The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil • Hacker News Board

Re: The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil

#21

Post by Clubber » Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 4:44 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #20

Clubber wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my experience, the job market for mobile is significantly smaller, at least in my neck of the woods. Also, working for someone else, even as a contractor isn't ideal. Ideally we would want to own our own product, but as the article states, that's no longer a cottage industry.

Why is that “ideal” for everyone? My ideal is knowing that I’m going to get paid every two weeks and sleeping well not caring if the venture I work for goes belly up knowing that I can get another job quickly. When considering risks, the payout from working for a company is greater. Most of the popular mobile apps require a team of engineers, marketers, and funding.

Well it's not ideal for everyone, but when you own your own product, you can't be fired on a whim.

Re: The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil

#22

Post by scarface74 » Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 5:03 PM UTC

Clubber wrote: post #21

scarface74 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that “ideal” for everyone? My ideal is knowing that I’m going to get paid every two weeks and sleeping well not caring if the venture I work for goes belly up knowing that I can get another job quickly. When considering risks, the payout from working for a company is greater. Most of the popular mobile apps require a team of engineers, marketers, and funding.

Well it's not ideal for everyone, but when you own your own product, you can't be fired on a whim.

But you can spend months on a project and it fail and not make any money from it. Whether a product fails for a company you work for, you still get paid.

If you are a developer in a decent market (not necessarily SV) and you keep your skills up, getting another job is relatively easy. It has never in 20+ years taken me more than a month from the time I started looking to getting a comparable job or better. My record from starting to look to getting an offer from what was then a Fortune 10 company was four days.

Re: The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil

#23

Post by Clubber » Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 5:40 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #22

Clubber wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it's not ideal for everyone, but when you own your own product, you can't be fired on a whim.

But you can spend months on a project and it fail and not make any money from it. Whether a product fails for a company you work for, you still get paid. If you are a developer in a decent market (not necessarily SV) and you keep your skills up, getting another job is relatively easy. It has never in 20+ years taken me more than a month from the time I started looking to getting a comparable job or better. My record…

>But you can spend months on a project and it fail and not make any money from it. Whether a product fails for a company you work for, you still get paid.

Totally agree. I'm saying it's better to own something (that makes the same or more money) than to work for someone.

>It has never in 20+ years taken me more than a month from the time I started looking to getting a comparable job or better.

Yes, I'm mostly the same. I had a hard time during the dot bomb because I was in a city and industry heavily affected by the circumstances at that time, but other than that, it's easy. I'm still working at the whim of the industry that is doing it's damnedest to push wages down. I also have to deal with a lot of processes (and people) that I don't like and know are counter-productive.

Also, our current employment situation probably won't last forever.

Re: The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil

#24

Post by scarface74 » Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 8:05 PM UTC

Clubber wrote: post #23

scarface74 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But you can spend months on a project and it fail and not make any money from it. Whether a product fails for a company you work for, you still get paid. If you are a developer in a decent market (not necessarily SV) and you keep your skills up, getting another job is relatively easy. It has never in 20+ years taken me more than a month from the time I started looking to getting a comparable job or better. My record…

>But you can spend months on a project and it fail and not make any money from it. Whether a product fails for a company you work for, you still get paid. Totally agree. I'm saying it's better to own something (that makes the same or more money) than to work for someone. >It has never in 20+ years taken me more than a month from the time I started looking to getting a comparable job or better. Yes, I'm mostly the sam…

It is better but what are the chances of that realistically happening? When I was doing enterprise mobile development from 2008-2010, I worked for a company that had people to go out an chase funding, marketing, salespeople, a QA department, business analysts, etc. I could have never done that as an individual developer. Even if I were to start my own company, I would still need capital to compete with the big guys. — and the code would not be mine. It would belong to my business that was partially owned by investors.

Re: The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil

#25

Post by Clubber » Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 9:04 PM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #24

Clubber wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>But you can spend months on a project and it fail and not make any money from it. Whether a product fails for a company you work for, you still get paid. Totally agree. I'm saying it's better to own something (that makes the same or more money) than to work for someone. >It has never in 20+ years taken me more than a month from the time I started looking to getting a comparable job or better. Yes, I'm mostly the sam…

It is better but what are the chances of that realistically happening? When I was doing enterprise mobile development from 2008-2010, I worked for a company that had people to go out an chase funding, marketing, salespeople, a QA department, business analysts, etc. I could have never done that as an individual developer. Even if I were to start my own company, I would still need capital to compete with the big guys.…

>It is better but what are the chances of that realistically happening?

Admittedly slim, but much slimmer if you spend 40 hours a week working for someone. :)

Mobile got super saturated quick. I tried the same thing and was only moderately successful. I still work for someone but fight for my own thing when I can.

Re: The chances of making a successful mobile app are almost nil

#26

Post by scarface74 » Mon, Sep 25, 2017, 10:03 PM UTC

Clubber wrote: post #25

scarface74 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is better but what are the chances of that realistically happening? When I was doing enterprise mobile development from 2008-2010, I worked for a company that had people to go out an chase funding, marketing, salespeople, a QA department, business analysts, etc. I could have never done that as an individual developer. Even if I were to start my own company, I would still need capital to compete with the big guys.…

>It is better but what are the chances of that realistically happening? Admittedly slim, but much slimmer if you spend 40 hours a week working for someone. :) Mobile got super saturated quick. I tried the same thing and was only moderately successful. I still work for someone but fight for my own thing when I can.

Admittedly slim, but much slimmer if you spend 40 hours a week working for someone. :)

Being one of the relatively few people who knew about developing mobile applications in 2008, I tried to do something “on the side” with a coworker. Another much better funded company was able to move faster than we could even though you could tell from their product that they didn’t know the industry they were chasing.

The only way we could have been competitive (not necessarily successfully) was by being able to dedicate to it full time and networking and selling during normal business hours. So yeah, a small independent developer who has to work full time is ata major disadvantage.