what to do if you have idea for an application but no skills to make that app yourself?
Lalit sharma
16 replies
i have an idea but no skills
Replies
Ferenc Forgacs@feriforgacs
Well, you can look for a technical co-founder but I think you'll need more than and idea to convince someone to start a business with you. So try to do a static prototype that you can also use to show it your potential customers and if there's traction, I think you'll find someone who will be happy to work with you.
Or if you have enough money, hire someone to build the mvp. But even in this case, make a prototype and the user research by yourself. You'll learn a lot during the process you'll also find out if this is and idea worth focusing on.
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@feriforgacs would you tell me if there are certain places where I can test my idea ?
@lalit_sharma2 as I can see you are looking for people who'd like to start businesses so I'd look for online communities where they are present. For example, this community 😄 But Indiehackers is also worth giving a try, Facebook groups or subreddits as well, or you can simply go to Twitter and do a quick search.
Don't be afraid that someone is going to steal your idea. You are the one who knows best what you'd like to build on the long run. So even if someone creates a similar product it doesn't mean that they can grow it, or find the right audience with it.
this is tough- especially if you have no capital. because if you idea is anything decent and you're looking for like minded developers to explore this with- what's to stop them from just stealing your idea and doing it themselves?
If you don't have the skills, then you need the capital to get the ball rolling, where later you can offer development team equity in your project to continue going with investing more capital in development costs.
tricky situation. learn the skills, or build capital.
To answer your question, one way as suggested was to find a technical co-founder. If that proved difficult, focus on all other aspects of your business first, especially idea validation and market research. In my experience, technical development is something very achievable because it is very binary - features either work or do not. Business development on the other hand is not as straightforward. Look for no-code solutions like Figma to draft your idea!
@isaac_yeo my target customer are people like me , people who want to do start up soo is there any place where I can get idea validation from them ?
I see 3 options for you:
- Develop the skill yourself. Today it doesn't even need to be coding. There are a lot of no-code tools that will allow you to go to market.
- Hire someone
- Find a co-founder - This is a lot harder than it sounds. Most good developers are paid really well and value their time a lot. So you need to have a clear value on yourself besides the idea to have even a small chance of finding someone.
That being said, you don't need to build the app first. You can try to get feedback for your idea on the right channel / communities to see if there is interest. Maybe hack a landing page using https://carrd.co/ or similar and put it out there to find out if your idea is really that good. Once you have at least 10 emails of people who want to buy / use it, talk to them and understand their problem better and see if they are really willing to pay. Once you have interested customers everything gets easier and you can go back to 3 options I mentioned before.
Good luck.
@robertomorais I know it may sound weird but I am not sure where can I get idea validation & maybe it's just I m scared that someone might steal my idea
@lalit_sharma2 You can get idea validation putting your product out there. And yeah, it is scary. For various reasons. But in the end if you don't do it, I don't believe your product will have much of a chance. It is your choice, to try it out or don't. About people stealing you idea I've never heard one real case of it, so at least it is really really uncommon.
@robertomorais yeah even if I don't put my idea out there I think it will just be wasted sooo it's better to try it
Launching soon!
If you have an idea for a new app but don't have any development skills, there are many ways to get started. You can hire or partner with a developer who specializes in making apps for your industry, or you can learn to code yourself.
@qudsia_ali where might you suggest getting a partner from ? Because that's the problem ! People who have high level skills always have lots of offer and what would I do with people with bad skills
There are several routes to go down. You can:
- Validate an idea using cheap and often free tools
- Get a 'family and friends' investment round and hire a development company like https://borneagency.com/ who are experts at shipping products for startups
- Validate your idea, get user feedback, do as much as you can using the skills you have and then try to raise angel funding once your idea is validated.