The Great App Fallacy
You have a product, business, idea, service or brand and you’re ready to launch. You’re pumped and ready to roll. You spent so much time and energy building, now you’ve got a wave of excitement to get out there. People are going to be so happy you exist. They’re going to line up at the door to get what you’re selling. You can see it now. The future is bright. You’re looking at your social media page and wondering how you’re going to handle all the attention. You can’t contain yourself anymore, it’s going to be so awesome. You’re ready, everything is set. You take the plunge and launch!
Then, reality sets in.
You’ve stepped out into the world. It’s massive, cold, uninviting and loud. People won’t even turn to look at you. If they do, they’ll quickly turn their head or more realistically, look back down at their phone. They’re yelling, screaming, completely unreasonable. There are three problems that you instantly become aware of: no one knows you, no one cares about you and the worst of all, people can barely even hear you. Still feeling pumped?
This is how I felt when I launched my mobile game project in college. This was right around the time that Flappy Bird had gained massive popularity in a short amount of time. I read an article about how much money the developer was making everyday. It was a ridiculous amount. I was so ready to take more than my fair share of the market. My game was sick and people were going to love it. I remember sending out a campus wide email telling all the students that I had launched the game, and I was really proud of the designer that helped me get it out. I was ready for the downloads, the attention and then the fame. Life was going to be awesome.
Then, reality set in. Only about 10 people downloaded the game from my email, and even fewer actually played it. I knew nothing about marketing. I didn’t create a website for the game, I didn’t do any social media, I didn’t run any ads (I couldn’t afford to anyway), I didn’t meet anyone that could help me. I just pressed *send* and waited. I fell for the Great App Fallacy (I’m coining that term by the way). This fallacy is a toxic belief brought on by the media coverage of super popular startups and app ideas that made a fortune and achieved global recognition. It leads people to believe that their idea can make it big and become the next big thing, if and only if their idea gets developed into an app. I’ve gotten dozens of requests to build an app for someone in exchange for a huge chunk of equity because they’ve fallen prey to this fallacy. It’s not their fault. I fell prey to it before and still do on occasion. Then, I remember the past and reality sets in.
Marketing is expensive. Testing your product, getting feedback and then implementing changes is mind-numbing when you think about it. It’s ugly. It’s slow and painful. This is the part that people gloss over. Articles typically don’t mention how much time and money a successful company spent on marketing and tinkering with their product with alpha and beta test groups. Slack’s Founder Spent Months Grueling Over Customer Feedback In Early Stages isn’t nearly as sexy as From 0 to $1B — Slack’s Founder Shares Their Epic Launch Strategy.
To be fair, plenty of factors play into the Great App Fallacy. The biggest factor is probably the human mind. We’re wired to believe someone or some company was either always successful or became successful over night. It’s easier for us to comprehend.
It’s not our fault, it’s how we’re wired.
We’re overly optimistic by nature. This is why so many startups fail. We’re damn certain that our idea is going to be a hit. 95% of startups fail you say? Pfft… not mine!
For driving skills, 93% of the U.S. sample put themselves in the top 50%
Illusory superiority - Wikipedia
It’s not a bad thing either. To be fair, plenty of amazing tech companies have been created for this very reason. Consider this a public service announcement to do your research on what it takes to create a great product and build a great business before jumping into hiring someone like me to build your application or convincing a few engineers to work for equity.
If you’re an entrepreneur or taking on an entrepreneurial pursuit, I believe having this quality to some extent is almost mandatory. If you truly believe you’re going to fail before you start, you’ll probably never start. That being said, the least you can do is gain some insight as to what it takes to get off the ground and decide if you’re willing to put in the investment ahead of time. If the idea of investing all of your free time into building and selling your product or service doesn’t excite you, stop what you’re doing. If you’re only excited about the money you’ll get, stop what you’re doing. Your lack of enthusiasm will shine through and prevent your product or service from even making a dent. Not only that, but your lust for short term wealth will blind you and cause you to make poor choices. It has certainly happened to me.
Maybe everything I’m saying is wrong for you. Maybe your idea is so great, it’ll sell itself. Maybe you can find or hire people to outsource all of the startup tasks to. I truly doubt that’s the case, but stranger things have happened.
If you’re like me and stubborn enough to take on the challenge before doing your research, you’ll learn the hard way. This is a good thing. You’ll be wiser because of it. However, don’t say nobody warned you if it doesn’t pan out!
Do research, get feedback, build, repeat. Ease your way into the cold, unforgiving market. Go slow (not too slow!), be patient and you may just find yourself further than you ever imagined.