How to Launch

A crash course in building your product

Overcoming the barriers to entry

Unless you just scored some serious investment, finances could be tight. How are you going to afford development across multiple platforms?

• iOS
• Android
• Web

Thats three different engineers you would have to pay. Paying for one might be hard enough.

The Power of JavaScript

JavaScript is a startups best friend. Use JavaScript frameworks like Angular or React to build products for the web and native mobile environments.

We can hire a web staff and develop cross-platform applications with tools like Ionic, NativeScript, or React Native.

I thought JavaScript apps suck

In its early days JavaScript or “hybrid” apps were nothing more than html and JavaScript running inside a mobile browser container. Hybrid apps quickly got a bad rep for their lack of native look and feel as well as performance. Facebook ditched hybrid apps and ever since then startups around the world have tried to follow suit.

News flash, you're not Facebook with infinite resources & it's not 2007 anymore. Our phones are running two, sometimes four cores. Mobile devices are far more powerful in 2017. The overhead in interpreting that JavaScript has gotten much smaller.

PhoneGap + Ionic

Built on top of all these advances are services like Phonegap, giving web developers full access to native device hardware. The Ionic framework delivers beautiful web views for each native device making any user hard-pressed to tell the difference from a native app.

Companies Using Ionic

• Adobe
• IBM
• Target
• SworkIt
• MarketWatch
• Pacifica

Ionic app showcase - Ionic Framework

React Native & NativeScript

If sexy web views still don’t float your boat, Telerik’s Native Script allows developers to define fully native UI views with the business logic written in Angular. A similar approach can be achieved with React using React Native. This essentially eliminates the UI performance issues Facebook and others complained about.

Companies Using React Native

• Facebook
• Instagram
• AirBnb
• Tesla
• Walmart
• SoundCloud

React Native · A framework for building native apps using React

Companies Using Native Script

One of NativeScript’s weaknesses is that is relatively new and playing catchup behind React Native, which has been out long enough to be the front runner of the two. Still, Telerik’s support might be just what companies are looking for, and they are moving fast. If you are an Angular shop, then this is your solution.

Cross-Platform Native Apps Showcases | NativeScript

Angular vs React

Regardless which framework you choose, both are viable options for building your web and mobile applications. Developers can write and re-use core business logic across multiple platforms. This can drastically reduce your resources needed for the project, saving you both time and money. Read more on Angular vs React here

Native development still has its place, but JavaScript applications have become very capable for most solutions and are a must for any startup.

Not to mention… all this work that goes into your mobile apps can be repurposed and deployed to the web.

Invest in your project early rather than later

I'm not talking about financial investment. I'm talking about the infamous technical debt projects tend to accumulate.

Technical debt is real, and it could spell disaster for your project. Sweet. What is it?

Technical debt can be thought of all the work you should have done, like adding test or documentation to your code, but failed to do so. You thought it was fine because “testing is dumb and adds more time”, says your manager. The app was small and easy to understand, you made everything so you knew exactly how it worked.

Then months pass, the application gets larger, and the team has a revolving cast of developers dipping their hand in the cookie jar. You quickly find yourself adding features to your app, and it's breaking other areas for reasons you don’t know.

The app has grown so large and runs slow, but making changes is just a nightmare of sloppy hacks. This will surface itself to your users as bad software and burn a hole in your wallet.

Content Marketing: Highlight Solutions, Not Features

It's easy to get swept up in your own idea. That app sure looks awesome. It does push notifications and utilizes the best software technology with killer test for quality assurance. Sweet. What does it do? Why are you doing it? How will you communicate the solution your software is providing? Why should others use it?

Video demonstrations are good, but telling the story will resonate within your customers. Your customers are people, not data points. People are engaged and triggered through emotion and powerful storytelling.

Heres a video we created for a local startup here in Houston, TX. We focused on telling the story around the internet of things opposed to highlighting software features. Learn how we made it here.

Conclusion

Building a startup is tough. It takes a lot of time, talents, and resources. Building applications with React or Angular can have tremendous cost savings and lower common barriers for entrepreneurs.

Create far reaching apps through the web, engage customers through native, or both. Investing in one web developer could get you further than three independent engineers out of the gate. Lower your cost and leverage all your resources.

The Startup Lab