Developing the first App as a Start-Up - Dont' waste your money

Start-ups and small companies usually face the same challenges; Creating a digital solution to a problem in the market. When accomplishing the business plan, the entrepreneurs face the operative challenge of developing a digital product. But how does one sensibly begin planning for such a product? Buzzwords like Cloud-Native, Serverless, App Stores, Microservices, and DevOps seem to overwhelm smaller companies real quick; how to put those Buzzwords into context, and what do I as an SME need to develop and ship an app?

What is the actual product? As long as a user shall use it someday, the virtual product is an app or, technically speaking, a frontend; On nothing else should be the focus at the beginning of the development of a product by a small company or a Start-Up.

The product is what the customer will hold in their hands.

It is as simple as a hundred years ago; the right product convinces the customer to see and feel it accordingly. A product can be an app or a website, which the customer can use virtually in the digitalized world. But, conversely, it is of secondary importance whether the product is hosted in the cloud or in which architecture the developer built the backend. At least for the beginning.

So to create a purely digital product, we need a frontend, which can be an iOS or Android app, but it can also be a modern website, or both at the same time in the form of a Progressive-Web-App (PWA). I advise you to consider the last-mentioned way because an SME or start-up will get the most out of its budget and save a lot of time.

Why a PWA is an essential key technology for start-ups and SMEs

Conclusion: a company needs to create a product that can solve the market problem and thus is attractive and has the chance to meet acceptance. But the product must also be discoverable and accessible. For example, a native app is only available in the app stores and under constant competition with other participants and will eventually get lost in the crowd. On the other hand, a classic website often does not meet the modern demand to be permanently present for the consumer. Moreover, developing both in parallel can quickly become very expensive or impossible.

Here, the PWA stands out from the best of both worlds and thus occupies the "best-of-breed" position. For example, push notifications, offline capability, and the ability to install on a smartphone have been standard features on modern browsers for several years now and are thus also a component of a progressive web app. As a result, the user will not see or feel any difference between a native app or a PWA these days.

The user will not see or feel any difference between a native app or a PWA these days.

Start-ups and companies have to budget and deliver

A young company usually has little time and space for experimentation. Decisions must be seated and made. They must pursue a goal-focused objective and not waste valuable resources developing different variants. There is often only enough for a Minimum Viable Product, which should work out straight if possible. It may be that large investment-driven companies throw many MVPs on the market and try until one works, but a small company or even start-up does not have this luxury. There's only one shot, and this one should count.

I recommend that Start-Ups stay with only one cross-platform project and combine the app world with the world of the web. Do not stress your limited resources too much when you are not in a specific need.

There's only one shot, and this one should count.

Future-Proof technology and a first-class citizen in modern web architectures

A PWA is a standalone and decoupled frontend; it exists on its own and installs itself on the device. When speaking of the backend, it's crucial to understand that modern web solutions are compositions of services like Microservices or SaaS cloud solutions. Therefore, composing headless services requires standalone frontends like PWAs communicating with the APIs. 

I don't want to get too much into technical details about the architecture in this article, but I want to point out that a PWA isn't bound to any specific type of backend or SaaS; thus, the application can exist with any technical foundation the company will use in the future. Therefore, the risk for the app to become a legacy soon is low.

Conclusion - What SMEs and Start-Ups should consider

To wrap up this topic, I want to point out how important the moment is when your clients get hands-on with your virtual product for the first time. In addition, shipping a great app is not as expensive as it used to be, nor should it take ages to get into the market. Those factors are crucial for smaller businesses, and entrepreneurs should keep in mind that the web evolves quickly and provides excellent technologies to save money while speeding up the time-to-market. For Start-Ups, this can be the difference between success and failure early on.

I want to point out how important the moment is when your clients get hands-on with your virtual product for the first time

If this article catches your interest, please comment or DM me for a conversation. I am happy to chat with you about these topics.