eliajf

He replied to a comment: "strategy is figuring out what part of the market the company wants to play in, how it goes to market, and how it differentiates itself in the market it is about what you are going to do and importantly what you are not going to do."

They don't have the cash to pay their bills. Clearly they don't have excess cash coming in. Cash is still king. They are just masking the cash deficiencies of their business by raising it through funding.

The analysis on his part had to be simple. He has two products right now, one of which generates $2.40 one time and then people use it for years. His second product pays him $1.40 per customer every month. The second product is far more stable long term.

Great comment. I had a professor say often that "cash is king." Obviously these companies aren't paying attention to cash at all.

From what I understand, Apple's concern is circumventing the App Store, making it possible for developers to distribute apps that Apple hasn't seen yet. In short, the concern is viruses, worms and other security issues. This, I believe, is why they don't change the limits.

I would highly recommend no longer using those buckets for fish tank cleaning. At least not for putting water back in the tank. :-)

Understood. They are 1/5 to the way of what most apps make though. :-)

I meant there are multiple variables here and they are focused on conversion rate. I'm not certain they are doing that badly there. If they had a million downloads instead of 6000, the story would be different given the same conversion rates. 6000 downloads is nothing.

Wait. Are you really doing that badly? You are converting, I'd guess based on your data, about 5% of your download base, which is actually very reasonable. But you are losing like 25% immediately, so your conversion of active users is actually quite higher, maybe 7.5-10%. You may be focusing on the wrong metric. I would consider instead focusing on getting downloads higher.

Additionally, I wouldn't offer the bundle packs but instead sell everything individually. I read a great article a few weeks ago on making in app purchase work for games. (I write productivity apps.) One of the things they said was have lots of ways for people to spend money. Only a small percentage of people spend so you need them to spend a lot. The comment was that the best performing games are generating upwards of $50/spending user, all via in app purchase, all from like 1-2% of the download base.

Personally, I'd give Apple's management the benefit of the doubt.

I can buy patents but I doubt Apple does an acqui-hire for high double digit millions.

Sad if true, for all the hardworking companies out there that are working very hard to make a difference in customer's lives. Only overpriced products with no product/market fit can be acquired for "high double digit" millions.

Except $20k per month is a pretty low threshold for "big hits". We were making significantly more than that in the Palm/WinMo hey days and weren't the exception to the rule.

Related, I also like the fact that when I purchase something it doesn't take me out of the App Store anymore but instead just starts the download.

It's a huge decision and it is a completely different world than the consulting one you are used to. The uncertainty is hard but having input (not just being a cog) is unbelievably liberating. No one can answer this question for you. Make your decision. But I do recommend that whatever decision you make, don't look back later. Fully commit yourself to it.

As for questions, will the work be interesting and rewarding? Are the people honest and feel like those you can work with? Is there a sign that the company is succeeding (funding is not market success) like traction and paying customers? There are a few anyway.

Good luck!

Congratulations on shipping but I don't understand something. What exactly are you testing with your MVP? Yes, people will sign up for a free service but shouldn't your goal be making money? Don't you need to test that?

Kids.

Excellent read on the Lance Armstrong fiasco. There is mixed reports on whether USADA can repeal Armstrong's tour wins, though. Most amazing revelation: all seven runner's up to Armstrong have either been found guilty of or admitted doping.

When you rely on another company's platform you are betting everything on the health and future of that platform. HTML will be around and Obj-C will be around. Will Parse? And if it isn't can you switch away quickly? I wrote about this last week, actually, if it is helpful: http://eliainsider.com/2012/08/17/live-platform-die-platform...

My grandfather, who died last year at 93, used to say that when you were 2 going on 3, that was 33% of your life. At 49 going on 50, though, that's 2% of your life. 33% goes a lot farther than 2%.

From what I understand Apple has been cracking down on this kind of use of the title field. They made a change a month or so ago that removed title names from keyword searches. It was a horrible failure and they reverted a week later, but don't be surprised if they do it again. More concretely, I have heard they are rejecting apps for this although I haven't experienced it myself.