Developing the app - episode 3 : A new hope

As I said, I was in the middle of nowhere. I was contacting IT firms, many of them were talking about starting all over the project with in many cases serious doubts about the possibility of getting some of the results I was looking for on an iPad app.
Proposed budgets were also far from the idea I had in my business model. Don't get me wrong, I am not related to Uncle Scrooge but I tend to dislike throwing money down the drain and my previous experience was pretty bad enough if you've read this blog from the beginning.
I have realized the net and the iWorld were pretty close to the wild west and I was not ready to give away money to people I didn't know or who couldn't get recommended by anyone I trusted.

Hard to find people you can trust in the App world

Speaking of trust, one thing I was late realizing was that my own personal network could be of help. A friend of a friend had developed an iPhone app, I might as well get in touch with him, even to get an advice...

Lesson #2: never underestimate the power of your own network

So through a friend, I met with Guillaume Horen who happens to have developed with David Ughetto an iPhone app named Optivisit designed to help you ranking and classifying real estate visits. And they have developed it on their own, graphical interface and app.
Ironically we met in a place called "La Grande Armée", "the Great Army" (of Napoleon), a restaurant near Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

Small teams meet in great places

I showed them the project (the interface, the bugged App) and the added value. We had a good discussion and a few days later we decided to go forward.
To make a long story short, we ended up partnering in the company I created not right away but a few months later.

Lesson #3: Three are better than one

Why? Because we bring complementary skills to this project. And that's a big lesson I learned overall. a team can do much better than one person, especially when it's not a full time job.
But not any team will do: experience in coding and ability to develop/modify a graphical interface are key to any success in the iWorld.

Not any team can do the job

Great coding skill helps you include quickly in your app new available coding features instead of reinventing the wheel. Printing a pdf for example is a feature that's already been developed, don't bother wasting time coding. Instead better concentrate on the added value your app is bringing to the end user.
It is also the ability to fix the bugs that will appear. And except in you live in Lala's world, there are always bugs hiding somewhere especially considering the multiple ipad/ios combinations.
And finally great coding brings a great point of view that is truly enriching when mixed up with others.

Graphical interface is also a real expertise: it is both being able to bring up the top graphics and getting the best user experience. A new feature that you haven't thought about will need a graphical object or symbol.
And don't think that because you happened to be gifted in drawing when you were 10, you'll be kicking ass in designing a graphical user interface. It is a long learning curve and it doesn't come cheap. And even if you have that expertise in your team, there are still some little things here and there that will require you to buy a software license or call an individual consultant.

Now iTakeNotes is in better shape to get finalized and reach the Appstore but we are not there yet: choosing priority features with a clear roadmap and setting up the sales and marketing pack are next.