"How much will my app cost?"
This is by far the the #1 question I receive on every single app development phone call. It's always expected, even when knowing the cost won't help you.
I don't blame people for asking though. Apps are expensive, hard to build, and there's a lot of trust going into me as a developer.
So, rather than avoid that elephant in the room, I tackle it head on with a three step conversation:
- Step 1: What is your basic idea of the app right now?
- Step 2: What will the app do in 5 years from now?
- Step 3: Now I want you to trim it down to a pure MVP v1.0, what does that app do?
The point here is that all of these apps are different scope.
Everybody thinks their "basic idea" is really an MVP v1.0, but it's not. You probably have multiple features that could be cut in favor of launching sooner.
This matters because every day a developer works on your project is expensive. And every day you aren't launch is another day being dumped into assumptions that this thing will work.
Speaking of money and payments, let's chat real quick about how you can pay for an app:
- Give a co-founding partner equity in the company
- You could pay in milestones deliverables
- You could pay weekly/biweekly in what we call "sprints"
- You could pay a lump sum upfront
- You could pay 50% upfront and 50% on the backend
Curious what your app will cost and how you should pay for it? Listen to today's episode