

On failing: Crowdfunding an iPhone app - blacktar
http://stopmebeforeiblogagain.com/on-failing-crowd-funding-an-iphone-app/

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gacba
_Talking to people, the single most frequent first response is “I don’t get
it”. Then we take the time to explain it and then they are like “Oh, I see.
That’s cool”._

You said you failed to connect with people on an emotional level, but I would
contend that you failed to solve a problem perceived by the customer.

Only when you solve a customer's problem will you get that emotional
connection. It's not something you need to work at, it's something you either
succeed at doing, or fail. I would say that your application just didn't solve
anything someone was looking for.

Your questions led you down the wrong path. Your very first questions should
have been:

1) What is the pain point that X have? 2) How can I solve that with an iPhone
app?

Where X is anybody you thought you were solving a problem for.

~~~
blacktar
Thanks for the constructive feedback. We think we do have somewhat of a grip
and significant feedback on what the pain point is that we were trying to
solve: Shooting and sharing good videos with your mobile phone is hard and a
lot of hassle and OneSec aimed to change all that. I do think we failed
spectacularly to communicate that, though.

~~~
gacba
I see, but the real question is this:

"Do people wake up in the morning and say to themselves, 'Holy crap, how am I
going to save and share videos today?'"

I don't think they do, which is why this particular idea and implementation
aren't going to gain any traction over what exists today. It's just not a
strong enough pain point to be solved by an iPhone app.

~~~
blacktar
Well, that's where we probably have to agree to disagree. I don't think the
users of Instagram woke up and said "Holy crap, how am I going to save and
share images today" either. ;)

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sageikosa
I like assumption 3: How efficient is spamming, mailing, tweeting, posting and
otherwise contacting friends, fools, families, bloggers and journos?

Result: Abysmal.

If you stay in stealth mode for long periods of time prior to launch, the
"amount of righteousness" in your vision/future-product and the conviction
with which you believe this, will not help you overcome the impedance barrier
of becoming part of the Internet zeitgeist.

Sometimes, you do not appreciate how deep the water is (nor how fast it flows)
until you step into it.

~~~
blacktar
I think that we would have fared better if we had waited for some more
traction (amount raised and already published in some places) before ramping
up the spamming effort. But hindsight has perfect vision and the truth is
we'll never know.

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casca
Thanks for publishing this, it's very instructive to see why people think
things went wrong.

My only question is why you feel that the answer to the most important
question - "Is there any interest in this product in the market?" - is "Yes"?
You've identified that they way you went about promoting and raising money
could be improved, but assessing the biggest problem as one of promotion is
not obvious.

~~~
blacktar
The reason why I believe there's an interest in this product is 1. The amount
of people who has contacted us because they want this product even after the
campaign ended 2. The amount of private investors and potential partners that
have contacted us after the campaign closed. If people want to pay for the
creation of an iPhone app in a time were we're used to get them for free or
next to nothing is another separate issue.

~~~
casca
Thanks for the update. I hope that you didn't read that I was asserting that
the interest wasn't there, just that it wasn't clear from the post.

~~~
blacktar
No, not at all. No worries. :) I only wanted to be very clear about the
reasons and sources of our assumption that there is indeed interest.

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_lex
I think half your problemwastgat you were selling something with a predictable
market price of $0, and asking people to pay early. They woukd only pay if
there's some huge, non- app based benefit for them, otherwise you'd wind up
with tragedy of the commons (especially because normal people dont realize
that apps take more than 2 weeks to make, and they see them as disposable).

~~~
blacktar
Great insights! I think that's a very real problem. Do you think it is
impossible to crowd fund a social / utility based app for the iPhone in
general, or do you see a way to heighten the probability of a success?

------
blacktar
Is it at all possible to crowd fund iPhone apps (that are not games)? I'd love
to know more about your crowd funding experiences and your take on what we did
wrong.

