Patrick Thompson – Bootstraping an App Business – MicroConf 2013

The MicroConf Hub Page with links to all the notes for all the talks can be found here.  Speaker: Patrick Thompson (@pthompson)

This video is a longer version of the the talk given at MicroConf. Patrick’s talk starts around 12:45 into the video

Notes summarize both the longer version and the version given at MicroConf

Start, Just Start

• Don’t wait for the perfect idea, climb the first hill
• Serenditpity happens, Expect it. But it can only happen if you are moving
• And it can only happen if you are connecting with people

 Developers Business

• Turn your developer mentality into an advantage
• Incremental (business) development
  • get something working (Minimum Viable Product, MVP)
  • Think of your business as a marketing system: Keep improving it continuously
• If you are bootstrapping, don’t go for home-runs, go for singles & doubles
• Go All In & Burn the boats behind you
• Are you a freelancer or a product person? – Don’t try to be both at the same time

Evolution Of an App Business

• Dance on the edge of failure and keep growing
• Started out with one App (QuickReader) on the AppStore
• Published Lite Version with just one book
• Integrated ePUB support for more books
• Published localized versions (e.g. Spanish, French, German apps)
• Added OPDS support (catalog of publications)
• Removed Quick Reading and published MegaReader as a eBook reader – also published MegaReader Lite
• At this point Patrick has 8 apps
• Strip out the eBook search into a separate free app
• Created paid version of eBook Search without advertisement
• Added app to search for and listen to audio books
• Published niched-down versions of the audio books app (e.g. for poetry)

Product Management

• App itself has to work well and satisfy a need
• App store is a hit based business
• Aim for the Masses – because of prices on App Store
• Internationalize your app: 2/3 of sales were international
• Developers: Please don’t make your own graphics!
• You have to sell a lot!
• Create a Portfolio
  • Reuse and retarget codebase
  • Look for adjecent opportunities
  • Eat the whole animal
• Optimizing your engagement increases retention and revenue

​Marketing

• Marketing is sometimes counter-intuitive
• it is not about you – it is about them
• Visibility is everything
• Traditional Methods
  • Top 100
  • Search
  • Advertising
  • Get “Featured By Apple”
  • Press
  • Social Media
  • Cheat (pay somebody to download your app from China –> increase ranking)
• Create Levers
  • in-app ads
  • nag messages
  • Push Notifications
• Paid vs. Free
  • different markets
  • use free apps to build visibility and audience
  • cross-promote your paid app in free apps
• Be creative
  • Added feature to see live footage from camera behind the text
  • guest posted on a friend’s blog about the dangers of reading text while walking and how the app helps preventing accidents (tongue in cheek)
  • create a fun video highlighting the dangers
• Cross Promotion with a book cataloging app
• Show nag messages to upgrade to Pro version
• Push Notifications
  • about 1/3rd say “yes”
  • Don’t abuse
  • Tie into in-app messaging
  • Start collecting active devices as soon as you can
  • Use for user engagement
• “Free For A Day” – Campaign
• Names are important on App Store
  • hints at functionality
  • non-generic app name
  • company name needs to be recognizable

Misadventures

• Paying for advertising (didn’t work)
• High-end copywriters
• Mac store event
• Lite apps
• Partnerships
• (The Web)

Resources

• Startups For The Rest Of Us Podcast
• Seth Godin’s Startup School
• App Empire by Chad Mureta
• All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin

-Christoph