Incredible idea but no programming skills. What would you do?

I hate to burst your bubble, but from an outsiders perspective there's about a 1% (generous) chance this hasn't been done before, and if it hasn't, that it is commercially viable and has a explosive growth potential like you suggest. I don't want to take away your thunder, but it's good to put things in perspective, and thinking/innovating are great qualities you should always pursue.

If you really believe in your idea, you need to start doing some serious research, then the cheapest way to monetise this idea without any required skills to apply it correctly yourself, would probably be to talk to a lawyer to calculate the viability of it all, and then pay for some patents. Once you have granted patents, you can approach companies and sell them the patent outright, or sell them licenses to use the patent.
 
If you want you, I can show a portfolio of applications I worked on. Be warned though, they usually are within the higher end applications(I worked for an iphone company specialising in games).
 
If it is as fantastic as you say then your key issue is protection. Protecting your idea from the people you engage and then the big boys it might attract. If Google or Facebook get a sniff of a good idea they either buy it or build their own if you don't sell, and their market share will knock you right out of the game. Remember, if you are planning to sell your app then FB and Google already have the upper hand because they will release the same functionality to millions for nothing! So it's the idea you want to protect.

Unfortunately, global patents are expensive. Tens of thousands expensive. And even then, if it's a good idea, they will be infringed or circumvented. You'd need serious collateral to back the idea up and chase those who think they can bully you.

I think it boils down to how solo you want to ride and how much you are willing to share. You could consult a software lawyer and find an individual developer to collaborate with. You could approach a development house who will have the ability to protect your idea but they will want the lions share.
 
Gullanian said:
I hate to burst your bubble, but from an outsiders perspective there's about a 1% (generous) chance this hasn't been done before, and if it hasn't, that it is commercially viable and has a explosive growth potential like you suggest. I don't want to take away your thunder, but it's good to put things in perspective, and thinking/innovating are great qualities you should always pursue.

If you really believe in your idea, you need to start doing some serious research, then the cheapest way to monetise this idea without any required skills to apply it correctly yourself, would probably be to talk to a lawyer to calculate the viability of it all, and then pay for some patents. Once you have granted patents, you can approach companies and sell them the patent outright, or sell them licenses to use the patent.
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We only brought licences for Intellectual property, say we wanted to make a game with a certain brand. I have never encounted a situation where license for a specific way of using application was required or enforced. I'd recommend talking to lawyer before considering patents. Having worked for iphone consultancy, all we ever did is get a third party lawyer to help. We never had any in house lawyers for this sort of work. It would cheaper to just get lawyer, rather than go through development house who then talk to third party lawyer(At profit of course) on behalf of the client.
 
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Gullanian said:
I hate to burst your bubble, but from an outsiders perspective there's about a 1% (generous) chance this hasn't been done before, and if it hasn't, that it is commercially viable and has a explosive growth potential like you suggest. I don't want to take away your thunder, but it's good to put things in perspective, and thinking/innovating are great qualities you should always pursue.
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I completely agree. But so far I haven't found anything like it and in all honesty had something like this been available then we would all be using it daily. Regardless I am very level headed and realise that all I have is an idea. Unless I am making money from this then I have no 'thunder' to take. :):)


gord said:
If it is as fantastic as you say then your key issue is protection. Protecting your idea from the people you engage and then the big boys it might attract. If Google or Facebook get a sniff of a good idea they either buy it or build their own if you don't sell, and their market share will knock you right out of the game. Remember, if you are planning to sell your app then FB and Google already have the upper hand because they will release the same functionality to millions for nothing! So it's the idea you want to protect.

Unfortunately, global patents are expensive. Tens of thousands expensive. And even then, if it's a good idea, they will be infringed or circumvented. You'd need serious collateral to back the idea up and chase those who think they can bully you.

I think it boils down to how solo you want to ride and how much you are willing to share. You could consult a software lawyer and find an individual developer to collaborate with. You could approach a development house who will have the ability to protect your idea but they will want the lions share.
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This I fear is exactly where the problem is going to be. And I am extremely thankful for your post. It is clear that I would have to be willing to give a huge amount away to get this done properly and to be as you say protected. Just grabbing a developer, saying devbuild me this then selling the app feels like a sure fire way to fail in the long term as Facebook certainly would just add the functionality to their own Facebook mobile app.

I need to think seriously before I do anthing... Any further advice would be very much appreciated.
 
We've been involved in a number of green-fields projects that are completely new ideas.

Simply put, there is no possible way you could expect/demand a developer's confidence (and your confidence in them) without sharing/explaining your idea. Agree and sign a NDA before any of this discussion happens. NDAs are bi-directional as well, so they'll protect you, and will protect the developers too (they will have to share their trade 'secrets' in order to win your confidence too!)

Oh, and for such a seemingly important app, do yourself a humongous favour and approach a development team, not an individual - no matter how talented they may be. :)
 
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Look at foursquare, they most likely had there stuff patented. Nothing happened when places come out. They still worth a lot due to the execution rather than the idea.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
We've been involved in a number of green-fields projects that are completely new ideas.

Simply put, there is no possible way you could expect/demand a developer's confidence (and your confidence in them) without sharing/explaining your idea. Agree and sign an NDA before any of this discussion happens.

Oh, and for such a seemingly important app, do yourself a humongous favour and approach a development team, not an individual - no matter how talented they may be. :)
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Make sure, you research who the company is first. The majority of iphone consultancies which pop up first on google are in fact web development companies, which then have 1 iphone developer. I can tell you about a few iphone consultancies if you want.

My old place is 1st google page iphone development company, we had 2 iphone developers (One now ;) , graphic designer and the owner. We were in-fact taking a lot business. We charged a premium just because we were a ltd company ;) and had office in the city center.

The majority of my work is through a ltd company.
 
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Dj_Jestar said:
Oh, and for such a seemingly important app, do yourself a humongous favour and approach a development team, not an individual - no matter how talented they may be. :)
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Any specific development teams you would suggest? And any idea how I would go about setting up a meeting/presentation to them?
 
As for a patent on software, it's very tricky. We've applied for a number in the past, and have largely been successful. You must provide evidence of algorithms etc that you have invented, the IP of an idea to say merge tweets with status updates is impossible to prove. But you could patent an implementation of it - which of course will not stop others from implementing the same idea in a different way.
 
Simply phone them up, and we had the majority our work come through our contact form ;)

If you decide to work with company with initials of 's s' from the two words it is composted from, come tell me first. I'd rather not talk about my employer directly due to legal stuff.
 
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GordyR said:
Any specific development teams you would suggest? And any idea how I would go about setting up a meeting/presentation to them?
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I can only suggest you don't be too quick to decide, and make sure you meet with them and have good discussions that leave you feeling confident. :)

I'd suggest searching for development teams that are employing Agile methods and frameworks such as Scrum. I suggest this because they will want your constant input and feedback, so you will be able to see your product "grow" and not just have a big-bang delivery after an arbitrary time period. :)
 
Dj_Jestar said:
I can only suggest you don't be too quick to decide, and make sure you meet with them and have good discussions that leave you feeling confident. :)

I'd suggest searching for development teams that are employing Agile methods and frameworks such as Scrum. I suggest this because they will want your constant input and feedback, so you will be able to see your product "grow" and not just have a big-bang delivery after an arbitrary time period. :)
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Yes, ask specifically for agile. If they don't do agile, you mind up with a big surprise. If they say they do RAD or waterfall, don't go with them in my opinion. 'Rapid Application Development' is just an excuse for a cowboy coding half the time.
 
That is something that amazes me time and time again when I see plenty of businesses take their work to waterfall companies. :p
 
First - a product business case.

Then cut your revenue to 1/3 - does it still fly? Focus on why it will not fly and look to solve those problems.

Remember - additionally, 30% of your revenue will disappear to Apple, plus the yearly sub to maintain the developer account.

The thing is, when a successful app appears it is copied very quickly (a month). So for example the time between your revenue spike at the beginning and the dip when the competitors bring out rivals is very short. Naturally you need to drive for market dominance very quickly in that initial spike so that competitors don't attempt it and the value is drained from the market for that idea. If you can protect the idea or tie it to a service (remember that Apple will reject apps unless they can have their 30%.. so no purchased updates unless it's a full app again and users expect updates for free etc)

I've had a few ideas but quickly came to the conclusion that it very few ideas are profitable on the iOS platform unless you can foot the cost of development (dev time or personal time doing the coding) through high market share.

I've had ideas for everything from kitchen recipe apps (before others had), shopping apps,..., even a tree ring counting app!
 
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