StockSwipe Funding Campaign
January 5, 2017
StockSwipe is a great trading app with unique features such as stock cards, ticker cloud based on Twitter sentiment, and stock card watch list with app user sentiment tracking. The app has been free for two years. The app developer needs your help now!
StockSwipe’s developer, Ace Green, is requesting our help. After two years his personal investment is running out, with expenses becoming too great for him to bare alone in my opinion. The app has been free with no paid features the past two years.
Please visit the GoFundMe Campaign below to help. A $5 contribution by every StockSwipe user today would keep the app running another year.
Ace Green’s Request
I’m at a stage where its too small to catch investors interest, but I need funding to continue maintaining and potentially expand the app with the help of other developers who would help create a web and Android apps.
StockSwipe is absolutely free with no ads or in-app purchases. The app is a niche product and without a significant user base, it would not be a wise choice to charge for it. This would degrade the experience and limit its growth.
Costs:
Server fees: $100/month
Marketing: $300–500/month
Objective:
I created this campaign to ask you to help me save StockSwipe and keep it running for a long time. I have come as far as I can bootstrapping my way for almost two years.
Goal:
Your help goes a long way and I appreciate any support I can get. With the funds I can keep StockSwipe running for at least another year.
How it all started:
It all started when Apple introduced — SWIFT — it was hailed as a new approach to programming, that is user intuitive and simply amazingly easy. It was at that moment that I really felt motivated to get into it and learn coding. So the months leading up to my resignation from my full-time job, I already started looking into making apps. Driven by the attention and praise Swift had received, the ever increasing chatter around apps, iPhone sales and Apple’s record profit. Apps were quit possibly at their peek — THEY WERE HUUUUUGGE [Trump accent] — Ahh
The Idea:
The idea behind StockSwipe came about really during a dream. I was laying in bed thinking of new app ideas beyond Chronic Timer. So I came up with a few ideas, and wrote them into my notes app, then went to sleep. Somewhere in my dreams, I must have come up with the idea because I woke up with some sort of epiphany Tinder For Stocks.
The idea is really very simple, part of being a trader is finding trade setups you can trade off, day in and day out. Back in the day when I was an active trader, I would go on various sites and social media platforms looking for trades. Yet there was nothing really intuitive for mobile devices. So I thought, a tinder-like UI for presenting charts. And I started working on how to achieve that. I had to learn how to query Yahoo’s API for the chart images and how to run my own database with the list of symbols. Eventually I got my own server setup and installed a charting library on it. Overall it was a huge learning curve and especially on the backend.
I’ve been using the StockSwipe app for over a year. My trading ideas each week, here on Medium, are based on the App’s ticker algorithm of current stocks that are with Twitter presence among traders via tweets monitored.
Read my review below.
Read StockSwipe reviews by app users below.
App Costs of the Future
Green has already mentioned it’s costing him $400-$600 per month to run StockSwipe. His modest request of $1,500 pales to $4,800-$7,200 yearly app costs.
App Creation
According to SavvyApps.com it could cost upwards to $10,000 for a decent app creation. This figure was based on 2010 figures…Lucky for StockSwipe users Green creates the app himself.
Factors to consider include:
- The costs of apps are largely based on features, complexity, and platform.
- Apps with back-end servers will almost always cost more.
- Simple apps for one platform will start around $25,000.
- More complex apps cost six figures but can push up over $1,000,000.
- Costs will also vary based on who builds it (e.g., offshore versus high-end agency).
- Don’t forget to budget for updates, marketing, your own salary, and other costs.
Contributing Factors
iOS apps are distributed by Apple through a developer membership program that costs $99/year. But according to Quora, an app developer will need a backend database and server, a user facing website, strong marketing to bring app presence.
App Backend
- A server with increasing costs based on usage
- A database backend
- Services incorporated into StockSwipe with increasing costs based on usage
App Website
Some factors to consider for an app website to gain app exposure according to WP Site Care include:
- Domain name
- Web hosting
- Website design
- Website security
- Features
- Maintenance
Marketing
Advertising and get an app and related website noticed will cost the most of a developer’s budget according to ineedhits. Besides a good app and website to show off the app’s brand and features, the following market efforts should be considered with possible costs:
- Search engine optimization
- Search advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Social media and e-mail marketing
On a personal note:
Ace Green has been on my top 3 app developers list this year. Green has been so receptive to my feedback and integrates StockSwipe recommendations within a week. Green follows up daily with me for bug squashing and update thoughts. I never expected an app developer, of one of my favorite trading apps, to become my friend. Please feel free to reach out to Green here on Medium or via the StockSwipe support and see for yourself.
Thank you for reading! We appreciate your aid in keeping StockSwipe running.
