say this; from what I've seen, you're more likely to succeed with a mobile-based product aimed at a business niche. Businesses are more willing to pay larger sums (or subscriptions) for solutions, whereas consumers tend to place less overall value on any one app.
The only way to get any definitive answers is to test within the market you're aiming for.
Personally, I'd much rather pay a small monthly fee for the bottom-tier (free) service than have my app branded in any way by Parse.
I could see keeping the free option open for testing, but I think a mid-range option under $200 (sans branding) would open you up to a lot more potential customers.
A more useful topic would have been that design alone will not guarantee the success of your business.
The reality of the matter is that both design and engineering are critical aspects of your business in different ways.
Design IS important. Like it or not, the design of your website and your product screen-caps are the first thing any potential customer is going to see. A well designed brand does influence buying decisions, that's a fact.
Furthermore, users don't care about how well your code is written. The only contact they have with your code is through your UI. If the experience is not well designed, you're not really doing your job. Everything else being equal, a consumer is always going to choose software that is pleasant to use over software that is merely "functional".
That being said, once you entice users to try your product, the engineering better be solid.
So there you go, two important skills- both of which add to the value that you're (hopefully) offering to your customers.
The way most people go about starting businesses is to drum up ideas and then go out into the world and attempt to validate them like so:
01. Come up with product/service ideas
02. Seek out a market or present idea(s) to a predetermined market
03. Conduct market research to validate/invalidate idea(s)
04. Scrap idea or build idea
05. Rinse, repeat
This method isn't very effective because it emphasizes validating your preconceived ideas, not understanding your market and THEN crafting a compelling product or service to sell them.
The market-first approach, on the other hand, eschews the notion of starting out with a product/service idea in the beginning. Instead, it focuses on finding markets to serve, gaining a deeper understanding of what their needs and pain points are, and then crafting a product or service to offer.
The Market First Method
01. Choose a market
02. Conduct research to understand market needs/desires
03. Brainstorm ideas to solve market needs/desires
04. Craft a compelling product or service
05. Deploy. Gather feedback. Iterate.
I find this methodology to be far more effective because it shifts your focus from coming up with rock star ideas to the far more pleasant and useful activity of engaging with a market and discovering where you can add value. Two things, I might add, that come in quite handy when it comes time to craft your offer and write sales copy.
The best method I've found for learning design (aside from actually doing it) is to take note of designs that strike you and really dig into them. Ask yourself why the designer might have made the choices he did. How has the designer used line, shape, texture, color and space to achieve a sense of balance and unity (or their opposites). What has the designer chosen to emphasize? Why? Take notice of all the small and subtle elements that contribute to the overall feel of the design.
As for the technical side, well that stuff isn't too hard. There is an abundance of material covering CSS, HTML and Javascript. Tutsplus has some excellent free courses and tutorials. As do the sites that sebphfx mentions.
Just remember not to confuse development with design. Knowing CSS and Javascript doesn't make you any more of a designer than my 3 year old nephew. If you want to make beautiful stuff, you gotta keep practicing and observing.
Best of luck, take care.
Copying is the act of stealing without transformation. In other words, the work is purely derivative. Transformation, on the other hand, is the act of combining your influence(s) and using them as a basis for a new idea. I don't think it makes much of a difference whether this is an intentional or unconscious act. Both copying and transformation have their place in art.
Most artists start out through imitation (copying) and move on to transformation. For example, Keith Richards started out by obsessively copying the styles of American Blues artists, it wasn't until years later that he had absorbed those early influences enough to go on to transform them into his own distinctive style of playing. Same with someone like Picasso. His early work is rooted in traditional realism. Later on he would go on to be heavily influenced by symbolism and African folk art- which ultimately led to Cubism.
While it could be said that nothing is fair in love, war and business, I, personally, find unethical business practices to be quite loathsome. Sometimes a company that tries to win through intimidation and questionable legal threats deserves to have the world know what they're up to.
My grandmother once gave me a piece of advice that's stuck with me- "Integrity is doing the right thing, even if nobody is watching." Years later, I think about that and I wonder, how many people are running their businesses with a smile on their face and a knife behind their back.
So yeah, there are plenty of times where airing dirty laundry is a shallow thing to do, but there are also times where you can finally see the true colors of a company and what they really stand for.