Writing my first mobile app

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I’ve decided to try my hand at coding a Mobile App.  I sit on the board of a non-profit and I see a need for them to connect with their users, and there’s no better way than to do it via a mobile app.    It’s been a while since I’ve coded – in my college years, I wrote code for my CS courses in C++ and then dabbled in HTML for some personal and work related web pages I built.   In my career, I’ve mostly focused on writing utilities or other automation scripts using vbscript.  I’ve also done some basic SQL programming.

My initial research shows that I should write my app in JScript.  I don’t know this language, so I’ll probably start by familiarizing myself with the syntax.  I think the best way to do that is to just practice on Codecademy.   I might also take a course on General Assembly.  I’m still not sure how to actually get started though, so I’ll have to do a bit more research.
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I will start off with writing the app for the Android OS.  I understand there’s segmentation issues here, but since I have an Android, and I am running KitKat on it, I think it only makes sense to start there.   If I have any success, I consider porting it over to IOS.  I think that would be a good problem to have.

The Lean Startup Methodology will change how Enterprises build products

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In this hyper-competitive age, enterprises are not only dealing with stiff competition from their peer enterprises, but also dealing with competition from startups that are trying to disrupt the market that those enterprises dominate.   It is for this reason that Enterprises need to get better at building products. And they need to be able to build them faster, and at the same time, fail faster in the event that a product doesn’t work out.  This is especially critical as most startups are very nimble and can pivot quickly to build a better product.  Enterprises have difficulty doing anything quickly.  In fact, it is so difficult that this according to this Harvard Business Review article, 75% of consumer packaged goods and retail products fail to earn $7.5 million in their first year!

We have many examples of failed products right in front of us (see: Microsoft Vista or Blackberry Playbook).  So, how can enterprises become better at this?

Enter the Lean Startup Methodology.   Although this methodology was primarily created for helping startups build a product quickly, it is beginning to be adapted to work in different industries. .  As such, enterprise are beginning to adopt the Lean Method to help them build successful products faster.

James Donnelan has an excellent blog post which explains what the Lean Startup Model is all about.  He writes:

…the lean startup model, when you boil it down, simply says that when you launch any new business or product you do so based on validated learning, experimentation and frequent releases which allow you to measure and gain valuable customer feedback. In other words – build fast, release often, measure, learn and repeat.

The ability to “build fast, release often, measure, learn and repeat” is the core principle to the Lean methodology, and is a critical element that many large corporations are missing today.   James goes on to list the principles of the Lean Startup Methodology:

    • “Use a continuous delivery model to release new features quickly with the least amount of friction.
    • A/B test different versions of the same feature on different user segments to identify which is more valuable.
    • Act on metrics – if you can’t measure it you can’t act on it to ensure that you are always improving the product.”

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We’ve already seen some companies adopt this methodology.  Facebook and their release of code 2x a day being a very popular example of how this methodology is working in the enterprise.   But companies like Facebook and Google are quite innovative and therefore not the best example of your common enterprise.  The typical company will need assistance in learning how to implement LSM and will need access to tools that will keep them committed to this methodology.

I strongly believe that most companies will have to adopt this methodology, in order to succeed in today’s competitive market, and that is why I’m thrilled to announce Clippership’s investment in a company that is at the forefront of this movement.   Along with Upfront Ventures and others, we are proud to be investing in  Lean Startup Machine.   Trevor Owens, the founder and CEO of Lean Startup Machine has been a thought leader in this area, and the company is already offering hundreds of Lean Startup workshops over the world.  Trevor and his co-founder/CTO Obie Fernandez have also written a book about how the LSM can be implemented in the enterprise.  It is a must read for all those that are looking to get a head start on learning this methodology.

Key Takeaways:

  • Enterprises are facing stiff competition not only from their peers, but also from startups that are trying to disrupt markets.
  • Enterprises will need to get better at creating/updating products quickly.
  • The Lean Startup Methodology will be the new de factor methodology that enterprises will use to create and deliver successful products.

Lessons from my first failed startup

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Before I started Simplegrid, I had actually started another IT consulting firm, which completely failed. This firm was started with 7 friends who were all interested in working together. We realized very quickly that this model wasn’t going to work. All of us had overlapping skills sets, and didn’t have the complimentary skillsets that are needed for a business to succeed. For example, we were all technologists, but no one had sales or administrative experience.

Beyond that, we were suffering from too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome, so all seven of us had to agree in order to make a decision to be finalized. It would take us weeks to come to a decision on something as simple as to where to open our bank account. Lastly, since we were all friends, no one wanted to step on each other’s toes, and no one wanted to do the more mundane work that is needed in the beginning stages of a business.

I was very serious about starting a IT consulting firm, and saw it as a big part of my career, so I had to make a tough decision and let my friends know that I wouldn’t be working with them, but rather starting my own firm.  It was a tough time as many feelings were hurt.  I learned a lot of lessons from this one failure, that I think can be applied to all businesses:

  • Never start a company with more than 2 or 3 (max) co-founders.   If you do have co-founders, make sure that each of you have complementary skill sets.  For example, if one of you is the technical one, the other should have a strong skill set in sales.
  • Try not to go into business with your friends.   Unless you can separate out the business aspect of your lives, from the pleasure aspect of your lives (and believe me, not many people can), you’re looking for trouble as issues in your business will spill over into your personal lives.  Do you really want to involve your other friends, or even your families in your business issues?  Do you want to go to a party and be upset because your partner isn’t pulling his weight, but you can’t tell him that cause he’s your friend?  It’s a really bad idea.
  • Fail fast.  You’ll know when the writing’s on the wall.  In my situation, it was obvious that this firm wasn’t going anywhere.  It’s always better to cut your losses and try again.

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Hybrid Computing and it’s impact on Enterprises

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I believe the most impactful technology for all industries is cloud computing – specifically hybrid computing. There has been a general trend to hosting data and infrastructure in Co-Location facilities for quite some time. This trend began out of concern of separating a business’s two most critical assets – its data and its people. Today, cloud computing, along with Software as a Service (SaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) will ultimately drive business growth.

Cloud computing is a bit of a misnomer – the Internet can be considered one gigantic cloud of computers. For the purposes of businesses however, I define cloud computing in the private sense – the ability of businesses to store their IT systems and their data in a 3rd party location that is still managed by firm personnel. These systems, for the most part are still under the control of the IT departments, notwithstanding any issues that may occur in the Co-Location facility itself. There is also the public cloud where data is being stored in a 3rd party location, and the business does not own or directly manage the infrastructure. An example of a public cloud application would be Google Mail for Business, or Office 365. A hybrid cloud is a system in which a business utilizes both a private and a public cloud and shares data between the two. Software as a Service and Platform as a Service are service delivery models that allow businesses to scale up (or down) certain software or platforms on a demand basis.

The major industry issue this will solve is that it will allow businesses to grow quickly. Today, companies have to predict growth rates of their firm, and usage rates of their mission critical applications. Poor planning of these rates can lead to either underestimating the amount IT resources need to support this growth, in which case the business either has to scramble to catch up, or it leads to wasted resources if the business overestimates its growth and usage rates. By introducing SaaS/PaaS into their existing infrastructure, the firm can scale up or down, on demand, and also share their data within the hybrid cloud. This will allow for greater efficiency for the business and ultimately drive growth for the business as they will no longer have to worry about having too much or too little IT resources available to them.

It’s not all positive when it comes to cloud computing, especially with the public cloud.   Once you outsource some part of your infrastructure to a 3rd party, you essentially lose control over how those services are managed.  For example, you cannot control when Microsoft or Google performs maintenance on their systems.  Your firm may have a major proposal due via email at a certain time, and you cannot ask to have that time changed.  With that said. these companies do give plenty of warning when they are performing maintenance and do tell you which services will be unavailable during that downtime.

Of bigger concern are security breaches that may occur on these systems.  Since these services are more public, they is a greater likelihood they they will suffer from a cyber attach, which may either cause downtime, or worse stolen data.   There have been plenty of stories recently of data breaches and downtime due to DoS attacks.   These firms do take great measures to protect their clients data, but it always seems that hackers are one step ahead of them.

Overall, I think the benefit and cost efficiency of using cloud computing systems far outweigh the cons.  We will see firms shift more to cloud based systems, and I expect there to be greater innovation in this area.

 

Key Takeaways:

  • There are two types of “clouds” – the public cloud and the private cloud.
  • Cloud computing allows businesses to scale quickly.
  • Cloud computing systems are more prone to security attacks and stolen data.
  • The pros of cloud computing outweighs the cons.

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