Advice on Building Web and App from nothing

S

Smite

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Hi BB,

I'm sitting with an idea which could potentially turn into a good business and help many others along the way. The idea will need a cloud based web portal for clients and a mobile app (iOS and Android) for end users but the problem I have is that I have no capital to invest and no knowledge of how to build an app and very limited web design abilities.

Can anyone give me advise on how to approach this? My hope is to pitch my idea (with a NDA in place) to a company or group of individuals with whom I can partner on the project and build it together.

Any guidance will be appreciated.
 
Smittie said:
Hi BB,

I'm sitting with an idea which could potentially turn into a good business and help many others along the way. The idea will need a cloud based web portal for clients and a mobile app (iOS and Android) for end users but the problem I have is that I have no capital to invest and no knowledge of how to build an app and very limited web design abilities.

Can anyone give me advise on how to approach this? My hope is to pitch my idea (with a NDA in place) to a company or group of individuals with whom I can partner on the project and build it together.

Any guidance will be appreciated.
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The NDA approach won't work. With limited to no capital, how would you afford to enforce it?

A good idea by itself just isn't enough. There are a lot of good ideas out there. If someone else has to finance, manage, market and develop this ambitious idea, they're not going to feel good about giving you any slice of the pie imo. You're not working on it 'together' so much as they're doing all the work and taking all the risk, whilst you're taking a cut.

If you feel strongly about the viability of your idea, you should work to bring value to realising it. Develop your skills and/or save enough capital to have a proof of concept built that can be shown off to investors. Otherwise there is always going to be a high risk of someone stealing your ideas and going to market without you.
 
Bryn said:
The NDA approach won't work. With limited to no capital, how would you afford to enforce it?

A good idea by itself just isn't enough. There are a lot of good ideas out there. If someone else has to finance, manage, market and develop this ambitious idea, they're not going to feel good about giving you any slice of the pie imo. You're not working on it 'together' so much as they're doing all the work and taking all the risk, whilst you're taking a cut.

If you feel strongly about the viability of your idea, you should work to bring value to realising it. Develop your skills and/or save enough capital to have a proof of concept built that can be shown off to investors. Otherwise there is always going to be a high risk of someone stealing your ideas and going to market without you.
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This is unfortunately the truth.

Ideas aren't worth anything, execution strategy is.
 
Build it yourself. It's going to cost quite a bit to hire a dev. Everyone thinks they have a great idea. Some do but due to lack of adoption in the market, it flops.
 
At least write a well researched and rational business plan. Even if it is as if you would invest your own money
 
Bryn said:
The NDA approach won't work. With limited to no capital, how would you afford to enforce it?

A good idea by itself just isn't enough. There are a lot of good ideas out there. If someone else has to finance, manage, market and develop this ambitious idea, they're not going to feel good about giving you any slice of the pie imo. You're not working on it 'together' so much as they're doing all the work and taking all the risk, whilst you're taking a cut.

If you feel strongly about the viability of your idea, you should work to bring value to realising it. Develop your skills and/or save enough capital to have a proof of concept built that can be shown off to investors. Otherwise there is always going to be a high risk of someone stealing your ideas and going to market without you.
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Thanks for the constructive feedback.

These are exactly my concerns and also my view on the situation. I am unfortunately pressed for time as the current situation with Covid would have boosted this solution significantly and also helped lots of people if it existed already. It is such a shame that its not already developed that I actually feel like just giving away the idea for free.
 
Spacerat said:
At least write a well researched and rational business plan. Even if it is as if you would invest your own money
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Thanks.

I have actually done this already. It's a working document so not 100% complete, but I have done significant research a couple of months ago and started putting together a business plan.
 
An alternate to you gaining the skills to build the app would be to either recruit someone or partner with someone with the skills you lack.
 
Smittie said:
The idea will need a cloud based web portal for clients and a mobile app (iOS and Android) for end users
Click to expand...
Bruv, I would personally recommend creating a responsive web app, instead of trying to make a website AND a mobile app. But it also depends on what the idea is...
static_sa said:
Get learning. Build the absolute basics, then maybe try approach people?
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I agree with @static_sa here, start learning some web development/computer science fundamentals. Create a rough draft of what your idea might look like in practice with basic HTML, CSS, show it to others, pique their interest and possibly get them involved with your project.

Here are some resources for you in the meantime:
www.edx.org

HarvardX: CS50's Introduction to Computer Science

An introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming.
www.edx.org www.edx.org
www.freecodecamp.org

Learn to Code — For Free — Coding Courses for Busy People

Learn to Code — For Free
www.freecodecamp.org www.freecodecamp.org
www.theodinproject.com

Your Career in Web Development Starts Here | The Odin Project

The Odin Project empowers aspiring web developers to learn together for free
www.theodinproject.com www.theodinproject.com
 
PrimeSteak said:
Bruv, I would personally recommend creating a responsive web app, instead of trying to make a website AND a mobile app. But it also depends on what the idea is...
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I agree with this. Whilst it does depend on the idea and its fundamental requirements, sometimes starting with a web app is great – you get your footing and figure things out from there.

The nice thing about the web is that quite a few technologies available in dedicated apps are also becoming available in web apps, because browsers. If your idea is simple and can run nicely in a web environment, then I'd go for that as a start. (It also reduces app-store headaches. )
 
I'm also building something OP. A mvc api type thing which I want to move into microservices soon on aws and port it to mobile. Mine is a pretty common Job Management System for a fictitious company. More a learning project. Had to start from scratch with no api or mvc knowledge. 6 months later, a ton of tutorials and videos, tons of questions on stackoverflow, being shown what to and not to do especially with regards to security and data safety and it has come together very beautifully. As I said it is a common system which every company has but it was for ME to be able to build it and learn. If you have coding background and some knowledge then do it yourself otherwise I can suggest a couple of Software Houses that built apps all day long both being in Umhlanga KZN.

Edit: fyi I'm no expert not by a mile but the passion and love for programming is there and if you have an idea or want to learn those are the best fuel.
 
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you can also look at building interactive wireframes.

these really require no programming experience, but they do allow you to "show" something
 
My two cents. An NDA can be enforced with a legal entity carrying the costs just expect them to take the lions share of the settlement to cover inflated costs.

Getting to market as quick as possible is key. That said you can outsource your UI components with less risk and invest your time on the backend which would be more likely more sensitive.
 
As someone who has been approached multiple times to help someone with the execution of their "awesome idea" that's going to make millions, rather do it yourself.

A properly designed website and app will cost you close to R1.5M if done by someone competent.

I've done a few "partnerships" and "equity stake" ideas, and honestly, not one of them panned out.
Most of the time the biggest failure was lack of capital for marketing the idea and a poor business plan.

Me personally, I will NOT touch another of these types of "agreements" / "partnerships" / "equity plans" ever again unless they can show me some money. Tired of wasting my time, effort, own money and energy and all I ever got was micromanaged to death and complaints about "why isn't it ready yet???", and "you're messing with my business plan" ( despite being told of very realistic timelines and sticking to them)
 
ozziej said:
As someone who has been approached multiple times to help someone with the execution of their "awesome idea" that's going to make millions, rather do it yourself.

A properly designed website and app will cost you close to R1.5M if done by someone competent.

I've done a few "partnerships" and "equity stake" ideas, and honestly, not one of them panned out.
Most of the time the biggest failure was lack of capital for marketing the idea and a poor business plan.

Me personally, I will NOT touch another of these types of "agreements" / "partnerships" / "equity plans" ever again unless they can show me some money. Tired of wasting my time, effort, own money and energy and all I ever got was micromanaged to death and complaints about "why isn't it ready yet???", and "you're messing with my business plan" ( despite being told of very realistic timelines and sticking to them)
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1000 times this ^^

As said above, it not about the idea, its about the execution. So let's say you get a competent techy to develop this as an equity stake project. What do you bring to the party? The idea has no value whatsoever. Only a business plan and a working app does not a success make. Who does the marketing? Do you have a budget for that? How will you gain traction? And once you have millions of users, how will you fund infrastructure and make a profit?

It would be interesting if you would be willing to post your business plan here. Obscuring your idea of course... Guaranteed you will get constructive and sobering feedback.

I had a friend talk a dev into developing his next great idea. The dev took a very long time and my friend, not really technically minded, asked me to intervene and chat to the dev to find out why he is taking so long. When I chatted to the dev (I never knew him before this), it turns out that what he was asked to do was incredibly complex and he did it without payment (because equity stake), so he had to do other paid work as well to stay alive. My friend apparently told him that his contribution was the idea and the dev needed to develop it as his contribution. Anyways, so I tell the dev he is being led up the garden path and told him all of the above. Dev abandoned the project and my friend is no longer a 'friend'. Blames me for 'chasing the dev away'. Don't miss him...
 
Spacerat said:
1000 times this ^^

As said above, it not about the idea, its about the execution. So let's say you get a competent techy to develop this as an equity stake project. What do you bring to the party? The idea has no value whatsoever. Only a business plan and a working app does not a success make. Who does the marketing? Do you have a budget for that? How will you gain traction? And once you have millions of users, how will you fund infrastructure and make a profit?

It would be interesting if you would be willing to post your business plan here. Obscuring your idea of course... Guaranteed you will get constructive and sobering feedback.

I had a friend talk a dev into developing his next great idea. The dev took a very long time and my friend, not really technically minded, asked me to intervene and chat to the dev to find out why he is taking so long. When I chatted to the dev (I never knew him before this), it turns out that what he was asked to do was incredibly complex and he did it without payment (because equity stake), so he had to do other paid work as well to stay alive. My friend apparently told him that his contribution was the idea and the dev needed to develop it as his contribution. Anyways, so I tell the dev he is being led up the garden path and told him all of the above. Dev abandoned the project and my friend is no longer a 'friend'. Blames me for 'chasing the dev away'. Don't miss him...
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That sucks, surely your friend should have seen the error in his ways.

There is lots of constructive and useful feedback on here so far and I appreciate all if it.

I guess the reality of it is that this will never come to fruition. I will need to learn how to do all of this on my own, which will take months, then I will need to start building it, which will also take months and by the time it is ready this whole covd thing is over and it will not be needed as much anymore making it even that more difficult to take to market. The basis of the app is to help a specific struggling industry during the pandemic. It's a real shame I missed an opportunity as I really believe it could have made a difference in the lives of many of these people affected by the lockdown.
 
There are quite a few low code/no code offerings out there that you could perhaps use to prototype your app or produce a minimum viable product.

Some open source suggestions:

Directus, Strapi or Dreamfactory could be used to generate a backend API from your database (which could be consumed by both your web and mobile frontends which is what you would probably want to end up with in the finished product.)

Appsmith maybe for a web front end that could connect to the aforementioned API. Or you could use it for a database backed web app.

Convertigo boasts everything you want in their marketing but they do mention some sort of device limit - this might not be an issue though for prototype or POC.

I don't know if any of the above will suit your use case or capabilities but there are a whole multitude of paid, hosted and free products out there aimed at 'citizen developers' that might help you get off the ground.

EDIT: Saltcorn might also be worth a look - seems quite user friendly
 
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