I've spent the last 5 years working in the web and mobile industry building high quality software. Even though I don't have a degree and am largely self-taught, I doubled my salary at that job within 2 years, converted my workplace to Macs, and established the company's mobile development practice, becoming the lead mobile developer.
Our main product was a web CMS which we used to build custom sites and apps for people. In this process, there's a designer, and the designer must produce a design (which dictates aspects of the resultant software) according to his/her understanding of the client's needs as well as his/her amount of knowledge about computer systems. The developer then generally has to take this design and attempt to convert it into real software. Unless the designer is one of the rare people who is also an engineer, and unless this process is set up in such a way as to give the developer a high degree of input into the design, then the resultant software probably will never reach its full potential. The UI may not take full advantage of the tech, or the tech has to be redesigned or shoehorned into the client or designer spec. It's an altogether suboptimal approach to what should be a smooth and well understood process.
We've seen this kind of thing happen before. In the period of time before companies like Adobe and Apple ushered in the age of desktop publishing, the artist who designed something for print and those who produced/implemented it were entirely separate. The artist could of course produce copies of his work but usually it took lots of time and resources. When we got desktop publishing the game changed. Nowadays, instead of real canvases, paintbrushes, and pencils, we use tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and printers to produce high quality work.
Right now we are experiencing a huge shift from print and web publishing to mobile and web publishing. And the problems in the process of producing mobile apps and publications indicate a huge missing piece in the puzzle.
There are some solutions to these problems. But where I worked, even in my position, nobody wanted to listen to me. I got fed up, and after using a few weeks to validate these solutions, despite my high paying job but lack of long term savings, I quit my job in November 2011. I began working to launch Blueprint (https://blueprint.io), an online tool for creating iPhone apps by yourself.
I built the MVP and was able to launch a private beta within a few months. Since then, it's received so much interest from the people to whom I've introduced it, and we've had quite a few signups. I even have a few customers that look like they'll be purchasing within a week or two.
I know that Blueprint could be huge. It's exactly what designers need, not to mention the droves of people who wish they could realize their mobile app ideas but find a huge barrier in learning to code – and I have so many exciting things planned for the near future. But right now my problems is that trying to juggle all of its aspects is too much work for just one person. I want to spend my time working on iOS and product development, where I'll be able to contribute the most value. But I have had to shoulder the additional burdens of marketing, design, server-side & web app development, PR, and more.
I completed my application to YC (for summer 2012) last month, but I know that single founders have a slimmer chance of being accepted or taken seriously.
That's why I started looking for one to three smart people to join me in my quest to change the face of mobile development into what it should be.
* A web programming wizard, preferably someone well versed in Node.JS, who could take over development of the web app and much of the server-side aspects
* A publicist with a strong background in design, or a designer with a passion for marketing
* A hustler/businessperson who could take us to the big leagues
Even if you don't match any of these roles exclusively but are a capable person interested in working on this problem, I want to talk to you. You can reach me at paul _at_ blueprint _dot_ io
I've been networking aggressively but it's been really difficult to find the right people. The deadline for YC apps is in a few days, so I'm appealing to the HN community in case there are some heroes out there who can save the day.
Come work with me on Blueprint, and revolutionize how we produce mobile applications.
