From Idea to App

Table of content:

I'm a Unicorn

So, I'm a unicorn. Not that my company is worth a billion, no. Not at all. In fact, my company isn't worth anything. And it's not like I'm typing this with my hooves and poking the screen with my... corn? Horn? It's unicorn, not unihorn, isn't it? Anyway.

No, I'm a different kind of unicorn.

5 years ago I got an app idea. A glorious app that will change the world. To the better, of course. Or for the worse, but that doesn't matter much, because I will be at the helm. Surrounded by young entrepreneurs – people who use learned the word "delegate" before the word "do", I've decided that I'll be better – I'm gonna code it myself. Mind you, I'm not a developer. Or, to put it better, I wasn't a developer.

POC? Pirates of the Caribbean?

And you know what? I did it. 5 years later, the app is up and running. I'm gonna tell you how it went:

For the first month or so I was desperately trying to put together something. As I've learnt later from more experienced entrepreneurs, that something is called POC – Proof of Concept. Basically, at first I got somewhat afraid that I don't a damn thing about what I'm launching myself into, so to, like, prepare myself, I've tried to build really small but functional (like kids) pieces of my app.

In retrospective my method was comparable to throwing shit at the wall an seeing what sticks. Not that it's a bad thing – isn't science just throwing shit at the wall an seeing what sticks? No? Okay.

So hey, I've got my POC, my little creation, my beloved Frankenstein, now what? I had this strange feeling that my creation... I don't know, is suffering? I mean, it was very bad code-wise. Naturally, my instinct was to re-code it from the beginning, but make it lean and sleek. As my entrepreneur colleagues have pointed out, in non-prehistoric development environments that's called an MVP.

Problem is, I hadn't been documenting anything of what I've been doing. Aaand it was all in production. As my developer later put it – coding fun! It's like jumping on the bed, but coding in prod is more akin to jumping on the bed from an airplane. And without a parachute. Couldn't agree more! But hey, I'm a unicorn and my corn brings me luck! Okay I'm gonna stop saying this...

Thomas Edison of the development process

So, without the necessary documentation and any kind of notes I had to ask my absolutely unloyal, traitorous friend for help – my memory. Needless to say, what I've managed to "rebuild" was significantly different to what I had in mind.

But that's pretty unimportant. What matters is that now I have a functional app! Or do I? At that moment in time, I've felt something that I haven't felt before – a certain need, an urge even, to put on paper every possible screen that my app will have – and connect them! You know, what if I've missed something? Some "recover your password" page for example. Everything should be documented! Isn't that a genius idea?

It is. I think I should give it a name. Frame... Framewire? Yes, has a nice ring to it. I'm basically Thomas Edison of the development process!

Now, at the end of the first year of "development", I guess that I really should have thought about making a Framewire earlier, as now I have to rebuild like half of my MVP... Well, what innovation without a couple of mistakes?

For the next couple of years the development didn't progress at the desired speed, as the upper management (me) had some problems only upper management can have. What kind of problems? I was drinking. Next question.

Sam?

What has woken me up from my 40° slumber was a beautiful vision – a shining unicorn appeared in front of me and said "Wake the **** up mother****** and finish your god**** calculator app!". For some reason, the unicorn spoke with the voice of Samuel L. Jackson.

So I did. I did't have the willpower to argue with Samuel L. Jackson, but had just enough to listen to him.

Can you imagine that during that time those so-called entrepreneurs and developers robbed me of my ideas? First of all, they took my Framewires – do you know what they call them now? Wireframes! And don't even get me started on the assets I've left unsupervised: imagine my surprise when I've opened AppStore and saw that it's completely packed with calculator apps! I've counted at least 6.

But it's okay. Competition means there's market for calculators – especially in 2024. So I got to work and finished my app in just under two years. Record time (if you don't have a record history)! So yeah, as I've mentioned earlier, I did it. 5 years later, the app is up and running. But at what price? Well, actually, I haven't spent a dime, but let me explain.

Had I consulted someone more experienced, I could have launched my app in 3 months. Had I listened to my entrepreneur friends, I could have easily delegated the development. Had I listened to my developer friends, I could have prepared detailed documentation, to be able to continuously implement features. I could have been rich by now! But now all I have is... my corn.

So if you're an aspiring entrepreneur, don't try to be a unicorn like me – go hire a remote developer team overseas. It's cheaper than drinking two years straight, and easier than developing an app yourself. For that matter, drop Match.dev a line at team@match.dev – they connect companies with vetted remote developers, and do it in under 48 hours. I learn from my mistakes, so that's exactly the route I'll take for my next app – Calculator 2: Legacy

P.S. Yes, I really like calculator apps. Feel free to judge me.