Web App or Mobile?
I find myself going back and forth on this question a lot when starting a new product. What are some of the factors that you consider?
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I find myself going back and forth on this question a lot when starting a new product. What are some of the factors that you consider?
Mostly to prove an idea is enough to create a web-app. And it is much and much cheaper.
When you have this MVP working and clear for your first audience, you can take interviews with them and understand if they really need a mobile app.
And even when they say "Yes" it is not always true. But we have an option to make at least 1 mobile app (Android or iOs) and based on hybrid technology. It is much easier to make it with Turbolinks if you have a web-app. Then you'll see if they really use it or not.
This is the leanest approach from my point of view.
As far as I know from my experience people don't like to install more and more mobile apps. They better consider using a chat-bot instead.
I really like this approach. Starting with a web app and trying to build an audience and then getting feedback on if they would actually want a different way of interacting with the product. Thanks for your help!
And to make a right interviews try to see this book http://momtestbook.com/
Only indirect questions could be working.
Well the real answer is, it depends. We need more context to really know.
But some general rule of thumb..
And then some of my reasons for why I personally bias towards web and never mobile.
And if you can, I would focus on one or the other. It's a lot of work for one developer to handle an iOS, android, and web app for their product. I made this mistake before. I had two mobile apps and 1 web app that I had to keep up with when I built coffeepass.io
Thanks for the great insight! I’d answer your questions but after a couple hours on IH I’m now questioning everything about my current direction haha.
Really curious, do you mind expanding on why most indie hackers should focus on B2B? I haven’t heard anyone give an opinion on that and it sounds really interesting.
Thanks again for your help!
Yeah sure!
Mainly because of this chart.
Anatomy of a 10k MRR business:
$5/month - 2,000 customers
$25/month - 400 customers
$100/month - 100 customers
$250/month - 40 customers
$500/month - 20 customers
It's a lot harder to get 2,000 customers than 400 or 100 when you are one person.
Also, Consumers are usually not going to pay as much for software services. They are more used to things being free that they use. If you can make something that helps a business do their job and helps them make money it will be worth it to them because it helps them make more money. Consumers on the other hand are not usually making money from their products so its harder to charge them a good price for it.
Jason Cohen, a big leader in the bootstrapped space and runs the company WPEngine is where I first heard this opinion from.
There are probably some software consumer businesses that could work. But a lot of those you have to end up charging by ads, sponsorships, or some other means. Which means you need a lot of eye balls. Again hard to get a lot of eye balls unless you are an influencer or something like that.
That’s fantastic insight, thank you!