App-solutely

In this insightful episode of App-Solutely, hosted by Ken Vermeille, listeners are given a straightforward blueprint for scaling their application's user base from 1,000 to 10,000 users without breaking the bank.

Ken emphasizes the importance of smart, sustainable growth strategies that involve keen analysis of user data, direct engagement with the user base, and strategic reinvestment of revenues for further growth.

Below are the key takeaways and strategies discussed:

• Pathway to 10,000 Users: Learn about a proven strategy to expand your user base by tenfold while keeping costs in check.
• Initial Strategy Adjustments: Discover why your initial growth strategy might need a pivot after hitting the 10,000-user mark, including the potential need for adding more features or exploring new monetization methods.
• Sustainable User Acquisition: Ken outlines a method where acquired users effectively pay for acquiring more users, ensuring a sustainable growth loop.
• Simplicity in Strategy: Despite not being "rocket science," the approach provides a clear mental roadmap for achieving significant growth milestones.

00:00 Introduction to Scaling Your App 00:34 Celebrating Your First 1000 Users 01:46 The Importance of Analytics and Experimentation 04:29 Optimizing Onboarding and Activation 05:49 Building and Utilizing Your Funnel 07:39 Identifying and Leveraging User Segments 11:13 Effective Marketing and Growth Strategies 15:28 Recap and Next Steps

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Building your First Tech Startup MVP

Ken Vermeille discusses the common mistakes and pitfalls founders often make when building their first minimum viable product (MVP).

Topics include the importance of flexibility to revise initial ideas based on market feedback, the risk of over-engineering an MVP with too many features, and the benefits of building an audience early on rather than operating in 'stealth mode'.

Ken's key point throughout is the necessity of focusing on customer feedback and market relevance rather than getting overly attached to an initial concept or trying to prematurely monetize the MVP.

00:03 Introduction

00:12 Understanding the Concept of MVP

00:53 The Importance of Testing Your Product

01:44 The Pitfall of Sticking to an Idea

02:48 The Purpose of an MVP

04:01 Embracing Change and Validating Your Idea

04:23 Understanding Your Target Audience

06:11 The Importance of Iterations

06:55 Avoiding Over-Engineering in MVPs

13:34 The Concept of Stealth Mode

20:46 Conclusion and Recap

This episode of App-Solutely is a game-changer for startup founders who want to create an excellent onboarding experience. Join Ken Vermille as he guides you through the essential steps to create an engaging and effective onboarding process for your mobile app.

Discover the common pitfalls, best practices, and innovative strategies to ensure your app not only captures but also retains user attention from the first use. Key Takeaways:

- Understanding User Context: Why knowing your user's environment is key to successful onboarding.

- Showcasing Value: How to effectively present your app's value proposition to new users.

- Engagement Techniques: Learn from examples and insights on making your app irresistible from the start. 🎧 Note: This episode includes detailed visuals that complement the discussion. For the complete experience, check out the video version. 📬 Got questions or need advice? Reach out to Ken via email or LinkedIn for personalized insights and tips. Your queries fuel our content! Subscribe and share App-Solutely to stay ahead in the world of mobile app development!

Welcome to 'App-Solultely', where we delve deep into the heart of scaling tech startups. In this episode, titled 'Scaling Success: Balancing Basics, AI, and Brand in Your 2024 Startup', we strip back the complexities of growth to focus on what truly matters. Hosted by Ken Vermeille, CEO of Vermillion Sky, this episode is a treasure trove of insights for startup founders ready to take their businesses to new heights in 2024.

We kick things off by emphasizing the undying importance of the basics in software development, ensuring that your foundation is as strong as your ambition. Then, we navigate the exciting yet intricate world of AI in app development, balancing its innovative potential with the essential human touch of coding. Lastly, we dive into the power of brand building – an often underestimated but crucial aspect of sustainable success.

This episode is not just a discussion; it's a guide, a companion, and a spark for your startup's journey in the fast-evolving tech landscape. Tune in to 'App-Solultely' and gear up for an enlightening session filled with practical tips, expert advice, and a touch of humor – because who says scaling a startup can't be fun?

In this episode, Ken Vermeille discusses the importance of user-friendly navigation and usability in mobile app development.

He highlights the need for clear and intuitive interfaces, using user feedback for continuous improvement and maintaining consistency in design, with an emphasis on the importance of a design system.

He also notes the effectiveness of surveys, beta testing and application analytics tools in understanding user engagement and behavior. Ken insists that building an app isn't about creating artworks but rather a tool to efficiently accomplish a task.

In this episode, host Ken guides listeners through the crucial steps and insights to consider before diving into the development of a mobile application. These five tips help in refining an app idea into a robust, marketable product that can potentially become the next big thing in the app industry.

1. Understand Your Target Market: The very first step is to understand the audience for your app. Find people with a problem and design an app that solves their problem. Use channels like social media and targeted ads to reach them and present your solution.

2. Monetization Strategy: Even if your app isn't intended to make money directly, it's vital to have a future monetization strategy, especially for attracting investors. The host emphasizes the effectiveness of subscription models and using ads tactically in the most valuable areas of your app.

3. Defining the Purpose of the App: Aim to make your app excel in one or two primary features, rather than cramming it with numerous features. Ken suggests focusing on developing core features first, and then gradually expanding based on user feedback.

4. Choosing the Right Platform: The choice of platform (iOS, Android, Web, etc.) depends on the target audience and the specific needs of your app. Starting slow with one platform and then expanding to others can be an effective strategy.

5. User Experience and Design: A well-designed app with a great user interface can enhance the overall user experience. A bad design can drive users away, hence investing in good design is crucial.

Ken illustrates these points with relatable examples, like his experience with the Macro Factor fitness app. He emphasizes that a deep understanding of the target market, a robust monetization strategy, clear purpose, the right platform choice, and stellar user experience and design, are key to creating successful mobile applications.

Listen to Erin Essex give the process of her becoming a Senior Interaction designer at Google.

To be a guest on the show send an email to Ken@vermillionsky.com

Josh Bachynski Chats with us about The Future in Ai. Main topics discussed in this podcast:

• Ai
• New Ai coming out
• Chatgpt
• The Future for Web development

What are your Thoughts on AI?

To be a guest on the show send an email to Ken@vermillionsky.com

Bonnie Mauldin is The Founder of the Fast Dot game and The Mauldin Group. Listen to Bonnie explain her journey of Fast Dot.

Are you a startup founder looking to build a successful product? Do you want to know the secret to creating something that customers will love to use? Look no further than customer pain points. In this podcast, we explore the power of identifying and addressing customer pains as a means of building innovative and successful products. Ken Vermeille, shares his insights on the importance of focusing on customer pains and how it can lead to startup success. In this podcast, Ken will discuss how to identify customer pain points, why they're important, and how to build products that solve those problems. You'll learn how to use empathy to understand your customers' needs. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to take your startup to the next level, this podcast is for you. By the end, you'll have a better understanding of how identifying customer pains can help you build the next big thing and create a loyal user base. Don't miss out on this valuable advice – watch now and start building products that people love to use! If you need help building an app contact us at hi@vermillionsky.com

In a world where everyone wants to be the next unicorn startup, it's easy to get caught up in the hype of product-market fit. But let's be real, creating a product that customers actually want is harder than it looks. That's why we're here to tell you that problem solution fit is the new black.

In this podcast, we'll spill the tea on why understanding your customers' problems is the secret ingredient to building a successful product. We'll show you how problem solution fit can help you stand out in a crowded market and make your product the one that customers rave about.

We'll dive into the juicy details of how companies like Airbnb and Slack nailed it by solving their customers' pain points. And we'll give you practical tips on how you can achieve problem solution fit, from customer research to iterating based on feedback.

So if you're tired of building products that fall flat, tune in to our podcast and discover why problem solution fit is the new cool kid on the block. Get ready to take your product game to the next level!

Are you a mobile app developer trying to decide between Flutter and React Native? Tune in to our latest podcast episode where we dive deep into the pros and cons of both frameworks. Our expert guests will share their experiences and insights, giving you valuable information to help you make an informed decision. We'll explore topics like performance, development time, community support, and more. Don't miss this informative discussion on Flutter vs React Native, subscribe to our podcast now!

You have a great idea for a mobile app. You know it has the potential to disrupt the market and shoot to the top of the app charts. Unfortunately, you don’t have a single bit of technical knowledge to build it.

They say that the best idea tends to win out. But that’s only true if you also have the means to turn that idea into a tangible product. Build it right, and you can revolutionize your agency. Fail to do it, and you waste significant resources and capital.

With mobile apps continuing their rise to dominance in the digital environment, implementing your great idea is absolutely vital. In other words, without the knowledge to build it yourself, you have to look for external help. Here is what you need to know about hiring an app developer with no technical knowledge

Launching a successful SaaS business is hard.

You need to identify your target audience, create the right value proposition, find the perfect pricing model for your customers and have a long-term plan for monetization. And remember that you can't launch without first having the right team in place!

We've created this step-by-step guide to help you get started with launching a successful SaaS product. It includes everything from finding an idea to getting traction and scaling up.

Many entrepreneurs who heavily invest in their business think they have found product/market fit when they really haven’t. It can be a disastrous issue when they begin hiring staff and optimizing their product before they figured out who actually needs what they made. You only really reach fitting your product to the target market when you are so overwhelmed with usage that you aren’t allowed, by your customers, to make any changes to your product because you are swamped just keeping it up and running. You can’t point to the success you have in building up a staff or pointing to outside sources of faith and funding. Entrepreneurs are often focused on the quality of their solutions and never listen closely enough at the problems that cry out to them. Actually, the problems out there in the marketplace are what outline the product. A shiny new product that doesn’t have a problem behind it will never find a product/market fit.

The user acquisition strategy for apps is a crucial part of app development, as it will help you reach the top of different app stores and be noticed by users.   These are some of the best ways to create a user acquisition strategy for an app using Facebook ads, Google Adwords, or video ads on YouTube. You should also consider investing in influencer marketing to increase awareness of your product and make it more appealing to potential customers.  

1. Facebook ads
Using Facebook ads to promote an app is a great idea, as its platform allows you to test several effective ad formats and target specific audiences.  

2. Google Adwords 

Google Adwords also provides useful features that can help promote your app, such as the topic targeting feature which helps you find potential customers by searching for relevant keywords that your app can be associated with.

3. Influencer marketing

You should also consider investing in influencer marketing to increase awareness around your product and make it more appealing to potential customers, as this strategy allows you to work with marketers who already have a large community on social media channels like YouTube and Instagram. 

4. Video ads on YouTube

Investing in video ads and putting them on a platform that boasts a huge audience (over 1 billion users) can result in a profitable user acquisition strategy for your app.

5. App marketing companies

Using an app marketing company like AdColony to promote your product is another way to reach potential customers who are looking for great apps on the different app stores.

6. App Store Optimization (ASO) Another important step in creating a user acquisition strategy for your app is optimizing it and its store listing to make it more visible and appealing to potential customers, as ASO helps you increase an app's ranking by improving its visibility in search engine  

We talk about all of these topics today!

Taking the time to validate your app idea is useful for a whole host of reasons. However, people tend to get excited and rush into the development process, investing deeply into an app that might not even work. In this podcast, we’ll take a look at how you can validate your app idea before you start sinking time and resources into developing it. This helps you ensure your app stands a good chance of being successful while avoiding any costly expenditures.

Progressive apps are a new way of building cross-platform applications rather than sticking to the old methods. For example, if in past instances where you had an idea for an app, you were usually relegated to one platform such as building it for iOS. If you were interested in providing your app in an Android marketplace, that meant building a whole new app. We'll talk about how you can save money on a progressive app and the benefits that it will bring to your business.

Clubhouse is a mobile app that has taken the mobile marketplace by storm. What makes this mobile app so popular? The answer might be in its audio-only medium. Listeners can use it while they are at work, doing chores, or just walking around town. It frees up their hands to do other tasks and allows them to learn from Clubhouse without being distracted by pictures or videos on their screen. Startups can learn from Clubhouse because they took something old and made it new by changing the way people interact with audio and social media content.

If you've ever tried to hire an agency or freelancer for a project, you've experienced the headache that came with filtering through hundreds of potential partners. You've seen quotes that range from 10 dollars an hour to 500 dollars an hour. Hiring an agency for your startup can be a challenging and tedious process. But yet, it doesn't have to be. I will show you how to filter through the requests to hire an app agency that fills your needs. Using the techniques and strategies below you'll learn how to dismiss unqualified agencies and negotiate to get the best deal. 

When building apps, you need to understand that there is a human on the other side of the screen. That human has needs, wants, dreams, and goals. Entrepreneurs however sometimes create solutions that they believe benefit their bottom line but in reality, it alienates users. I want to help you retain your customers and increase engagement so that your users want to continue using your app. I want you to stop losing users. I’m sure that you don’t have millions of dollars to throw at a wall and see what sticks. Here’s how we can keep and grow your user base.

Native app or web app. What should you build for your startup. On this episode of absolutely, we talk about the difference between a native app, an app. And which one you should build for your startup.

There are  3.48 million apps on the App Store. 99% of them are unsuccessful. This is because their creators built the wrong app. Their app doesn't resonate with their audience and ultimately it failed. You can avoid this fate by creating an app that people love. This guide takes you through the process of building an app in a way that can leverage funding and build your audience resulting in happier and more fulfilled users.

If you've ever wanted to hire a mobile app agency or a freelancer to build your MVP (minimal viable product), you've probably been hit with prices anywhere between $500 and $1,000,000. That's a huge gap! During the early stages of your product, your goal is to build an MVP to validate your business idea. To get the most out of your MVP you'll want to build only what is necessary. Once you know what is and isn't necessary you'll understand exactly how to price your MVP. We will go into the differences between an MVP and a prototype. We'll touch upon the factors that determine the price. Finally, we'll answer your question: How much should your MVP cost?

Billionaires in spaaaaaace! Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk can teach us about how new technologies use early adopters, and how they can help with your startup. Bezos, Brandson, and Musk are essentially the early adopters of space tourism. Soon, space tourism will be available to the masses. In this episode, I will talk about technology adoption, which people take it first, and what this means for technology entrepreneurs. Then we will touch on how to find early adopters that will pave the road for you in your new venture.

You'll learn how technology can help you find these people and why it's crucial to take them on as your customers from day one. New technology is risky and uncertain, so it needs to be adopted by people who can handle the risk. And if these customers are happy with your technology, others will follow.

When people think about apps, they usually think about it as a product. I have news for you, your app isn't a product it's a business. The most important thing that your app needs to do is generate revenue.  Without revenue, you won't have a business. As soon as your app generates revenue, then it becomes a product and a business at the same time.

But bringing an app to market isn't just about creating something cool from scratch. It's about figuring out how to turn that cool thing into money. Figuring out how to make money from an app is like solving a puzzle and that's what this podcast is about.

The show is divided into two parts. In Part 1, I'll cover why it's so important for you to validate your business model before building your app. In part 2, I'll cover the different ways to make money from your app.

Hi podcast followers,

It's me, your host, Ken. "App-solutely" is back on the air and we have a ton of new episodes waiting for you! We are inviting you to take this journey with us, where together we are trying to figure out just what is going on with apps and how to build products that people want to use.

Kim and Ken talk about the first steps needed to build an app that people love. We talk about the concrete steps needed for customer research, feature development, and building your first prototype.

Noble is a crowdfunding and capital raising consultant, publisher of “Accredited Investor Journal”,  author of the best selling books “Trade Like a Pro” and “Winning the Trading Game” and the managing director of Drakoln Capital Partners.

We go through the specifics of raising money from private investors and leveraging crowdfunding to grow your startup. The 506(c) offering allows you to raise money from private investors.  New regulations set by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) have opened up new avenues for startups to raise funds.

You can connect with Noble on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drakoln/

In our weekly Tech Entrepreneur Office Hours, Vermillion Sky's Ken Vermeille and Laura Shcaack talk about everything founders need to know before jumping into the startup world.

This is our weekly Friday office hours with Ken Vermeille. At Vermillion Sky we want to help entrepreneurs build the best mobile and web applications in the galaxy. Vermillion Sky is a mobile and web design and development agency for startups and entrepreneurs.