Yesterday’s OpenCoffee Cambridge wasn’t as well attended as previous ones, but that can be attributed to everyone’s food-comas following another rounds of holiday merryment. It was good to squeeze in one final event before the New Year, and it was certainly worth the drive down and the coffee at Voltage Coffee and Art in, youguessed it- Cambridge.
Though it was an intimate get-together, there was some great discussions from mobile applications to renewable energy. Strategies when creating and launching applications can vary, but usually the two routes are doing it yourself and your team, or outsourcing. They each have pros and cons, but in this case the company was choosing to do the testing themselves due to budgetary constraints. My advice was to get the beta version out there and to get some feedback before investing boatloads of time and effort in creating something that may not be wanted. Often companies find that their apps are changed based on customer feedback and because of that it is wise to get the feedback as early as possible. People are usually willing to throw in their 2-cents.
Time to market for mobile apps is another major factor in their development. Usually it would be faster to contract the building of the application, but many startups don’t have cash on hand to pay developers. Which brings us to the golden rule of starting a company nowadays- have two or more founders, but make sure to have at least one business and one tech guy (or girl!). Nothing is worse then seeing a great idea flops because the engineer doesn’t understand marketing, or the opposite of a business guy not having anyone to make the product and burns money on contracts. Apps will always have problems and need updates so save the trouble and have a teammate that can fix it!
Make sure to sign up online and mark your calenders for next Tuesday because TRA360’s own Valentina Rosa will be moderating ENET’s panel on Creating A Technology Service Company. What a better way to kick off the new year then to learn some valuable tips from successful entrepreneurs?