You only have one chance to impress an investor. Make it count with a startup business plan by ThinkLions. We write custom plans that deliver your vision to angel investors and venture capitalists effectively.
You only have one chance to impress an investor. Make it count with a startup business plan by ThinkLions. We write custom plans that deliver your vision to angel investors and venture capitalists effectively.
You only have one chance to impress an investor. Make it count with a startup business plan by ThinkLions. We write custom plans that deliver your vision to angel investors and venture capitalists effectively.
You only have one chance to impress an investor. Make it count with a startup business plan by ThinkLions. We write custom plans that deliver your vision to angel investors and venture capitalists effectively.
In the world of magic, unicorns are rare and mythical horned beings that have only been seen by legendary storytellers who claim to be in the right place at the right time. These days, the legend has disappeared, and you can find unicorns in the pages of any startup or business magazine. In today’s world, the word unicorn is tossed around…
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Phase I – 90 Days Before Your App Launch Phase II – 30 Days Before Your App Launch Phase III: 7 Days Before Your App Launch Phase IV: The Day Of Your App Launch Phase V: App Success For The Long-Term To the masses, it may seem like successful apps just pop up one day and achieve magnificent success without much effort. However, anyone who has ever launched an app before knows the truth – a successful app launch takes serious work and getting people to your app is not easy. While a great app idea may start at a hackathon, most apps aren’t built overnight… or in a week… or within a month. According to a study by Goodfirms, it takes an average of 3-5 months to fully build out and launch a mobile app. Why does it take so long? An app launch doesn’t just rely on how quickly your app developers can code it – but also includes many other steps like customer research, concept validation, pre-launch marketing, and more. To build a successful startup and experience a strong app launch, there are many factors that need to be in place before, during and after you push your app to the app stores. If you’re just starting development today, you’ve got at least 90 days to get everything together before launching. In this guide, we’ll guide you through each step that you need to take as you approach the day of your app launch. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Phase I – 90 Days Before Your App Launch Three months before the official day of your app launch, you should already be setting the foundation for a strong launch. More specifically, you should be focused on validating your app idea and laying the groundwork for your marketing and branding. Validate Your Assumptions Before taking on the expensive journey of building a new piece of software, it is critical to validate your concept; proving that there is actually a market experiencing a specific problem, and that your product is the solution that the market is looking for to solve that problem. Not every app startup will change the world like Facebook or Uber, but there are thousands of highly successful apps that simply solve a small problem for a large number of users. True market disruption comes when a founding team creates an app that solves a problem that no other solution exists for. However, you don’t have to be the first to market to succeed as an app startup, you just need to solve the problem better or more effectively than other competing solutions. Consider how some of our favorite apps solve our largest problems: Uber solved transportation problems for citizens, making it easier to procure a ride without waiting on a taxi. Furthermore, Uber made it simple for the average person to earn extra income by monetizing their automobile and free time. AirBnb simplified the property booking process…
What Is Lean Startup? How To Start A Tech Company In 6 Steps Minimize It To The Core Features Get To Market With An MVP Attract Early Adopters Evaluate Data Pivot Or Persevere Scale Everything Launching a tech company of any type is an intimidating process. First-time entrepreneurs often have no idea how to start a tech company, they just have a great idea and a desire to win. Unfortunately, a great idea isn’t enough. There are many steps between the idea stage and the rapid expansion stage; and if you aren’t clear on what those steps are, you can quickly become overwhelmed with the process and give up. While not making it to launch sounds like the worst thing that can happen when developing your startup, there’s actually something worse that can happen. You can spend tens of thousands (or more) on app development, only to launchyour tech and find out that nobody wants it. A tech startup can be a major success, but if launched without covering the right bases, it can also be a major waste of time, money and effort. Fortunately, there is a process for building a great tech company, and it follows the principles of Lean Startup. Ready to launch your software business? Here’s what you need to know about how to create a tech company using lean startup. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK What Is Lean Startup? Lean startup allows a tech company to constantly advance the development of their software, while rapidly learning more and more about their customers, their challenges and their desires. If you thought the only steps to creating a successful software solution was to build it and launch it, your strategy is hugely flawed. There are many really cool and interesting apps in every app store that no one ever downloads and no one ever uses. Those who know how to start a tech company know that a company isn’t successful because they have a cool product; they are successful because they have the right product for the right audience, and are backed by the right people. When you launch a full-scale software solution, you inherently make several assumptions. Even with secondary industry and customer research, you are still only making an educated guess as to: Who your consumers really are. What problems your consumers are actually facing. What type of solution your consumers are searching for. How much your consumer is willing to pay to solve their problem. Whether enough people experience the problem to make a successful business. The true intentions of a startup is to answer these questions using real consumer data, and to validate each and every assumption as you build your product. Instead of figuring out that you built the wrong thing after you built it, the right strategy will help you identify weaknesses and errors in your startup plan before making serious investments into the wrong areas. This is the value of adopting a…
Why You Should Launch In Detroit Who’s Leading The Detroit Tech Startup Scene? Is Detroit Right For Your Startup? A decade or so ago, nobody could really tell where Detroit was heading. A major shifting in the automotive industry left the Motor City in confused state, and the effects of the recession were evident in every part of the city. Foreclosures on homes and commercial properties became an everyday occurance, leaving a path of abandonment that was felt by those in the city – and even those in the surrounding metro area. Times were troubling and the future looked bleak. Many wouldn’t have predicted that the city known for its automotive manufacturing would break one day breakout as Detroit Startup City. When everyone was packing up and leaving the city in droves, no one would have guessed that it would one day be a place where investors flock to invest hundreds of millions of dollars, or that it would one day be a hub of new tech innovations. Detroit startups are driving the city forward, and if you’ve chosen Detroit as the headquarters for your tech startup – you’ve chosen the right place. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Why You Should Launch In Detroit For us at ThinkLions, there is nothing that makes us prouder than serving Detroit startups. While our business plan writers and app developers have served clients around the world, there’s always something special about working with awesome entrepreneurs right in our city. Amazing things are taking place in Detroit, startups everywhere are taking notice – and we love being a part of that. Why are so many startups now migrating to the Motor City? The simple answer is – because Detroit startups are smart and they see the many advantages to launching and operating here. With a seemingly endless number of benefits, there is major value in being a part of the Detroit startup scene. Some of the major advantages to launching your tech startup in Detroit include: Office Space is Cheaper: In most metro areas, office space can be ridiculously expensive; and for a startup, rent can be one of their largest fixed expenses. Detroit startups however, are able to access cheaper office space than most metro areas around the nation. Although rent prices are on the incline in recent years, there is still plenty of vacant office space all throughout Detroit where rent is super affordable for a new startup. Not ready to take on a full office space of your own? Maybe you’d be interested in joining one of the many many co-op and shared workspaces like Bamboo, WeWork, Regus or SpaceLab. There are also several startup and app incubators that you can join to help move your startup forward like SPARK (nearby Ann Arbor) and Techstars Mobility. It’s Where The Investors Are: Ever since Cleveland Cavaliers’ owner Dan…
Why Dating Apps Suck Coming Up With A Dating App Concept Proving The Demand Creating A Buzz Finding The Right Developers There was a time where it was uncommon, and even a bit weird, to say, “I met a great guy/girl online!” In some cases, meeting someone online even seemed a bit taboo. To stir the pot even more, at some point someone figured out how to create a dating app for smartphones – and finding love moved from online to the palm of our hands. Today, online and mobile dating is a natural part of our culture. According to The Knot,online dating is now the most common way of meeting for engaged couples. But let’s face it, there are almost as many dating apps on the market as there are daters; and out of all of them, only a handful are able to secure more than a couple thousand users. If you’re looking to launch a startup in the mobile dating sector, I’ll be honest… you’re facing a tough challenge. There’s a very thin line between great dating apps and cheesy dating apps, and a disappointing ratio of dating apps that succeed to those that don’t. The good news is, if you know how to create a dating app startup the right way – you can drastically minimize your risk of failure. There will be a next greatest dating app, will you be the one to create it? In this article, we’ll explain what you need to know about creating and developing a dating app, and specifically, we’re going to explore exactly how to create a dating app that doesn’t suck. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Why Dating Apps Suck First, let’s clear something up – not ALL dating apps suck, just most of them. Also, not all of them suck for the same reason. There are some apps out there that have millions and millions of users, like Tinder and Bumble. Some others serve super niche markets, and may have a smaller but still significant user base; like Bristlr, the dating app for beard lovers, which has around 150,000 users. If there are millions of mobile daters out there, why do so many dating app startups fail? Simple… because they suck, and here’s three reasons why: User Goals: Most dating app entrepreneurs don’t actually know what their intended user really wants – and if you don’t know what they want, you’ll never know how to build a dating app that meets their need. What does it mean to date? Does this mean someone is looking to date a bunch of different people and enjoy their single life – or that they are dating to hopefully find a special someone? Dating apps are easily accessible and often used by a wide variety of daters with conflicting goals. Some users may be looking for a whole life…
Home Automation Explained The Best Smart Home Apps Notable Mention: IFTTT Is Automation Right for Your Home? Over the last decade, smartphone apps have allowed us to advance the progress of systems and processes that hadn’t changed in years. Twenty years ago, no one ever thought you’d be able to take your phone out of your pocket at work and view the real-time security footage of your home. Today however, that’s only one of the benefits of turning your home into a smart home using home automation. Now, millions of people around the world are also using home automation apps to do things like reduce their home energy usage and run their entertainment systems. And let’s not forget the greatest benefit of all… home automation apps are just downright freakin’ COOL. For those of us who remember The Jetsons cartoon, it’s like the future is now among us. It’s not going anywhere, any time soon, either. According to CNET, more than a quarter (28%) of Americans already own at least one smart home product – and 78% are more willing to buy a home that already has smart technology installed. Furthermore, the smart home industry is growing year by year at an exceptional rate and is projected to become a $58 billion industry by 2020. With mega-companies like Amazon, Google and Apple investing major dollars into the home automation space, innovative developers have brought many amazing home automation app ideas to reality; some which allow our homes to do things that were once only seen in sci-fi movies. In this article, we’ll explore the evolution of smart homes and introduce you to several home automation apps that can turn your home into an automated machine! Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Home Automation Explained Home automation simply refers to the connection between your smart device and your home which allows you to control your home remotely; whether through your phone, through the web, or through a smart-enabled speaker like Google Home, Alexa or Apple’s Homepod. The home automation industry is widespread with all types of new technology hitting the market – there are even smart toothbrushes and smart flip flops available… a truly limitless technology sector. However, some of the most popular home automation apps and technologies are those that allow consumers to: Control their home’s lighting. Adjust the internal temperature of their homes. Manage and control electronic appliances. Operate their entertainment systems. Implement and access security systems. If you haven’t converted to complete home automation yet, you likely must be physically present and manually interact with your home devices to complete these tasks. By replacing your old devices with smart devices and using home automation apps however, these tasks can be launched and completed with a simple tap on your smartphone or a quick voice command. The key benefit of home automation is that you don’t have to be physically present to manage these tasks. You could be on vacation in a country on…
Dubsmash Puddle and Pile Cheatsheet Widget ParkJockey Shapr Ready To Build Your Interesting App? Over the last several years, the growth of mobile apps have allowed us witness the launch of some of the most life-changing technology the world has ever seen. Unfortunately, these days, unique and interesting app ideas are few and far between – for every Uber there are 20 app copycats and for every Tinder there are 100 other swipe-based dating apps that you’ve probably never heard of. Developers know how to create an app, but creating unique, first-moving and extremely interesting apps? Well, that’s something only few tech entrepreneurs can truly achieve. This post isn’t about the copycats. It’s not about the entrepreneurs who took a concept, added a small feature and claimed to have developed some “disruptive” new app idea. Instead, it’s about the innovators, the ones who saw a problem and created a new interesting way to solve that problem. Furthermore, we’ll show you what you can learn from these interesting app ideas so that you can come up with your own unique app solution.In the following list, we’ll offer the five most interesting app ideas that caught our attention. Here’s the awesome part, none of these apps are especially complicated – and they were created by someone just like you; a normal person with a great idea, a high level of commitment, and a focused follow thru. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK 1. Dubsmash Dubsmash is a unique video recording app that was created by three German engineers in 2014. The app allows users to record and blend lip sync videos. With the app, users can choose their favorite music or sound clips, blend the content with their videos, add special effects to the video, and create one-of-a-kind videos that can be shared with their friends. Like many other social type apps, Dubsmash feeds into our need to connect with one another – and to simply kill boredom. Dubsmash created a craze with users around the world; uploading and sharing millions of their fun (and often funny) lip sync videos. The hype around Dubsmash created a FOMO situation – users had a fear of missing out on the social action. What really drove the Dubsmash craze was the participation of several celebrities. Whether it was Lewis Hamilton lip syncing to a sound clip of Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 2; or Hugh Jackman, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lopez or Rihanna lip syncing to their favorite clips – Dubsmash was able to create fans out of some of Hollywood’s most effective social influencers. During the highest point of its popularity, Dubsmash served over 100 million users around the world. Interesting App Ideas – Insights: Your idea doesn’t have to be revolutionary, but it does have to be “different”. Being the first mover of an idea allows you to capture the market, and its influencers,…
Is Your App Right For The Incubator? Does The Incubator Offer The Resources You Need? Will The Incubator Help You Progress Your Business? How Strong Is Your Startup Team? A Final Word On App Incubators Startup app incubators have definitely cemented themselves as an important piece of mobile app culture. Some of the largest and most successful mobile app startups to date have spent time at incubators and accelerators, accessing seed capital and resources that propel their businesses to the next level. Entrepreneurs frequently ask us, “How do I fund my app idea?”; and joining an app incubator is often the route we recommend. During app incubation periods, entrepreneurs often have the support needed to finalize their app business plan and pitch deck, build their MVP, launch it to the public, bring in initial testers and users, and truly learn how to start an app idea the right way. There are new startup incubators popping up all over the country (and world), even in some places that have extremely limited startup scenes. For many app startups, they could be a game changer – but will it give you the advantage you need to bring your app idea to a mass scale? In this post we want to examine incubators and give you the information needed to decide whether a particular app incubator is right for your startup. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Is Your App Right For The Incubator? Before you can decide whether a specific incubator is right for your app, you need to consider if your app is truly in a position where an incubator can help. Due to the resources that they provide to startups, incubators are extremely competitive, and the vast majority of applicants are rejected. Larger incubators may receive thousands of applications each semester and if your startup isn’t a head-turner, your application may not even be read. Incubators are for startups, not for people who just have a ‘good idea’. If your idea isn’t far enough along in the startup process, incubators likely won’t be interested. Shaun Savage, founder of GoShare, experienced this firsthand. He told us, “ When we first applied to the EvoNexus program all we had was an idea and we were flat out rejected. The idea was too broad and the rejection was harsh but it was a much needed lesson. We decided to refocus our business plan and team up with a former colleague of mine to develop a Minimal Viable Product. After about 6 months of product development we applied to EvoNexus with our MVP and GoShare was accepted into the program.” The incubation period isn’t about building an idea into business; it’s about incubating a startup mobile app business to prepare it for proper market entry. Most incubators will require that you have a minimal viable product and some level of traction before…
Do You Have The Right Idea? What Will Stop You From Succeeding? Is Your App Really That Different? Is Your App Scalable? What Is App Success, Really? App Success Stories – Will You Be Next? As app entrepreneurs, we each have our own idea of what a “successful app” is. For some, the first 10,000 users is a milestone of app success, while for others, just getting one user to download the app would be considered a major accomplishment. There are so many amazing app success stories out there, and we all believe that if we could just get our idea developed, we’d find app success too. Unfortunately, many app entrepreneurs won’t have a success story to share when all is said and done. App startups fail everyday, and some apps that once had thousands of users now struggle to survive. Developing an app, getting users to download and actually use it, and retaining that position for the long run has proven to be a rather difficult undertaking – too difficult for most. As it seems, what may look like a smooth journey on the pages of your mobile app business plan will probably be quite the bumpy road in actual execution. App success stories aren’t overnight successes, they overcome many hurdles along the way. Most app ideas will never become an actual app, and most apps will never even have a glimmer of hope in competing with more dominant apps within their industry. Many startup teams who once aspired to be on the list of app success stories will only become a short story. Ranging from bad app ideas to a lack of commitment, there are several factors that prevent 95% of app entrepreneurs from reaching their app success goals. We recently spoke to several app startup founders about their app success stories to give you some mobile app inspiration and find out what it takes to become an app store success. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Do You Have The Right Idea? Ask any successful app startup founder (or any entrepreneur for that matter) and they will tell you that app ideas are truly a dime a dozen. However, you need to have a solid app idea in place before you can execute it and introduce it to consumers. Successful apps don’t just ‘exist’, and users don’t download them just because they are in the App Store. Startups that become “app success stories” solve problems and attract users who are facing that specific problem and seeking a solution. There are entrepreneurs making millions from apps, because the platforms that they have built solve millions of problems each and every day. Steven Benson, founder of Badger Maps, found that a problem existed while working in his industry. Steven told us, “My career has been spent in field sales, and so I understood the challenges faced by field sales people first hand…” Some say that success is the result of what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Sometimes, when you…
App Idea to Reality – Taking The First Step For a new app startup entrepreneur, bringing an app idea to reality can seem like a monstrous undertaking. Let’s be fair, it is. Transforming an app idea into a great piece of mobile software is difficult; it’s three times as expensive as you thought it would be and takes twice as long to launch. It takes time, energy and effort; blood, sweat and tears. The light at the end of the tunnel is, as difficult as it may seem, it’s doable. In fact, it’s so doable that hundreds of thousands of regular people (just like you) have launched their app ideas to the public. If they can do it, so can you. To give you some inspiration as you take the first step into building your app, we asked 10 app entrepreneurs how they brought their app ideas to reality. Here’s what they had to say. Need Funding For Your App Idea? Download Our FREE eBook now! Learn the expert secrets behind building successful apps that attract invertors and get funded! DOWNLOAD MY FREE EBOOK Chris Kane Founder of, MunchMoney Finding The App Idea I’ve always been an entrepreneurial person in many ways. Growing up that was always clear to me. After I graduated from college, I began my career in the hedge fund industry without any clear direction of where I wanted to go long-term. Over time, I increasingly became unhappy and began looking for alternatives. It was at this point that my entrepreneurial spirit took hold. I came up with several business ideas. One day, as I was getting money out of my wallet to go to Chipotle for lunch, I thought, “Man, I really miss my college meal plan.” With some inspiration from the Virginia Tech meal plan system, the initial idea for MunchMoney was born. Funding a Minimal Viable Product MunchMoney is currently bootstrapped by its founders; mainly using savings from full-time jobs while the idea was still in development. Advice for Bringing an App Idea to Reality Simply, you don’t know what you don’t know. There are so many intricacies around startups/apps that it can be overwhelming. Start by becoming familiar with launching apps by reading books such as How to Build a Billion Dollar App by George Berkowski), taking online courses, and attending industry/networking events. Furthermore: Just Ask. People are always willing to help if you are a kind and genuine person who is sincerely willing to ask for help. Self-awareness. Know what you are good at and what you are not, and then, surround yourself with people who can fill in the gaps. Estee Goldschmidt Co-founder of, ShopDrop App Finding the App Idea ShopDrop is an app that aggregates information about every sample sale in one single location. The concept was simple: there are over 50 weekly events where designers put up their excess inventory for 60%-90% off, and yet finding out about those events is laborious and requires knowing people in the industry;…
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