As many entrepreneurs will tell you, great ideas do not fall out of the sky and into your lap. An intimidating start to the app developing process is coming up with the actual idea. If pressure to make it ‘great’ from its conception is removed, then it allows for a wider velocity of ideas to surface.
Usually, ideas begin as O.K. ideas and go through a process of adjustments until they evolve into the revolutionary ideas we know them. Have the beginnings of a great app idea? Apply your knowledge and find resources to help you mold that idea into a strong, functional structure that you can be proud to call your own.
Joshua Spodek, a successful entrepreneur and professor at NYU, argues that an idea of a lifetime comes once a month because every average idea has the potential to be worked into a great one if it is adjusted to market demands, social trends and aligned with your interests and passion. Spodek in his article highlights the fact that an ‘idea of a lifetime’ is only valuable if it reflects a lifetime of effort and commitment you are happy about. The success of an idea is highly dependent on great execution which can only be achieved through passion, experience and skills. The intersection of these three create a prime environment for your ideas.
Once you have a hold of an idea, Spodek suggests sharing the concept with knowledgable people in the field; not only is this step free but it also helps you evaluate your idea, network within the industry and possibly consider input and adjust accordingly.
Case Study: Instagram
Instagram is one of the most popular mobile applications in the market today. Today, Instagram has 200 million monthly active users, 75 million daily active users. Their growth rate is rapid; between the months of December 2013 and May 2014 Instagram experienced a 25% increase in users. Facebook paid $715 million to purchase Instagram in 2012, during this time the number of Instagram employees was 13 people. The same year Facebook bought Instagram, Facebook grew by 3% where as Instagram excelled far beyond its parent company and grew by 23%. The statistics below further illustrate the popularity and success of Instagram:
- 70% of Instagram users log in at least once a day, 35% check multiple times a day.
- An average of 60 million Instagram posts daily, and 1.2 billion number of Likes per day.
- 83% of Instagram posts include hashtags.
- 60% of Instagram content comes from outside of the US.
- The most Instagrammed location of 2012 and 2013 was in Thailand (an airport and a shopping mall respectively).
- 65% of the worlds top 100 brands are active on Instagram.
Instagram was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger, and launched in October 2010. Instagram began as a HTML5 check-in project where Systrom and Krieger wanted to work on mobile photography. They chose the name Instgram as a fusion of the words “instant” and “telegram”. Only almost a year afterward did they integrate hashtags into their app. The hashtag feature helped Instagram automatically archive the photograph posts from and for communities all over the world. Then, after working on their idea for a couple of more months, in October when they released their 2.0 version they included filters. Filters and hashtags are now known as one of Instagram’s most trademark features, but it was not originally part of the idea or application. Instagram is an example of how an O.K. idea with a passionate team, a lot of work and market adjustments can become great and extremely successful.
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