When it comes to raising funds for startups, the one preferred direction that the tech companies are moving towards is Global Initial Public Offering. With venture capitalists and crypto enthusiasts fanning the flames, a new form of raising fund for startup has now gotten mainstream for the tech companies across the globe. 

In fact so much so that it is soon becoming the ultimate objective of brands, especially since Uber, Pinterest, Slack and other innovative tech companies acting as the torchbearer. 

Let us get down to the basics and some present time statistics first before getting down to the process of raising an IPO and how Appinventiv can help. 

Table of Content

1. What is an IPO – the preferred way to raise funds for a startup?
2. What are the benefits of an IPO
3. The Ongoing Trend of Tech Companies Going Public
4. Signs That You Are Prepared to Go Public Through IPO
5. How to get IPO ready – The roadmap to navigating the process

What is an IPO – the preferred way to raise funds for a startup?

An Initial Public Offering or IPO as it is generally called, is a process of offering the shares of a private corporation to the public through the issuance of new stock.

Ever since Apple and Google went on to become public with their stocks being traded as a ticker symbol in the market, raising an IPO has become something of an endgame for emerging tech companies. 

The median deal size of IPOs continue to raise year on year is only a plus side of why companies are sold on the idea of going public now more than ever. 

It has become more than a process of raising capital for startups – it is now a way to prove the worthiness of a company.

What are the benefits of an IPO

Tech startups generally tend to look up to IPOs as the long term way of raising money for startup that they have created seeking one or all of the following benefits:

• Increase in the long-term capital
• A greater cash access and bettered liquidity
• An opportunity for the initial founders or the investor groups to take the cash out
• Monetization and rewards to the employees through shares
• Augment the company’s visibility and stature in the industry

The ongoing trend of tech companies going public 

Fundraising for business startups in the technology sector is not unheard of. While generally limited to Series A to E funding and taking unconventional routes to raise money for business startup and even being a torchbearer of making ICOs a better proposition than VCs, they too have started sharing the great american dream to go public. 

Initiated by Apple and Google and strengthened by Lyft, Pinterest, Fiverr, Slack, Zoom and the likes a number of tech companies are already or are getting prepared for startup fund raising through Initial Public Offering. 

Here’s a visual representation of them – 

But just because these tech companies felt they were ready to go public, does it mean the startup funding process is the ideal next step for your tech company as well? After all, with the world unable to give an exact answer on when is the right time to choose IPO as a startup fund raise method, how do you decide when to have an IPO?

Signs that you are prepared to go public through IPO

1.  You can forecast financial growth 

Accurate financial projections is a key to efficient business strategy playing a massive role in a company’s growth especially as a public company. Creating an accurate estimate of budget and forecast as your company operates privately is a key step in establishing the consistency and accuracy of financial reporting for gaining credibility with the investors. 

2.  You have the best executive team 

You have a team that has experience of being a part of a public company, who understand the nitty-gritty of running a private turned public company. In addition to a strong current team, you have also estimated the need of expanding your finance, accounting staff in addition to people handling external communications – to aid the process of going public. 

In addition to your best in class executive team, you also have partnered with the most skilled software developers for startups that know how to digitalize and prepare a private tech company for going public.

3.  Your company is always audit-ready 

Before going public, you would want to get in a position where you constantly close  quarterly financial statements in time. Even the companies that are backed by venture capital and private equity find it challenging to offer regular reports to their sponsors and board. By going through the exercise months in advance, businesses are able to get ready for the public reporting, stress-free. 

4.  You have a strategic roadmap 

A strategic roadmap is a blueprint of a company’s investment growth chart. It provides an operating strategy for growing business for providing investment returns which the prospective shareholders want from a public company.

5.  You have a strong business case for raising an IPO

One of the most obvious reasons for getting an IPO is to gain access to the capital market and raise additional capital – the end goal of a startup investment process. An IPO is a major company evolution milestone and a symbol of your company being able to satisfy the necessary government standards and and compliances. 

6.  You have developed a network with investors 

Something that makes the process of raising IPO easier and actually enjoyable, is knowing some of the key people in the investment firms. Although you must have already done your homework, let us expedite the networking process by giving you insights into which investors have been backing the tech IPO journey of companies – 

How to get IPO ready – The roadmap to navigating the process

1.  Hire the best team 

Selecting the best team of professionals to handle your IPO process is important for the success of your business. Here are some of the entities that should be a part of your team, in addition to the obvious inclusion of lawyers – 

• Tech Service Providers – The success of an IPO depends entirely on the software you are selling which are a result of the well-strategized software development services for startups. After all, all the tech giants who have taken the route of IPO ensured that their digital offerings were useful and best in class. Ensuring this is the work of a startup software development company. So, we would recommend choosing the best software development agency for your digital transformation needs. 
• Investment Banks – The banks act as a mediator between the companies looking to issue an IPO and the investors – while acting as an underwriter. The banks are involved in a number of processes like document preparation, issuance, marketing, filing, documentation, etc. 

2.  Perform due diligence

The underwriters, lawyers, and banks work together to conduct an in-depth audit of the company. Their review incluses legal, tax, financial, customer verification, and market research. The intent is to create complete transparency in the company’s operations and presume risks. 

3.  Build IPO prospectus

The IPO lawyers and company use the due diligence information for drafting the principal offering files which include IPO prospectus that should be filed as a part of IPO registration. 

The IPO prospectus highlights the company’s strategy, strengths, market share, financials, investments, and products. It should also mention the risks that are involved for the investors. 

IPO prospectus is subjected to expansive disclosure needs meaning it is important that the parties collaborate for ensuring the prospectus is accurate.

4.  File IPO registration statement 

The IPO lawyers file IPO prospectus and the complete registration statement with SEC. This 30 days review process is subjected to reviewing and commenting by SEC. After this process, companies then complete the initial listing application round with exchange. The underwriters then file compensation information for IPO with FINRA. 

5.  Pre-IPO

Although it may not be difficult for funded tech companies as they have already gone through the stage of marketing when they were raising money for their startup. They only have to do it at a much wider scale now with investment banks’ help. What you did Before IPO, investment banks popularize it to the private investors for maximizing company’s position in the market. The investors are usually hedge funds or private equity firms willing to buy shares in the company. 

6.  IPO “Roadshow”

Before several weeks of the IPO, bankers and management team hold a “roadshow” – a series of presentations in which they market the IPO to prospective investors. It is usually when they first announce the offered price range and size of the shares. The intent is to gather interest from the investors for driving up the initial sales price. 

7.  Initiate Trading 

After the roadshow, bankers set up a price determining the initial share value. A few days after that, the IPO closes and stakeholders have to release their shares. After the shares have been released, investors who purchased the shares get allocation and the public trading officially begins.

The post A Tech Entrepreneur Guide to Initial Public Offering (IPO) Process appeared first on Appinventiv.

Out of the plenty of reasons for global economic slowdown, the one that is most on the surface is the impact of coronavirus. 

The Coronavirus Impact

In March, the stock markets shared their biggest losses since the 2008 recession, hinting towards a global slowdown. Following WHO declaration of Coronavirus as a pandemic, Dow too entered the bear market territory and the analysis of coronavirus impact across industries began. It then took little to zero time for wealth managers to draw parallels between this world economic slowdown 2019 and ones created by past pandemics. 

“While some epidemics did spark a market correction — which is what we are witnessing now — their impacts tended to be relatively short lived, with drawdowns lasting less than two months. The HIV/AIDS pandemic in 1981 was the exception with 5.1 months of market impact,” Freddy Lim, the Co-founder and CIO of StashAway told CNBC Make It. 

How Are Investors Reacting To Coronavirus And The Speculations Of Recession? 

The economists and investors from around the world are predicting an economic collapse in the near term. While the discussions around how big the economic impact would be or what will be the duration of global slowdown is still happening around several video conferences, there is one thing that the investors know for sure – it is time for them to be wary of what is to come and the approach to take when the worst strikes. 

Going by the last recessions, here’s what they think will happen in the upcoming global economic recession – 

1.  Fewer Funding 

Since the past 5 years Venture Capitalism has become a hot topic with a number of seed stage fundings being opened with sub-$10 million in capital. Going by the past record, we can predict that lesser seed stage funding institutions will be willing to make investments in the new startups during the economic slowdown 2019. 

2.  Lesser M&A

Public valuations are the first clear impact of recessions. While Dollars are still flooding in as investments into overvalued technology companies, but if you look at the stock prices of famous public technology companies, the stock rates lowered as low as 37% average. 

There are enough statistics to say that we are heading for similar M&A activity in the global slowdown 2019.

3. Lesser IPOs

 IPOs are mainly seen as a prime indicator of the VC state – a big reason why entrepreneurs seek guide on how to have an IPO. In the last 20 years, the numbers have seen a low peak after the Dot Com crash and 2008’s Great recession. Around the same time, we also saw a decline in the value of the exists. Every time that happens, startups start operating with an increased pressure to raise money even on small funding round sizes. Something that can be expected in this world economy recession as well. 

4.  Stringent Investment Criterias

For entrepreneurs seeking investment in the next quarter, they should be prepared to cross tightened investment criterias. Investors will now expect the startups to be more efficient in the customer acquisition costs and shorten their sales cycles. It is expected that the startups which are able to showcase their cash flow maintenance prowess will have a better chance than the ones that rely heavily on marketing and promotion. 

Additionally, the early stage startups will have to prepare for realistic contingency plans to present to the investors when pitching their business. 

With everything that we just covered above, there is one thing that is clear. It will be unwise to take the traditional funding route if your plan is to raise investments this quarter. Let us look into the other different funding models options that are available to the digital-age entrepreneurs. 

The Different Types Of Business Funding Models Available To Startups For The Next Quarter

Community Development Finance Institutions 

There are various nonprofit community development finance institutions operative across multiple countries, which offer capital to microbusiness and small business owners. The difference that these hold from bank loans is the approach that they have towards credit scores. While in banks, low credit scores more often than not land people in no loan pile, in case of CDFIs, credit scores are analyzed on the unfortunate events grounds. 

Partner Financing 

In this funding model, other players in the industry fund your growth in exchange for special access to either your product or staff, distribution rights, etc. They prove to be a good alternative since the company which you partner with through this route are usually a large business or might be in the same industry having an interest in your business offering. 

Invoice Advances 

Under this new age startup funding models, the service providers lend you money on the invoices that you have billed out – ones that you can repay after the customers settle their bills. Through this, the business has the necessary cash flow which it requires to keep operating as you wait for your customers to pay outstanding invoices. Eyal Shinar, the CEO of Fundbox, a small business cash flow management company, mentioned that these advances enable businesses to narrow the pay gap which emerges because of the billed work and payments made to contractors and suppliers. 

Crowdfunding 

Crowdfunding on platforms like Indiegogo and Kickstarter help give small businesses a financial boost. They allow the businesses to create a pool of small investments coming in from different investors instead of poaching one investment source. It is deemed unwise for entrepreneurs to spend all their investment options at an early stage. With the help of crowdfunding, they can raise the required seed funds needed to get the startup off grounds. 

Marketplace Lending 

Peer-to-peer lending is a great option for raising funds. It majorly uses a platform to connect the lenders with borrowers. Prosper and Lending Club are two notable P2P lending platforms active in the USA. P2P lending carries a great deal of potential to be the finance alternative of small businesses, especially in a post-recession credit market. The problem with this funding model is that it is only available in limited states and is yet to become mainstream. 

Revenue-based Financing 

This particular is used mainly on the front of restaurantes and movies. Here, the investors get a fixed percentage of the company’s revenue till they don’t make their x amount of pre-decided money. Funds like the Lighter Capital and Fledge are two of the prime examples of this funding model. 

ICO/ IEO 

If your startup happens to be around Blockchain, it can be a great idea to take a decentralized route to fund your proof of concept or idea. The process of launching an ICO or IEO is slightly more technical than seeking funds in the non-decentralized route. 

What Should Be Startups Next Fund Seeking Move?

We recently wrote an article on the types of mobile apps tech investors will seek to fund in 2022, where we looked into some hot spots in the technical domain that we believed to be in the investors’ radar: Cannabis applications, Real estate apps, Fintech solutions, ERP solutions, and mHealth etc. 

But with pandemic being in its full swing and a state of recession lurking around the corner, the investment choice might see a slight change. 

The investors, as per our understanding, will be backing startups and ideas that answer to masses and answers to all the digital challenges being identified in the current lockdown scenario. 

If your application or digital solution is around the solution of challenges that social distancing poses both for businesses and individuals, there are some resources we have gathered on how to get funding for startup to aid the process and prepare you for success. 

1. How to Raise Money for Mobile App Startups in 2020?
2. How To Build An MVP That Raises Money For Your Mobile App?
3. How to Get Angel Funding on Your Mobile App Prototype?
4. An Introduction to Blockchain Funding Models Beyond ICOs

All these resources comprehensively have all the data that you need to get funding on your app idea, irrespective of the economic situation and probable slumps. Now that you have an answer to how to get funding for startup, the next step should be to create a digital solution which would get you the funding you require. 

Get in touch with a skilled mobile app development company to help your funding-friendly digital solution off-ground.

The post The Non-traditional Funding Models to Consider for the next Quarter appeared first on Appinventiv.

The competition in digital space is on an obvious rise. Meaning, if there was ever a time where you could pass the user acceptance test on a low quality or glitchy software, be definite that the time is long gone. 

Today, the rules of the survival of the fittest game have become one-directional: the digital products that offer the best user experience will rule versus the one that doesn’t. 

The real problem that entrepreneurs have to face is not in terms of delivering the best software products – but finding a team that would help them achieve that. 

Now, finding such a team is difficult because of business reasons that primarily boil down to high developers acquisition cost. This is the reason why entrepreneurs having kickass app or software ideas generally turn towards the outsourcing route and look for answers to how to hire developers for a startup. After all, outsourcing played a major role during the 2008 recession. 

Outsourcing, being a sector that is difficult to navigate when every work process is functional and working as their traditional model, becomes extremely difficult to get a hang off in the present day situation. A situation where the entire world is under lockdown and the software industry is witnessing a new wave of developers rushing in. 

In this hiring remote developers guide, we are going to look into the process of how you can expertly hire remote developers, at a time where the ones promising to be the best are 50 times more than before. 

Table of content

Type of Engineering Teams

Signs That You Need a Remote Team

Why Should You Look for Remote Developers?

Famous Companies That Were Built by a Remote Team

Factors to Consider When Hiring Remote Developers

How to Manage a Remote Team?

Type of Engineering Teams 

In the software industry, whenever we talk in terms of hiring engineers who won’t be working with a company full-time, we mainly talk about two distinct team compositions: On-site engineers and virtual teams. The latter is further subdivided into – Distributed and Remote teams. 

Before we set on to look into the process and streamlining of how to hire remote developers, it is important to come on the same page and understand the different options which are available to you. 

On-site team of developers: Another name of this model is co-located team. Meaning, the developer you partnered with work alongside you in your office space. Companies that generally run on this model include IBM, Yahoo, and BestBuy. 

Distributed team of developers: This team does not have a physical office space, The team members do not communicate face to face and work from different locations like cafes, co-working hubs. They do not even necessarily have to be in the same city or country.

Remote team of developers: The team that lies between both of them is the remote team of developers. While the terms – distributed and remote developers are often used interchangeably, there is an inherent difference between them – just like the on-site model, remote teams also have an office. They just don’t work from there. The examples of these can be seen in Trello, Basecamp, Help Scout, etc. 

With that confusion addressed, let us look into one other confusion that keeps entrepreneurs on the fence when it comes into deep-diving into the effectiveness of the answer on how to hire developers for a startup. 

Signs That You Need a Remote Team

1.  When you lack the desired skill set in your team

The information technology sector is changing at a lightning speed. You will need a constant supply of skills and technical expertise to maintain a competitive edge. Something that is fairly easy to acquire in an offshore work model. 

2.  When you are struggling with high developmental cost 

Although there is no reliable source backing this, but the presence of developers in the USA is very less – meaning, the cost of occurring them is very high. Ergo, the high app development cost at the end. The heat of this high cost can be very painful for SMEs who anyway struggle with the perils of working with a low budget. 

3.  When you struggle in achieving the time to market milestone

What matters is not just your app idea but also how soon you push it into the market for people to use. The one thing that remote teams help you with is working dedicatedly on the milestones that you have planned for your project. Since their main responsibilities lie in adhering to the clients, their whole focus would be on ensuring that your product enters the market just like you expect it to. 

Why Should You Look for Remote Developers?

Constant Development:

This is the number one reason why businesses go on a quest to find developers online. The remote teams tend to work round the clock. Look at it from this angle –  the remote developers belong to different time zones, meaning some or the other part of your app development is happening at all times. Additionally, remote development tends to come with much lesser distractions because of the unwanted breaks and active work culture. All of this together brings down the time to market to a massive extent. 

Greater Engagement:

Going by multiple industry studies and surveys, it has now been proven that remote workers are a lot more engaged than people working in offices. Through the help of modern video conferencing platforms, the remote developers generally feel a lot connected than ones who tend to work in an office environment.

Expanded Development Abilities:

When you take the remote route, there is a greater possibility of you hiring talented developers at very reasonable compensation. When compared to the in-house team, the development capabilities are much greater in the remote teams, since they have more time and an immediate need to remain updated with all the changes happening in the software industry. 

Expanded Market Reach:

Through remote collaboration with the developers in different geographical regions of the world, you are able to expand the market reach indirectly. Since your partnered remote developers are engaged closely with your startup, they act as an unpaid brand ambassador who promote your products to the potential customers in their respective area. 

If you still need some inspiration in terms of why you should make the move of shifting to a remote work process or are unsure if you would succeed along the way, let’s give you some by looking into companies that are doing it and rocking at it. 

Famous Companies That Were Built by a Remote Team

There are a number of tech companies that have been set off grounds and are still running with the help of remote frontend developers, remote backend developers, and remote UI developers. 

Factors to Consider When Hiring Remote Developers

When thinking of hiring a remote team of custom software developers for your project, there are several things that must be considered to note. They can be very profitable when you analyze the requirements effectively and align your plans with the remote developers’ abilities. But there are many things that can wrong as well. Thus, it’s important to know the questions to ask a mobile app development company before hiring them and to keep the below mentioned points in consideration: 

A Clearly-Outlined Development Requirement

Before anything else, you should start with identifying the development needs as it would help you choose the resources you require. The development requirements should clearly highlight your expectations (with respect to work and delivery time) and what you want the developers to achieve, both on an everyday and milestone basis. 

An In-depth Remote Developer Screening Plan

Hiring remote mobile developers is never easy. The most important concern that businesses face when outsourcing their project is the fact they would have to share their secrets while expecting a superior-grade work from someone who is sitting thousands of miles away. 

Therefore, it is very crucial to be sure of their caliber, competence, and dedication when you find app developers who will be working remotely. Building an in-depth screening process with proper technical sessions would help with the evaluation of a developer’s abilities and prevent any shock instances later. 

Streamlined Communication 

The biggest roadblock in the remote development world can be glitchy communications. With multiple time zones, non-similar work timings and language differences, collaboration on a software project can be a hassle if you don’t create a communication strategy and get your hands on the best tools. 

You should ensure that both internal and remote teams agree on the chosen mode of communication, the tools, tenure, and medium. It would make you a lot more efficient in managing remote teams and gain maximum outcomes when you outsource. 

Structured Project Timeline

When working with a remote team, it becomes all the more important to develop a clear, detailed roadmap which defines scope and timeline of a project. In place of being utterly unrealistic about the deliveries, it will always be better to make timelines which all the stakeholders agree on. 

It also helps to know the regional holidays to plan the timelines and milestones accordingly. 

Flexibility & Scalability

The last thing that we would like you to consider is to account for flexibility. When you find mobile app developers through a remote route, the main intent is to look for experts in their field. A skilled developer generally comes on board with their ideas and suggestions. By being flexible in the development approach in a way that you are able to account for their suggestion can be a good way to go when looking to improve engagement within teams. 

Everything that you read till this point was aimed at helping you choose the right remote team to partner with for your software development project. Let us next look into the practices that are required for managing remote employees and making the collaboration effective. 

How to Manage a Remote Team?

1.   Schedule Communications 

The remote teams, by definition, are designed to work from different locations and even different time zones. Keeping up with the scheduled meeting not just helps you organize your team’s workflow and day, it also eliminates the time gap and delayed project launch. 

2.  Fix the Tools for Remote Teams

Tools are necessary for providing remote team collaborations – for they are what structure your team’s work. A remote team that has a common email service, file sharing capabilities, instant messaging platform, a project management software, a video conferencing tool etc is deemed the most efficient. 

3.  Define the Work Process

Creating straightforward project guidelines for teamwork, productivity, and accountability helps teams know what to expect. It is necessary to present the project idea in detail and describe what you want to get done in clear details. The project estimate will depend on the communication you do with the team. 

At this stage, it is necessary to review project requirement documents in-depth to ensure that all the functionalities are included. Most of the IT companies work on the basis of Agile methodologies. Therefore, it is always wise to break the process down into several iterations and ask your project manager to have a summary session with you after every meeting to know the new goals and identify the decisions made. 

4.  Offer Constant Feedback 

The outcome of every sprint and iteration will only depend on how quick and extensive your feedback is. It is very important to keep the feedback loop and time gaps minimal, so as to ensure maximum transparency. 

Another thing that helps when it comes to keeping everyone on the same page is deciding the terminologies that everyone in the team would understand. Try to deliver your thoughts without the medium of slangs and idioms, to save instances of misinterpretations. 

5.  Reward the Remote Developers 

In many ways, you are your team’s leader. Meaning, your team will look up to you for approval and praises. To start on with the praise cycle, you can start every team meeting with praises on the job done so far. Be sure that you explain what you liked about the course of the project. A constructive praise like this, will help your team move in the right direction.

The post A Guide on How to Hire a Team of Remote Developers appeared first on Appinventiv.

Since most of the influential countries are on complete lockdown while others are preparing for the possibility of the worst, its domino effect is putting the world economy in absolute shambles and welcoming the recession which was already due. 

Amid all this chaos and unforeseen, lies the future of many existing startup businesses paranoid to the core they might not see the sun of the booming economy.

The conundrum that most entrepreneurs must be in right now has to be – whether this precarious Coronavirus winter is the best time to start a business or similarly, invest in developing innovative business ideas during lockdown for mobile apps.

Multiple sources may state the obvious speculation that the economy is on a downfall leading to a mass loss on a global level; nevertheless, there is always a silver lining for some and we are going to bring it to you with post pandemic startup ideas.

Which Business Is Good During Lockdown?

Though we are experiencing the new normal in our own way, the lockdown is not over yet. Being said that, let’s look into some ideas for a mobile app and business.

Become a Business Consultant

The majority of the organizations these days work from a distance and as a business specialist, you would require guidance for taking care of digital processes related to dealing with a business. Utilize these tools for giving expert help over how to direct successful marketing efforts or pitch software ideas during pandemic and so on and see your business flourish.

Take Up Digital Marketing Projects

Offline occasions and other traditional marketing rehearses have taken the back seat. You can help organizations connect with their target customers through online channels and bring in cash. On the off chance that you have a decent client base now, you can begin with your own digital marketing setup post the lockdown.

Get into Online Teaching

The perfect example of online business ideas during a pandemic is to contact an expanding number of students who are battling to proceed with their studies during the lockdown. You can connect with them through online courses and video meetings to explain various ideas effectively.

Start with Freelancing Projects

There is a big interest in outsourcing tasks identified with interpretation, content composition, graphic designing, and so forth. Better to join sites like Upwork and Freelancer to get outsourcing projects according to your expertise. Build a decent reputation with customers today, and you can proceed with this independent venture thought later on in the future.

Print-On-Demand Business

Quirky banners, cards, T-shirts and wallpapers stand out for everyone. One example of business during a pandemic is that you can begin selling print-on-demand embellishments and accessories, for example, coffee cups, pads, cushions, lights, and so on. This is one of the best standout amongst other independent venture thoughts to acquire a good pay consistently.

So, without any further ado, let’s embark on the road to the startup advantages of startup app development or ideas for business during pandemic.

What are the Startup Ideas/Business Opportunities After Lockdown? 

1. You may just be the only fish in the pond

The ambivalence of the current situations has been believed to scare-off the wantrepreneurs from the market. They only initiate when the situations are in favor of the possibility of earning money readily. This gives enough space to the entrepreneurs like you who are ahead of the curve and believe in running opposite from the crowd (pun intended). 

Like Salmon fish, it is the ones who swim the opposing current towards upstream, jump waterfalls and do not stray from their goal irrespective of exogenous conditions that would come out stronger once the pandemic is over and the economy starts to become stable.

2.  An MVP now can make your business stable for future

A true entrepreneur knows that the best income source for any startup is the pocket of customers and not capital ventures. Since Sequoia Venture Capital has announced COVID-19 to be the ‘Black Swan’ of 2020, companies who were expecting to fundraise are in a pickle now. This is one of the obstacles or rather effects of recession on startups and markets in general.

Ipso facto, it is not ideal for startups to be utterly dependent on these fundings in a recessionary economy. This is what answers the question of “why do we need MVP” . Developing an MVP at this point is your best bet to generate revenue and ensure self-sustainability.

{To know how do you develop an MVP, refer to this extensive article}

Since an MVP is not an over-engineered solution, it takes less development time on top of the cost of development that’s easy on the pocket.

3.  If these apps are bagging big, so can you

Let’s look at some niches and their applications that are the most in-demand right now and are truly capturing the business  opportunities during recession as they come.

Entertainment and Streaming apps

Recent events have limelight that people are now more willing to spend on streaming subscriptions. Since the world is on lockdown, people are reaching out to these entertainment mobile applications to pass the time. 

Although things might not be as smooth for Netflix on the production front, according to Yahoo reports, applications like Netflix in this niche are really profiting since the app downloads and subscriptions are on the peak. Meanwhile, people are spending more hours streaming. 

Not that more hours spent, in any way, will benefit the startup app development company anymore; it is something startup ideas during pandemic like you can benefit from if you plan to develop an app like Netflix.

This popularity has not left entertainment apps like Tiktok from the picture. You can see many celebrities using the application for various purposes be it for educating people and spreading awareness or the subtle joy of doing everything and nothing on the app. If you unleash an MVP of the app like these in the market now, you’ll be one step ahead of the competitors.

Video conferencing apps 

Since most of the organizations have implemented work from home, the app stores have seen a huge surge in the downloads of video conferencing apps like Zoom. It is currently the number one free application in the App Store.

Mental Health and meditation apps

According to Adweek, Breethe a meditation app has secured 41st spots in the health and fitness category ranking by skipping 31 spots over the last week itself and BetterMe, another meditation app, jumped 70 spots up to 26th position.

Moreover, the Ginger app and other mental health platforms that are offered by employers to their employees have witnessed a surge in usage since employees have turned to online tools to manage their anxiety. Moreover, in stressful times like this, people are reaching towards such mental health and meditation applications to maintain their calm. 

Food delivery app segment

Due to the on-going social distancing and lockdown, people have turned towards the food delivery applications. In fact, on comparing the average daily downloads from February to March 15, it was noted that apps like Instacart, Walmart Grocery, and Shipt have witnessed their daily downloads surge by 218%, 160%, and 124%, respectively. This surge might be owed to the “contactless delivery” initiative which was first implemented in China.

There are many pandemic proof business ideas like these that are taking the most advantage.

4. Can get a hold of brimming talent for less value

This is one of the many positive effects of recession on start-ups. Once the lockdown situation has passed and recession finally hits the world economy, the high unemployment rate will prevail – something you can, fortunately, benefit from as a startup.

Instead of professionals, you can hire fresh talent with a lot of potential to offer for your trending app ideas during lockdown. As dismal as it is, in recessionary times, people are more willing to do the work for below-market salaries in return for benefits and equity-based recompense. 

Moreover, a market headed towards the downfall also produces many refugees from big companies. They can really help startups with their expertise and experience.

5. Chance to mold value proposition as per market demand

Unlike established organizations, you can easily modify your startup’s value proposition to make it more suited to the market slowdown and minimize any adverse impact of recession on business. After all, ‘a bend in the road is not an end of the road as long as you take the turn’. 

To make this scenario clearer, let’s say the product you developed enhances productivity. Then, when the times are good you can market it as a ‘revenue generator’ whereas, in situations like these when the market is down, it can be portrayed as a ‘cost-saver’ – something which is more promising. 

For instance, meditation applications were used by people to get away from work stress and get a little detached from it; however, now it’s working as a great tool to increase mindfulness and productivity.

6. More time to measure your steps

The saying “if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” is apt when it comes to initiating any mobile app startup ideas. 

Because of the slow pace of the market economy, you have an upper hand to plan out everything related to your startup and the mobile app ideas during the pandemic that you are planning to develop. This would not only give you a chance to point out any mistakes or scope of improvement, but also innovate ways for cost-cutting, something which you cannot afford to do in the time of economic frenzy.

7. You can get resources in cheap

This is certainly not a brainer that the prices of resources will significantly drop in the coming recession. So, you can easily hire experienced and fresher personnel. Moreover, everything you need to fuel your business startup will cost you less in times like these. 

As an entrepreneur, the two most valuable resources are time and money. During the down market, companies are made to negotiate below the list prices and in fact, even barter for in-kind services. Such situations enable you to make deals reducing the costs and conserve the cash.

8. Endure now for prosperous future 

If you wait for the tides to mellow down, you may not reach the heights of success you can reach by riding these perilous tides. The point is – do not remain on the sidelines and wait for the uncertainties to perish. Business is all about taking the risk. The greater the risk, the bigger the success. 

If you can manage to survive this COVID-19 and recession winter, you will definitely emerge as a successful startup as opposed to those businesses starting at an economic turnaround.

Wrapping Up

Apart from these genuine and incredible advantages of starting a startup or developing an app during COVID-19 and recession, there are other things that may play in the favor of tech startups and also validate the fact that startups in recessions are the perfect time to start a business.

The fact that the U.S. government has decided to spend $8 billion to fight the outbreak. This would include not only the states, hospitals, and other medical providers but also the tech startups and companies in the healthcare space, like those innovating mHealth med and self-diagnosis apps, among many other things. So, if you are a startup interested in targeting this industry, you can surely benefit to a great extent.

Although this is not the world’s first recession and neither the last. The same goes for the pandemic (unfortunately), these might be just a great time to start a business and help it flourish. If you have left a scope of confusion, reach out to our team of android app developer to get the answer.

The post Do You Think Pandemic is Ideal Time for Your Startup / Mobile App Idea? appeared first on Appinventiv.

As dismal as it is, we are standing on the edge of the cliff where looming recession can come any time to push us into the economic downfall, mirroring the situations that occurred in the economic downturn 2008. 

Before discussing any further, I feel we should first clear the air around the “Recession” itself.

What accounts for a recession period?

It is a period in the business cycle that comes at a time when economic activities are in a receding phase. The typical examples of recession are the increased unemployment rate, declining average income coupled with consumer spending, peaking business failures, and of course, crashing stock markets. Nevertheless, recessions are an anticipated occurrence in the modern economy.

Speaking on the business front in detail, outsourcing is one of the things that businesses become more skeptical about during recessionary times. So we are here to change this perspective and open your mind to the various possibilities you can avail of by outsourcing your IT-based needs during the recession, which also includes outsourcing mobile app development agencies.

Companies that survived 2008 recession through outsourcing

The skepticism around outsourcing during the recession is quite understandable for many reasons. However, it is also an acknowledged fact that people tend to follow the footsteps some industry giants have taken. 

In which case, let’s have a look at some renowned organizations who took shelter under outsourcing when the recessionary economy was forcing them to lose the money.

Apple Inc. has been known to outsource manufacturing from China; however, some are not aware of the fact that one in every three Apple engineers is outsourced. And the company continued its practice while the big economic recession of 2008 was going on. In fact, to date, Apple still practices manufacturing and IT outsourcing.

If anyone has created a lasting impact in the tech world it is IBM. While the company itself offers outsourcing for many purposes, it also outsources its needs from other countries and partnerships. In 2008, IBM signed various outsourcing contracts – a fact that can put many minds at ease. 

One of the many companies to do IT outsourcing is Cisco Systems. The company sailed through the economic downturn turmoil by downsizing through outsourcing.

What makes outsourcing a time-tested solution to stay afloat during recession?

It is cost-effective – a plus in downturn economy

There are many benefits of outsourcing, and this is an important one among them. As opposed to the in-house team, outsourcing in a recession allows businesses to reduce costs for activities and duties that do not need a full-time team. And since you are outsourcing your part-time needs, you will be able to retain the employees who are more valuable to the company. 

This is something which is also true for mobile app development since the hourly rates for developing mobile applications and digital products, in general, are way cheaper in the east as compared to the west. Plus, you only need to create an app once, so hiring an in-house team makes less sense.

Can easily provide necessary benefits to employees

One thing that’s a concern for employees besides getting fired is the loss of benefits, which to be fair, doesn’t play to the advantage of the business either. So, if you outsource departments such as accounting, HR, IT, and marketing, you can save up on the money since you do not have to pay them the benefits and offer them to your personnel instead.

Improved efficiency in terms of productivity

When a business fires the low-level employees (an impact of the global recession), the pool of resources obviously shrinks to the minimum. In which case, all the low-value tasks, wantingly or not, fall on the shoulder of the higher-level employees hampering their productivity at best. To avoid such losses, outsourcing in a recession will come in handy and pose as a perfect solution, especially for startups or mid-sized organizations.

Helps eliminate over-work for employees

If employees expect one thing after the mass firing due to the downturn, it is the over-workload. It is obvious that responsibilities pile up on their desk with no time to manage things. 

Such situations are catalytic for work-stress, which obviously diminishes the potential of a perfectly capable employee. Hence, outsourcing your needs is your ultimate weapon against stress, unproductivity, and all things alike disturbing the smooth flow of companies. 

Recession or no recession – How to get started with outsourcing?

After everything is said and done, comes the question of “How to get started with outsourcing?”.

Especially for those entrepreneurs who are new to this concept, it can be comparatively challenging. So, let’s discuss how you can outsource with effective measures.

Start with research

An obvious one though, you can start your outsourcing process by doing your homework. When you are looking to hire remote developers, browse on the internet and search, read reviews, and last but not the least, ask local businesses for referrals. You can also refer to some esteemed renowned platforms like Clutch for the most reliable choices.

{Also read: Clutch Names Appinventiv a Top Mobile Development Agency for Startups}

Shortlist and interview several candidates

Once you have prepared the list of most viable candidates, you can start by interviewing them by scheduling a call with each company. If it’s an off-shore software development outsourcing company, then video conferencing is an ideal way to go. It is important at this stage that you state your priorities, vision, and important elements to the companies to get an idea of whether they are fit to be your technology partner or not.

Portfolio is a crucial testament 

It goes without saying how important it is for every entrepreneur to demand the portfolio from the selected company. The portfolio is something that provides insights into what kind of potential a company holds and whether or not it can fulfill your needs.

Cross-check through client reviews

It is imperative for you to ask for client reviews since they can help you in comparing the difference between the promises/claims vs reality. Keep this in mind that best IT outsourcing and mobile app development companies would be more than willing and able to provide reviews. Once these conditions are met, you can seal the deal.

If you would like a more detailed tour on this topic specific to app development, then I suggest you check out our intense article “How to Outsource App Development? (2019-2020 Guide)”.

How has modern-day outsourcing evolved since the 2008 Grimness? 

Almost twelve years have gone by, so naturally many trends in outsourcing emerging from the great recession.

To start with, ‘Recession-proofing’ future outsourcing contracts are a thing now. Meaning, contracts that are created now are more flexible keeping the point of the looming recession in focus. Back then, the contracts have been drafted restrictively that exploited the imbalance of bargaining power – which absolutely proved futile after the major changes brought by the black swan of businesses – recession.

Robotic Process Automation technology is yet incredible change capable of transforming the outsourcing market by bringing the costs down a notch. Since, on the mobile app development front, a pretty high amount of data is exchanged between the company and the clients regarding designs, prototypes, MVPs and whatnot of the product – something can be easily managed now with the advent of RPA and AI technology.

How can Appinventiv help you?

Appinventiv is a leading digital product development company with a distributed agile team of professionals. Our team functions across multiple geographical locations instead of one office space, which eliminates the risk of getting affected from economical situations. Recession or not, we never compromise on the quality of our services and products, posing as an ultimate choice for your outsourcing needs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q.  What is outsourcing in business?

Outsourcing is a process where organizations hire other service providers for certain business tasks and purposes.

The post How Outsourcing Helped Companies Survive the 2008 Recession? appeared first on Appinventiv.

In both cases, the benefits of mobile app maintenance are manifold. 

While in the case of the former, you will have to spend little time in the whole update and maintenance process, the latter would require your frontend and back end team to come together and understand the product to its entirety before moving on to its updation. Either way, maintenance is a part of the overall mobile app development cost estimate.

In this article, we are going to look into the factors that make mobile app frontend maintenance cost expensive, how can the cost be lowered and ultimately move on to the steps of lowering of maintenance cost in case of Node.js, Angular, and React.js projects. 

Table of Content

1. Why is App Maintenance Process Important?
2. What Makes App Frontend Maintenance Cost Expensive?
3. How Can Developers Lower App Maintenance Cost in Angular, ReactJS, and Node.js?
4. How can Project Managers Lower App Frontend Maintenance Cost?
5. FAQs About Frontend Application Maintenance Cost

Why is App Maintenance Process Important? 

Improper mobile app maintenance plan leads to challenges in flexibility and stability, which sooner or later translates into application’s failure. When the code lacks quality or when developers use outdated tools, the app performance suffers and the users experience more app crashes and bugs. Moreover, it hampers app’s scalability capability and the overall next phases of app development. 

In business terms, this means more technology and resources inclusion, greater cost, and delayed launch time. 

Efficient maintenance, on the other hand, makes apps flexible and stable, enabling you to create new functionalities and improving the present ones. And thus, knowing when to update your app is extremely important. 

What Makes App Frontend Maintenance Cost Expensive?

Besides the obvious – multiple types of frontend app maintenance, lesser app tests and absence of continuous maintenance, there are some other prevalent reasons that bring the cost of frontend maintenance up. 

A. Non-Structured JavaScript 

There are many ways of structuring a JavaScript project, keeping it consistent is the most important part of Android app maintenance. A well defined structure enables developers to understand what is going on in the project at the first glance without making them search a particular file for hours on end. Even when the product is based on famous libraries like Vue or React, it has the probability of becoming chaotic as it grows. 

In preparation of lowering the frontend maintenance cost, you should consider defining the style guide for project structure to use as a reference for the development team. 

B.  Poor Code Quality

The quality of your code is very essential for defining your project’s success, even when keep aside the fact that it is a part of the list of OWASP Mobile Top 10 Risks. While things like identical file structure, consistent incidents, and semicolons are insignificant for a non-technical person, they hold great value when it comes to defining the project’s success. 

This, in turn, tends to increase the app frontend maintenance cost in the future. 

C. Back-Dated Third Party Packages 

There is a high probability that your product uses open source libraries and third party packages. Since these external resources are updated rapidly, it is important that you too update their versions in your app in order to remove project dependencies’ problems because of vulnerabilities and issues. The new versions contain performance improvements, bug fixes, security enhancements, etc which ensures that the app is working up to its fullest potential. 

D.  Non Automated Build Process and Deployment 

Build and deployment are the last stages before the app gets live. When they are not developed in an error proof manner, it might get expensive to kill the bug later. The absence of automated build and deployment pipeline slows down development to a great extent, while lowering the team efficiency. You should go with the implementation of a continuous integration which includes running automated tests for all the new commits. Doing this, enables you to identify bugs and solve them in real-time. 

E.  Absence of Readme

Readme is one the most important files of a project. It makes the project requirement, its usage, and the development, deployment process clear. If you fail to keep it updated, your development team might end up spending multiple hours in solving issues that have been solved earlier. 

How Can Developers Lower App Maintenance Cost in Angular, ReactJS, and Node.js?

• Use the latest versions 

All the three frameworks keep introducing new versions from time to time. Ensuring that you are using the most recent ones gives you a number of benefits – increased app efficiency, long term support from the parent team, access to all the latest functionalities and features – some of the key reasons for maintaining the frontend of an app. 

• Ask for clear documentation 

Very few projects lasts with the same developers working on it till the end. Documentation plays a significant role here in the application development services for mobile as the developer who is new to the project has a clear understanding of the project and the work status, pipeline tasks are clear to them. 

• Ensure compatibility with third-party modules

Making a list of third-party modules which are compatible with the chosen frontend framework can be a great start.You will have to proactively ensure that there is a plan B for the future where the modules will get a major update and it fails to be compatible with your chosen frontend.

• Test before implementing new features

If you have to implement or rewrite some functionalities, first ensure that the app’s behaviour is tested in advance. For instance, if you have to rewrite a logic in your app, it’ll be easier to implement the changes when you are sure that the present functionality has been tested. This way, in case something stops working, you will know it instantly. 

• Use microservices 

If the issue lies in the monolithic structure, you must extract microservices out of the app so that it can work separately. Every mini-app should serve its purpose right. It will, in turn, streamline scalability for you will be able to move the services around different machines and dev teams – a microservice benefit that is not possible in monolithic. 

• Improve the code quality 

If the app works fine but the code quality seems inconsistent or low, you must start with introducing conventions. Start by clearing the file structure by dividing it into logical units. It will be good to implement the static code analysis tools and use type systems. There are other things that you should follow to ensure a sound code quality:

• A properly configured Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment 
• Addition of linters in pipeline for ensuring poor/inconsistent codes are not put in production. 
• Code refactoring should be a must-have development process.

How can Project Managers Lower App Frontend Maintenance Cost?

As a non-technical project manager, you can majorly take only one step to avoid high maintenance cost in frontend – Hire an experienced frontend team which has the skillset to give you the desired quality and understand the importance of not delaying tests just for meeting deadlines. Even if you don’t have the necessary monetary resources to employ an entire team of frontend developers, you will have to at least employ one skilled resource for the task. 

The other strategy to reduce frontend maintenance cost, while not so common, is building single page application. 

FAQs About Frontend Application Maintenance Cost

1.  What makes frontend maintenance expensive?

There are a number of reasons that bring the mobile app frontend maintenance costs up:poor code quality, outdated third-party package, non-structured javascript, non automated build and deployment process, etc. 

2.  How much does frontend maintenance of mobile app cost?

There cannot be one concrete answer to this question. Most often than not, the app development and maintenance costs go hand in hand and are dependent on the app features, designs, tech stack, etc.

3.  How to avoid high maintenance cost on frontend

When it comes to reducing the mobile or web application maintenance cost, the ways around it are somewhat same – using the latest version of toolset, asking for a clear documentation, using microservices, ensuring compatibility with third-party modules, etc.

The post How to Lower the Mobile App Frontend Maintenance Cost appeared first on Appinventiv.

From a business point of view, you couldn’t risk going wrong here since these risks can cash-on in any minute. So, what tools are capable of giving you the most bang for your buck?  – Well, off the top of my head – Angular framework.

Here comes the most expected question – But why?

The fact that there are various reasons for using Angular framework is why it is deemed one of the most recommended for businesses and enterprises.

For one, the current update Angular version 9 fixes all the bugs that created problems in Angular 8. The framework is not just better than most of the frameworks out there, but is a constant improvement on its previous versions as well. 

For instance, Angular 9 comes with Ivy as standard renderer. Meaning, developers can ship less code as fewer instructions are required now. This ripples down to other advantages which previous versions were lacking.

So, let’s move on to the reasons validating why one should build Angular applications.

Benefits of using Angular for business

1.  Functionality

When it comes to facilitating the development process, Angular is the one framework developers look up to. It won’t be overstating to say it offers out-of-the-box functionality. Not only it provides tools for routing (in order for you to fetch the data you plan to add into your app), but it’s preconfigured environment also takes care of development and testing. 

With Angular, you don’t have to incorporate third-party libraries in your tech-stack for creating basic functionality for your digital product. It all can be done via its official library provided by the team of Angular, assuring you of its security and impeccable quality of code. All this reduces the app development cost and time, an advantage of Angular that businesses investing in mobile app development always look forward to.

2.  Clear code with TypeScript 

One of the Angular framework advantages is that it is built with Typescript. But what does this signify for a business?

Well, this means since Typescript is a strongly-typed and the base language for Angular, it allows developers to keep the code clean and neat. And the cleaner the code, the better your app will perform. 

This ripples down to making bug-fixing easier. The developers can spot and then eradicate these errors as they are being typed. It’s basically like Grammarly for your code, cool right? Moreover, it also helps in managing and maintaining large codebase (beneficial for enterprise-scale projects). 

Moreover, Angular 8 uses Typescript version 3.4 offering type inferring, reduced build time, and syntax changes and has exceptional navigation, autocompletion, and refactoring services. 

3. Consistency with reusability

Let me put it out there straight – inconsistent coding not only increases the risk of delayed time-to-market but also escalates development cost while reducing the efficiency of the digital product. And that is not something you, as an entrepreneur, would want.

This is where developing mobile & web apps with Angular would play to your benefit. Angular offers consistent code, which has its own benefits such as it makes using websites easier while allowing the use of templates or even predefined snippets of code.

Notably, upon comparing Angular vs React, I found that Angular is more of a fully-responsive web design framework. To enhance consistency,  the team has developed and optimized Angular CLI tools used for making specific repeatable blocks of code from the command line.

4. Productivity

Since the code is consistent, its positives also produce increased productivity. developers no longer have to invest their time in figuring out what utility, function, or a component does because it’s all taken care of by Angular. 

Also, the readability of the code makes it all the more easy for developers to slot into an ongoing app project.

Moreover, Angular organizes codes into buckets (modules). These modules make app functionality organization facile by dividing it into features and reusable chunks while allowing for lazy loading that enables feature loading in the background or on-demand. 

This JavaScript framework for building web apps makes it an achievable goal to dissect and segregate the labor across different team members while ensuring organized code, which improves productivity with appropriate modules built.

5.  Maintainability

Speaking of the benefits of Angular, it addresses the concern of maintainability in two ways – by using Typescript and focusing on testability. 

Almost all established mobile app development companies use Typescript that allows developers to find bugs as they type the code. Moreover, TypeScript also enables developers who are unfamiliar with the codebase to quickly get acquainted with it since they can see the types of data moving through the application. 

As for the testability front, dependency injection is a crucial aspect of Angular which contributes to making test writing easier. In fact, the framework also includes support Protractor for end-to-end testing.

Additionally, when upgrading current Angular to its latest version, all packages related to it are also updated at the same time. This signifies that HTTP, Routing, and Angular Material are also included. And updating can also be done by one single command “ng update” and it would do the trick without wasting any time.

6.  Angular material

One of the Angular framework advantages is Angular material. In brief, Angular Material is a set of UI modules and components that are well-tested and hence ready-to-use. It follows Material Design principles by Google and possesses a wide range of UI components like navigation patterns, buttons, indicators, and form controls. The components here are modified to match better with browsers. 

What these modules do is make the design workflow easy, which as a result, enables developers to add new elements and create digital products in an expedited manner while hindering the app performance to a minimum.

{Also give our article a read on “Flat Design or Material Design- Which One to Prefer?”}

7.  Declarative UI

HTML is used here to define the UI of the mobile app. It is believed that HTML is one of the less convoluted, declarative, and intuitive programming languages as compared to JavaScript.

Now, if you are wondering how this helps you as a business, then let me tell you that due to this functionality, developers won’t have to invest unnecessary time in program flows and deciding what should load first. All you have to do is define what you require and Angular can do it.

8.  Simplified MVC architecture

On top of other benefits of Angular, this one really is a gem. This framework is fundamentally embedded with the original Model-View-Controller software architecture setup, though it might not be as per established standards.

Moreover, the Angular framework doesn’t ask developers to dissect the app into separate MVC components and create a code that could combine them. Instead of this, it only needs developers to divide the app and that’s it. In short, it facilitates less coding enabling apps to perform faster.

9.  Easier Unit-testing

Because the components are independent of each other, it makes the unit testing process easier. As for the benefits of Angular, one of them that is highly appreciated is that it supports the development of highly testable websites and applications. 

In fact, it is generally believed that this framework was fundamentally designed keeping the ease of testing in mind, something which renders impeccable digital products which is what any business expects from the development.

Type of applications and websites built with Angular

1. Netflix

Probably the most hyped and popular streaming entertainment application Netflix is a classic use case of Angular. More specifically, the team at netflix used AngularJS as the frontend tool and while the backend needs were satisfied by Python and Flask.

It is also apparent after what we have read above that the cost of developing an app like Netflix can be minimized with the benefits and attributes that Angular offers.

2. Upwork

A rather insanely popular platform for freelancers Upwork also incorporated the Angular framework for its website and mobile application to render the application impeccable performance.    

3. Youtube TV

Youtube TV is Google’s alternative service to Hulu + Live TV. This platform was developed with the help of Angular 2 which launched in the market in 2017. 

4. Gmail

Gmail, the mailing service in the form of both mobile apps and websites also employs the goodness of Angular framework. In fact, other products by Google are also developed using Angular, which serves as a reason why many enterprises and mobile app development companies alike trust it with their digital products.

To conclude – Although, contenders like React might have more searches online, the majority of developers show more interest in Angular because of the availability of ready-made solutions. As for the business front, Angular definitely outshines React on the grounds of development speed and productivity – an attribute that is a ‘deal-sealer’ for enterprises, isn’t it?

Frequently Asked Questions

1.  Why do developers and companies choose Angular?

Out of all the benefits of Angular framework that it has to offer to the developers, cleaner code, faster testing, better debugging, improved CSS class and style binding, etc. might be the most enticing reasons. And as for the businesses, the impeccable performance of the product with efficient and expedited development process might be the reasons why they bend a little more towards Angular.

2. What projects can benefit from Angular?

Angular is said to be the perfect choice of framework for building single-page applications and enterprises projects.

3. Why Angular is the best framework for web development?

Some of the reasons that render Angular framework the best for web development are-

• Declarative user interface
• Lesser code
• Offers support for Google
• Comes with multiple ready-made components and tools which reduce development time

The post Why Businesses Choose Angular for Developing Digital Products? appeared first on Appinventiv.

If you choose to develop an application without doing the research, then while characterizing the audience, and planning use cases and features that will interest that audience, you risk developing a product you assume individuals will need, but in reality they don’t.

There can be numerous gatherings of users for an application, so during the early planning and discovery phase of a project, you need to distinguish the product’s central demographics and make user personas. A client persona is a semi-anecdotal portrayal of the item’s ideal user. The more itemized client personas are, the better. Demographics, behaviour patterns, inspirations, and objectives are only a couple angles to include for a user persona.

If you are unsure of what you are supposed to incorporate in your business plan for app startup or how to start one, refer to this detailed article to help yourself. 

Nevertheless, before we start our discussion, I feel we first need to sit down and ponder on the “why” of creating a business plan for your mobile application. 

Now, it’s time to move on to our main discussion answering questions such as “How to build Business Plan for a Mobile App Startup” or “How to Write Business Plan for Mobile Application Idea?”

Steps To Create a Business Plan For Your Mobile App

1. Detailed Summary

You have to start somewhere! Thus, a short overview of your detailed mobile app business plan is something you must pay special attention to, since this is going to be the first thing that the potential investors will encounter. 

Things that make this section ideal are – convey more while writing less, refrain from mentioning the working of the product, and so on. Instead, focus more on market scenario, targeted users, and make sure you implement the below mentioned steps–

• Focus on problems addressed

‘Problems’ are something that always prevails. Meaning, there is always room for improvement and innovation. What you are supposed to do here is analyze the problems users are facing with the existing solutions and find out –

1. The needs and demands of the users at the moment 
2. Problems users are facing with the products similar to yours
3. why these solutions fail to satisfy – what are they lacking that you can provide in a better and different way.

• State your proposed solution

Try not to divert from the path of the problem while explaining its solution, i.e., do not go into the functioning and features of your app, rather stay focused on the problem and the ways in which your app addresses them.  

• Unique Value Proposition

This is where you can boast of the things that differentiate you from other organizations and solution providers, something about your app that is unique in itself. Not just better but definitely different. For example, the USP for Domino’s Pizza is “You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less or else it’s free.”

• End objective of your app

After everything’s said and done, it all comes down to this – The goals you plan to achieve with your app. 

You MUST state the vision of your app’s future, i.e., how many downloads you are initially expecting on your application, how much profit you are expecting, and much more. It is best to visualize your short-term plans and then improve your answer through metrics.

2. Company Introduction

The next step while making a detailed and convincing business plan is to prepare your company’s information. Since the future is unpredictable, the things you have mentioned in the above section may not be as appealing to the investors as you may conjecture. 

Firms like Y Combinator, TechStars, to name a few, are known to select startups for funding based on the team and the founders. So, you see how crucial this section just became for you. Moreover, it would add as a plus point if you could provide information about the MVP or a prototype you have developed.

The things you should cover here are –

• Provide an overview

There are some questions that you need to address in this section to help investors understand your organization and develop trust in it.

1. Type of entity – Are you an LLC or privately owned organization? 
2. Location – Where is it housed?
3. Duration – When was the organization established?
4. What is the team size of your company?
5. Do you operate off-shore as well or not?
6. What are the problems your company is currently going through?
7. What is the ultimate goal of the company?
8. What is your vision?

• Take it from the top

Like a novel, you must tell the story of your organization while briefly touching on all the preliminary motivations, business app ideas, problems, etc. that you encountered at the time of its inception.

List everything about the history of your company that is worth knowing, since it could be a lot damaging if any crucial information is withheld from the investors and is revealed later. It can include the locations you have operated in, early hires, major pivots, product launches, and such.

• Management team

Remember each and every person in your company is an important cog in your organization’s machinery. This is why you are required to mention the names of all the members of management with all the relevant information related to them, i.e., qualification, professional experience, expertise, KRAs while mentioning the organizational hierarchy.

• Advisory panel

Almost every mobile app development company is backed by an advisory team. The panel consists of industry experts with years of experience under the belt. More often than not, they are the makers of some successful apps. Creating a list of such advisors can immensely improve your brand image and credibility, boosting the chances of getting funds.

3.  All About the Industry

Essentially, your end product is going to target a particular industry. Hence, it is obvious for you as an entrepreneur to know every grain of major information, from market history to current trends related to your targeted industry.

• Market size

The most basic thing that you must know and also showcase in your app startup business plan is the size of the market. This includes – total available market (market demand for the app), serviceable available market (number of users you can target say in 3 to 5 years), and serviceable obtainable market (the segment of your initial users in 6 to 12 months).

If you are wondering how to do so then, you can always refer to the credible data provided by some trusted third-party platforms, namely, Sensor Tower, App Annie, and Statista.

• Keep updated with market projections

You need to understand the market’s past and present to gain insight into future predictions. The best thing to do here is to compare and analyze the market size of the past 5 years, mention the number of new entrants in the industry, the number of total fundings, and so on.

• Competitors analysis

Competitive analysis is an indispensable element of any business on this planet. Regardless of the organization type, industry, size, etc. – all religiously perform this step. 

Various models around this have been devised to gain the attention of angel investors. Out of the many, the one we recommend is the 2 x 2 matrix model, in which variables portray these four aspects: challengers, leaders, niche players, and visionaries. In order to highlight the execution and vision of the app as it progresses, these four elements are displayed via an x-y axis scale.

• Self-assessment through SWOT

SWOT analysis representing four components – Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats is used for self-assessment by all organizations. It enables you to give a structured description of your company’s situation in an efficient way in your business plan for app development.

4.  Marketing Strategy

Acting as a bridge between your app and the end-users, a solid mobile app marketing strategy wields the most power. Your role is to devise such a marketing strategy that acts as a ‘deal-sealer’ between your firm and the investors. This will show the investors that you have the medium to make your app reach the users’ smartphones from an app store.

These are some points that you can include in your marketing strategy- 

• Describe the user persona first

Creating user personas is very beneficial. This is something you would be able to identify while you are doing your research on the market. In case there is more than one user personas, you must mention them in your app development business plan. The more in-depth it is, the more promising your business plan seems to the angel investors.

The said information is to be included in the user personas – Age, Gender, Occupation, Location, Income group, and Marital status. Other information that is classified as psychographic data includes attitudes towards money (price-sensitivity or value shoppers), the context of app usage, personal/professional aims, hobbies, preferred sites and apps, tech-savviness, and so on.

• Customer acquisition strategy

Once you have identified the user personas of your app, you can determine your customer acquisition strategy. One thing you have to be absolutely sure about is your CAC (customer acquisition cost). You will be able to estimate the right cost once you have established which channels and campaigns you will employ in marketing your mobile app business strategy highlighting your app’s USP (unique selling proposition). 

Here are some channels that you can try to achieve great results –

• Incentivized user downloads
• Search engine marketing
• Organic installs
• Social media (Facebook/Twitter/Instagram) ads
• Partnerships
• PR
• App store optimization
• Content marketing
• Push and in-app notifications
• Retargeting campaigns
• Mobile site redirection
• Mobile app wall ads
• Email marketing
• Event marketing

• Product driven growth

Change in product driven growth is one of the most common elements of pivoting a startup. If your business model needs a large mainstream user base, then it is of utmost prominence for you to build a referral program in your mobile app business model to leverage network effects. A well-known and effective mobile app business plan example is Uber. For instance, Uber offers a coupon on the users’ next ride as a reward for referring to others and the referred person also enjoys coupons on the first ride.

• Make a landing page

A landing page can really help you in numerous ways. One of which is that it can help you expand your horizons in terms of target users. It keeps the readers informed and updated about innovations and further updates of your app. One thing to keep in mind whilst doing this is to make sure it contains the name of your app, its description, promotional videos, etc.

• Define your key metrics

There are several metrics on the basis of which you can measure your business growth and popularity of your mobile app. This is something that you must include in the web or mobile app business plan. You have to be careful while picking the right metrics suitable for your business model. An example – if your app is a social media application, then your ideal key metrics should be the daily active users instead of the number of downloads.

5.  Operational Strategy

Stating the strategy regarding your daily operation imparts an impression of awareness and readiness on your part to the investors, something which always works in the favor. This also includes your strategy for customer relations.

You must describe and map out how you are going to handle customer services and maintain quality assurance. It also includes how you are going to perform the app development process and manage it. Other things to cover in this section are-

• Users Process

You can mention information such as how your users are going to behave from the start to the end, i.e., when they first hear of your app and start using it. 

• Personnel plan

This outlines all the data related to the employees. It concerns how and when you will hire the employees, how salaries will be expensed, how will you set the hierarchy in the organization and so much more. 

6.  Financial Plan

It is the stage where you could literally say “Let’s talk numbers”. What the investors would want to see in this section are the answers to the questions – how will you make money? What will be the cost to run the business? What will be the financial plan for mobile application? And how much funds do you need?

• Devise an app monetization strategy

Just like for marketing, you need to have an efficacious mobile app monetization strategy, something that we have also covered in detail in our article named “How to choose the right pricing strategy for your mobile app project”. 

• Startup costs

According to CB insights, 19% of the startups fail because they get out-competed.  In the graph below, you would find that 29% of the startups get shut down as they run out of cash.

You can avoid this fate by analyzing the costs you may need. Similarly, it is crucial for you to mention to the investors all the details related to the costs and expenses you would be needing and for what.

Since the devil is in the details, here is what you should include – one time costs, recurring costs (rent, inventory, etc.), fixed costs (rent, utilities, etc.) variable costs (i.e, the salary of employees) and a lot more.

• Funding needed

It is here at this stage that you are going to ask for the fundings and reveal all the information related to it. Address these questions in this section –

• How much money do you require?
• What percentage of equity are you proposing to give in return?
• Is this going to be a convertible note or a preferred stock?
• For what duration this money will suffice before you need to propose for another funding round?

Now that we have discussed in detail about the steps to create a business plan, it is now time to sit down and ponder on the “why” of creating a business plan for your mobile application. 

Why Make A Mobile App Business Plan?

According to Statistics, in 2023, mobile apps are projected to generate more than 935 billion U.S. dollars in revenues through paid downloads and in-app advertising.

Another report by Statista states that by 2023, it is estimated that the annual number of app downloads worldwide will amount to 299 billion.

Now you can see the importance of mobile apps and the importance of making a business plan for your mobile app.

Magnetizing investments

The most obvious reason why mobile app startups make a business plan for developing an app, as you might have surmised as well, is to bring in more and more investments. This is to attract investors and even start-up co-founders – the choice is yours to make, and sometimes you need to have the support of both. 

An efficacious business plan will help your vision be represented in a crystal-clear way while displaying the scope of your mobile app concept and business app ideas as well.

Reducing the risks

Un-planned actions pertain to risks, and risks in business are synonymous to cost-inefficiency and loss. 

When you devise a business plan, you actually map out the whole journey of your business, something that can provide you great insights into the many unanticipated and probable risks. 

Helps you keep everything in perspective

When making big decisions, it is common to forget and leave out certain important aspects that can make or break the foundation of your business at a much later stage. However, when you have a blueprint including a set of points acting as a reminder of those crucial aspects, it becomes easy for you to remember them. Mobile app development business plan is that blueprint. 

Wrapping Up

Regardless of what category your mobile application belongs to, the business plan for each one is essentially similar, for the most part. A business plan is static in contrast to a business proposal for an app, which is dynamic. This is because it is a document created only once and is not rewritten after the purpose is fulfilled.

We hope that this article has provided you with detailed and good insights on business plan creation for your mobile app. If you need any assistance on mobile app development services, then you can opt for Appinventiv, a top mobile app development company in USA for quality results.

The post How to Create a Convincing Business Plan for Your Mobile Apps? appeared first on Appinventiv.

This is more than appropriate when it comes to mobile applications. As the market is more competitive than ever, you need to have a disruptive app, potentially attracting more and more customers.

Now, it is natural to feel paranoid, and rightfully so, that someone else might claim that application by creating a similar one.

Is there something that can be done to avoid a miserable fate like this? Of course.

More often than not, people ask this question- “Can you patent an app concept”, to which the answer is yes, you can patent an app idea. 

Having your mobile application patented even before you officially disclose it in the market and to potential investors is something that can protect your project from being duplicated.

Let us now delve into the mobile app patent process in detail.

Steps to Patent a Mobile App

In this section, we will cover one of the most asked questions by newbies of mobile app development – “how to patent an app?”.

1. Find and enlist with a patent attorney

In order to present a well-formed high-end patent and to increase the chances of your patent application getting selected, you must consult with and hire a software patent attorney, given they have relevant years of experience. 

Since it is a legal process and might include litigation, it is best to hire a professional than to try doing it by yourself. It is not advisable to go with the first attorney you come across. Do your research and look for the best under your budget.

2. Mobile app invention disclosure

“Having an idea is just work half done.”

To continue this quote, one must bring the idea into actuality (at least to some extent) to confirm its feasibility, something that is highly prominent as an eligibility criterion.

Since the court needs tangible proof of your invention to issue a patent against your application, you must make sure to document the whole development process. Also, you can create a prototype of your application to breakdown its flow. 

This will incredibly help your attorney to figure out the flowchart of your application since it is not the code but the functionality and processes of the app that gets patented.

This is great for figuring out the various implications of your application in different industries and gives you a new direction to think of what other elements in your mobile app are eligible for patenting.

{Also read: Why Does Your Business Need A Mobile Application for Growth?}

3. Practice patent search

Though you have done your homework, it is always advised to hire patent attorneys that conduct a worldwide search for applications similar to yours or have similar functionalities or flows, to avoid any unanticipated infringement from other companies.

After all, it is better to spend a few bucks and make sure your patent has the most chances of getting sanctioned than to start from square one – all over again. You can do your research from the USPTO website.

4. File a provisional or non-provisional patent application

There are two types of patent applications that you can use as your patent application for your mobile app – provisional and non-provisional patent applications.

Provisional Application: It is one of the most common app patent applications. Under the provisional application, you will be allowed to file without a formal patent declaration, claim, or even information disclosure statement. Here are some benefits that this application type offers:

• It grants 12 months to develop the MVP
• Allows usage of term ‘patent pending’ on the app
• Less expensive to prepare compared to non-provisional applications.

Non-provisional Application: It can be filed without any claims made on the application made in the convention country or without any app reference which is already in the process in office. It is necessary that it must be accompanied with a complete claim and specifications.

It should contain a written description of the invention and a claim which legally defines the invention.

In order to choose one, as you must, you need to ask two questions –

1. How fast do you want your patent granted?
2. How long do you want to delay patent examination costs?

If your requirements point to the first question, then non-provisional is best suited for you. However, if otherwise is the case, then definitely provisional patent application, as it is never examined, as opposed to non-provisional. Here is an illustration to clear the picture in your mind –

5. Submit your application

This is the final step to patent an idea. Once you have successfully performed all the above steps and have prepared a patent application, you are required to file it with the USPTO. Though this is a tedious process involving a lot of paperwork, you must see it through. Some of the important documents that you may require during the process are –

• Oath/Declaration
• Specification
• Entity Status Form
• Information Disclosure Statement
• Application Data Sheet (ADS)
• Claims
• (optional) Patent Cooperation Treaty (for International Filings)
• Drawings
• (optional) Application to Make Special
• Fee Sheet
• Cover Sheet

Now that we have dealt with the steps to patent an idea, let’s move to the requirements for patenting an app.

What are the Requirements for Patenting a Mobile App?

The three prominent criteria, on the basis of which your application will be reviewed, are generally the same in all the countries. These are the same criteria that would answer how to patent an app.

1. This is the first criterion that you should tick off on the list. You cannot just patent an app idea. So, when filing a patent for an app, you have to mention all the important details and documentation of your project, from its code to the flow and functioning of the application, in favor of the fact that it is practical and useful. 

For instance, let’s take the case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. In 2014, the supreme court initiated a two-step analysis.

The first step was to ensure whether the patent claim contained an abstract idea like a method of computation, algorithm, or another general principle. If it had, the procedure would move to the next step. If otherwise, the claim was considered potentially patentable, subject to the other two criteria.

In the second step, the court had to find out whether the patent claim added “something extra” to the abstract idea than what already exists. And might be considered an “inventive concept”. If it is negative, the idea would be deemed invalid.

2. The second criterion of how to get a patent for an app is to know whether the invention (application as you will) is novel (as in new) or not. It means the application should have something that is substantially unique and different. In the words of Angelo Firenze – 

So, you need to make sure that your idea has not been patented before by anyone, lest your request for a patent would be rejected and you might be subjected to infringement. So, do your research. You can refer to the USPTO website or Google patents for inquiring purposes.

3. The third criterion, and rather the difficult one, is that the mobile app should be non-obvious. Meaning, your project will not get sanctioned if it is just the integration or amalgamation of, but slightly modified, pre-existing technologies without possessing any unique trait or functionality.

Cost of Patenting a Mobile App

To answer the question of “How much does it cost to patent a mobile app?” we would say that it varies from types of the patent application you apply. You can refer to the USPTO listing to know more about specific costs, including every fee. More so, here are a few basic charges that you are required to pay while filing for app patent application:

• Elementary filing fee: $70-280+
• Patent search fee: $150-600
• Patent Examination fee: $180-700
• 3.5-year maintenance fee: $400-1600 (involves keeping a granted patent valid)
• 7.5-year maintenance fee: $900-3600
• 11.5-year maintenance fee: $1850-7000+

For the sake of mentioning an amount, the app patent cost via provisional patent application can amount anywhere between $2000 to $5000, whereas, for a non-provisional patent, it ranges from $10,000 to $15,000.

{Also Read: How much does it cost to make an app?}

How Much Time Does it Take to Patent a Mobile App?

Now that we have delved into the app patent cost and how to get a patent for an app, it is time to look into the time it would take to complete the entire process.

More often than not, applications get rejected and resubmissions are done over and over again. This back and forth process can last up to 4 to 6 years, based on the circumstances. In fact, it took 6 years for Mark Zuckerberg to get a patent for Facebook which was granted in 2012.

Why Patenting is Not for Every App Owner

While patenting is made to seem extremely necessary, it is not for every application. Let us highlight some of the issues that you should prepare for when thinking of taking the mobile app patent route.

1. Patents tend to block crucial resources

Startups must be aware of the blocking effects that patents carry on the personal and company resources. These includes:

• Cost – the price of filing patents averages $30,000 in 3 to 5 years range. This added to the legal costs can cripple the startups financially, bringing it under the red zone in the Profit and Loss statements.
• Time – the process of obtaining a patent takes up a lot of time which often ranges from several months to even years. Allocating this bandwidth calls for a considerable time and energy away from the app idea execution.

2. The protection is not assured

The patent violation instances are very specific. Meaning, even the most stringent agreement might not be able to provide the protection you might seek at the time of breach. A number of brands face issues with rip-offs that make slight variations in the app to make it seemingly new – a patent will be little to no help in those cases.

3. Companies tend to pivot their original ideas to perfection

It is very natural for a startup to change their goal and ideas. The problem that emerges is that patents only tend to protect the initial level inventions and not the following iterations. This means, startups would have to refile for patents every time they pivot or simply update their application.

{Bonus read: How to successfully run a startup in the mobile app industry?}

The Alternatives to App Patents

1. Copyright

Mobile app copyright or patent is an age old debate. Like Patent, Copyright is also a type of IPRs but a little different though. It is a collection of rights issues to the inventor or author of any work i.e., literary, artistic, educational, musical, or the computer programs and allowing them to publish or reproduce their work, make derivatives, etc., irrespective of whether it is published or unpublished.

It protects the expression of ideas and not the idea itself. So in our case, you can copyright your app logo and not the app itself, as it does not cover facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation.

2. Trademark

Patents prohibit others from making or selling the protected invention, whereas a trademark protects words, phrases, symbols, logos, or other devices that are a source to identify the goods or services of the originator, preventing other competitors from using them. So, a trademark can be issued for the logo of your application to stop your competitors from copying it and creating confusion among the users.

3. NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreements)

The NDA is a document which is signed by the entities you work with on your project, generally between you and your mobile app development company. It legally binds them to keep your app idea and technicalities confidential. This, in turn, protects the idea from being used by outsiders.

What Do Appinventiv Recommends?

In our digital experience, we have overlooked the development and deployment of over 500 digital products but patenting helped with zero launches.

It is true that utility patents can help in some cases, but until and unless you have come up with an entirely new way of doing things or have come up with a new usage of device it makes zero sense to block or drain your resources in that direction.

The tiresome process of getting a patent doesn’t just end up becoming a roadblock in the product-market fit but also slows down the agile development process.

FAQs

Q. Do you have to patent an app?

• It totally depends on your needs. But it is advisable to patent your app idea to safeguard your app against copying, unconsented usage, and more. 

Q. What are the requirements to qualify for a patent?

• The three key points that qualify your application for patent are:

• It has to be an invention
• App idea must be unique and new
• It must be qualified as unusual

Q. How much time does it take to get the app idea patent?

• Generally, it takes 1-3 years to get the app idea patent. The patent application starts with the examination process and is broken down into different factors, such as specification, claims, abstract, and drawings.

Q. How much does it cost to patent an app idea?

• The estimated cost for patenting a mobile app can cost you between $2,000 to $15,000.

Q. How to know if your app idea is already patented or not?

• You can check this by easily logging into the USPTO website and searching appropriate keywords for all patents filed.

Final Note

To conclude, yes, you can patent mobile applications (not just an idea, there should be tangible proof of the project). It also depends on your needs (as discussed above in the article) whether or rather when you should think of patenting your mobile application. In any case, app patent protection for your intellectual property is adamant as it protects your app against copying, unconsented usage, and more, for as long as 20 years.

The post A Comprehensive Guide on How to Patent a Mobile Application appeared first on Appinventiv.