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Congratulations! May I ask how did you reach out to developers and how long did the project take. I assume you designed it? Thanks! :-)

by txu 12y ago

ThomPete 12y ago
I tried odesk, elance etc. the whole sherade and they all ended up not delivering. I still hang out on IRC and through the #macdev channel via one of the moderators i was put in contact with Jimmy. Just goes to show, few things beat personal recommendations. But please if you have any work please help out Jimmy he is a really good developer just caught in a shitty situation.
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  As a designer learning iOS to build an app I designed, why didn't you develop the app yourself? Do you feel like the time lost learning OSX development would have offset the potential earnings of the app? My impression when shopping around for a developer was that to get something like ghostnote built you'd have to spend around $50k+. This ultimately led me to just trying to build the app myself, but I'm finding that while I can achieve basic functionality with iOS, anything complex is far more time consuming (custom UIs, animations, integration 20 + apis).
  - ThomPete 12y ago
    I have been circling around this contextual idea for several years now and in fact this is just a small part of what I ultimately want to build. It sounds simple but it's much harder than one would expect. I hired several developers most couldn't get it done and I had even talked to several developers about doing it as a split deal. Its one thing to build an app that does what the framework is build for, but we are doing stuff that are kind breaking some fairly new grounds. On top of that having to deal with MASS and the Sandbox was a frustrating experience. I do know how to program just not well enough to even remotely begin to solve some of the things you have to solve to make this work. My best advice is make sure you have a pretty well polished idea, final (kind a) design and an interesting problem. I managed to build this because we basically focused on the major challenge for Jimmy and not a lot of nice-to have stuff but ultimately not important to begin with. Time learning programming is never wasted but it's just a different level we are talking about for this app.
    - ryanSrich 12y ago
      > I do know how to program just not well enough to even remotely begin to solve some of the things you have to solve to make this work. Yeah I'm in the same boat. The app I'm building has some really complex interactions that involve building a "mini" language within the app. For example: ` <send me an email> <if I get a tweet from @whatever> <else> <compile all mentions into one email> ` ^ It's something like IFTT meets the simplicity of a markup language. So the user would actually be able to define these workflows much like writing simple jquery. There's more to it than that but as you can see it extends far beyond basic iOS application building.
    - LiweiZ 12y ago
      I ended up by learning and building myself. Just have to keep my burning rate really low. I've been working on my project for around two years now. Hope this time I can satisfied with what I'm building and actually put it onto app store. Thanks for your story.
  - thisisit 12y ago
    Currently I am also spending time learn iOS to build an app. And its a long arduous task, specially if someone has never coded ever. Personally, last I wrote a piece of code was 3+ years ago, while in school. I haven't specifically shopped for a developer cause forget $50k, I can't even spend $5k. So I guess sometimes, its not really about offsetting your potential earnings, than it is about whether you could afford one at all. Still it will be interesting if ThomPete ever publishes his earning report of sorts :) PS: Just wondering any specific course/book you are referring for iOS?
    - ThomPete 12y ago
      I think if you have an interesting problem it's easier to get a developer on board than if you have something thats a lot of work but tedious to do. Also I always offer 50/50 split after I have recouped my investment. This is to pay for upgrading the app (an there will be many updates after launch believe me). If the app is interesting then they might be a little more willing to invest their time too.
      - thisisit 12y ago
        A query, how did you decide on the price point for your app? There must be some kind of break-even calculation or something?
        ThomPete 12y ago
        I learned the hard way it's better to start low and the raise prices than to start high and then have to lower them. You wanna give the early adopters a better deal than the later ones. I knew this app was unique (I frankly have never seen anything close to it) and i knew it was adding value because I use it all the time myself and it has some potential so I could go way higher and still make the same if not more. But I decided to start at this price because i didn't know what kind of bugs would surface once many people started using it. That way people don't feel like they are overpaying even when they find bugs and I am kind of giving them a discount to provide me with valuable information. I think that is fair to everyone.
    - 12y ago

Congratulations! May I ask how did you reach out to developers and how long did the project take. I assume you designed it? Thanks! :-)

by txu 12y ago

Congratulations! May I ask how did you reach out to developers and how long did the project take. I assume you designed it? Thanks! :-)

ThomPete 12y ago

I tried odesk, elance etc. the whole sherade and they all ended up not delivering. I still hang out on IRC and through the #macdev channel via one of the moderators i was put in contact with Jimmy. Just goes to show, few things beat personal recommendations. But please if you have any work please help out Jimmy he is a really good developer just caught in a shitty situation.

ryanSrich 12y ago
As a designer learning iOS to build an app I designed, why didn't you develop the app yourself? Do you feel like the time lost learning OSX development would have offset the potential earnings of the app? My impression when shopping around for a developer was that to get something like ghostnote built you'd have to spend around $50k+. This ultimately led me to just trying to build the app myself, but I'm finding that while I can achieve basic functionality with iOS, anything complex is far more time consuming (custom UIs, animations, integration 20 + apis).
- ThomPete 12y ago
  I have been circling around this contextual idea for several years now and in fact this is just a small part of what I ultimately want to build. It sounds simple but it's much harder than one would expect. I hired several developers most couldn't get it done and I had even talked to several developers about doing it as a split deal. Its one thing to build an app that does what the framework is build for, but we are doing stuff that are kind breaking some fairly new grounds. On top of that having to deal with MASS and the Sandbox was a frustrating experience. I do know how to program just not well enough to even remotely begin to solve some of the things you have to solve to make this work. My best advice is make sure you have a pretty well polished idea, final (kind a) design and an interesting problem. I managed to build this because we basically focused on the major challenge for Jimmy and not a lot of nice-to have stuff but ultimately not important to begin with. Time learning programming is never wasted but it's just a different level we are talking about for this app.
  - ryanSrich 12y ago
    > I do know how to program just not well enough to even remotely begin to solve some of the things you have to solve to make this work. Yeah I'm in the same boat. The app I'm building has some really complex interactions that involve building a "mini" language within the app. For example: ` <send me an email> <if I get a tweet from @whatever> <else> <compile all mentions into one email> ` ^ It's something like IFTT meets the simplicity of a markup language. So the user would actually be able to define these workflows much like writing simple jquery. There's more to it than that but as you can see it extends far beyond basic iOS application building.
  - LiweiZ 12y ago
    I ended up by learning and building myself. Just have to keep my burning rate really low. I've been working on my project for around two years now. Hope this time I can satisfied with what I'm building and actually put it onto app store. Thanks for your story.
- thisisit 12y ago
  Currently I am also spending time learn iOS to build an app. And its a long arduous task, specially if someone has never coded ever. Personally, last I wrote a piece of code was 3+ years ago, while in school. I haven't specifically shopped for a developer cause forget $50k, I can't even spend $5k. So I guess sometimes, its not really about offsetting your potential earnings, than it is about whether you could afford one at all. Still it will be interesting if ThomPete ever publishes his earning report of sorts :) PS: Just wondering any specific course/book you are referring for iOS?
  - ThomPete 12y ago
    I think if you have an interesting problem it's easier to get a developer on board than if you have something thats a lot of work but tedious to do. Also I always offer 50/50 split after I have recouped my investment. This is to pay for upgrading the app (an there will be many updates after launch believe me). If the app is interesting then they might be a little more willing to invest their time too.
    - thisisit 12y ago
      A query, how did you decide on the price point for your app? There must be some kind of break-even calculation or something?
      - ThomPete 12y ago
        I learned the hard way it's better to start low and the raise prices than to start high and then have to lower them. You wanna give the early adopters a better deal than the later ones. I knew this app was unique (I frankly have never seen anything close to it) and i knew it was adding value because I use it all the time myself and it has some potential so I could go way higher and still make the same if not more. But I decided to start at this price because i didn't know what kind of bugs would surface once many people started using it. That way people don't feel like they are overpaying even when they find bugs and I am kind of giving them a discount to provide me with valuable information. I think that is fair to everyone.
  - 12y ago