It's interesting that their views on competition run counter to what YC / Peter Thiel advocate for in all startups - that is, avoiding competitive spaces and going for monopolies. Perhaps monopolies are necessary for huge growth and investor upside, but it should be made clear that there's obviously space in startups for modest goals like a nice PDF reader, and I hope their employees makes a reasonable living off it at the very least.
Not sure if their business model will work out (given the sad state of affairs that is the Mac App Store) but I liked that they were transparent about it.
On another note... the Vimeo ad they released https://vimeo.com/145400917 features a white, well-dressed man working at an empty desk with nothing on it but a macbook, coffee mug, iPhone, and Moleskine notebook. I find this marketing trope hilarious and want to amass a collection of such images. Is someone already curating such a thing?
Something I've been thinking about recently: does anyone think Slack followed Thiel's advice? It entered a space that already existed (didn't go from 0 to 1), with several competitors, solving a problem that was widely known (email is a broken way to get work done). Yet it's becoming a monopoly and will likely be a very valuable business. It seems like there can be tremendous value in making something really good when the existing solutions are not good, and that creating an extremely valuable business doesn't require doing something entirely new.
There's a lot of business advice that makes sense if you are a VC fund seeking to beat the market and that must "only invest in things able to return the entire fund" but that does not make sense if you just want to build a reasonable business. Hell, some of that advice doesn't even make sense if your goal is to build a very successful startup with a good but not quite "sure I'll take another airstrip on my island" exit.
Sometimes the domain specificity of advice is not immediately obvious from its context.
My office setup is almost exactly what you describe. Switch out the macbook for an imac and then add a height adjustable desk, some headphones, and a hydroflask.
The article though was pretty effective in making me want to try the app since I make a handful of pdfs and exporting from photoshop is a pain since I always forget the settings I want to use to make the file not gigantic.
But to your point, I kind of like the idea that people can make a business like this and eke out a nice income and have happy customers. It reminds me of a tooth whitening supply company I temped for a while back. They had 4 employees and were 100% happy with the number of customers they had and would get more via tradeshows, dentists liked their product, and the profits were really good. I imagine the owners knew that at a certain size managing the business would not allow them to live the lifestyle they enjoyed, so they just maintained it as is.
Thiel also forced entrepreneurs to ask what they think is true that others don't. With PDF apps, the answer was that there is a gap in between where they can provide a better experience. As you noted, it may not be enough to take on Adobe but it fulfills a niche from which the vision could become broader. See Dropbox who wanted to replace thumb drives and rewritable CD-Rs to popularizing the cloud storage consumer option with all its additional possibilites.
Purely from a user's perspective, the Mac app store has a considerable advantage in centrally managing updates. Non-MAS apps each have their own eclectic ways of updating. Some support automatic update checks, while users have to explicitly check others. For the ones with automatic updates, there are a number of ways it's handled. Users don't generally want scores of update daemons running, and the whole business of "On launch, check for update, notify the user and let them choose whether to update now" really feels like the web page pop-ups that are so popular. ("I launched the app to do work, not to see if there was an update. The update prompt is in my way.") This cries out for a better user experience.
Update on the way out? ie. Pop up with two options "close" and "update and close", at least this time you've already accomplished what you were after with the application.
Yeah it's a little insane how long it's taken for Apple and Microsoft to get software updates right when it's so common and humdrum on the linux side of things.
It's interesting how he says videos are important. I find videos to be much slower to parse than reading features or reviews from notable people within the industry the app is part of. For example, in the case of Sketch, I didn't watch the video (didn't even know they had them until I checked today) but instead read what it's like to use the application from a couple different designers.
In the case of Dropbox (whoa, that was a long time ago), I think I just had it verbally recommended to me from techies or I just read about it on HN.
In fact, all of what I end up installing and using comes from the backs of people rather than videos. Maybes it's a generational thing.
Thanks for your comment, but from my experience - a good video can benefit greatly to the product. And true, younger crowd prefers video to the text :)
I'm with you. The majority of these videos are just fluff and filler. I don't need 51 seconds of video (with maybe 10 seconds actually demonstrating the bit I might be interested in).
If you want video, go for it, but make sure to also include text somewhere because if the only way to find out what your product does is to watch a video I'll probably just close the tab.
How do they get in touch with that "App Store Business Management" they spoke about? It's not like they make their emails available for any Joe Developer to talk to them.
Apple is being very helpful these days, and they want developers to succeed. That is why you really should keep in touch with App Store Business Management and keep them updated on what you’re building and when you’re getting ready for a launch.
It's a highly rarefied group of developers who have a contact in App Store management that would be interested in hearing about an upcoming launch.
Our apps have been featured dozens of times and there is definitely a method to the madness. I shared my 2 cents on how to get featured as a comment on that HN link.
The time-limited trial is essential for selling productivity software, unfortunately most companies are doing it wrong.
Beyond Compare[1] has a 30-day trial that is 30 days of use - not just 30 consecutive days. If I actually use a piece of software 30 different times on different days, then it's definitely worth a purchase. It's too bad more developers don't design their trials this way.
I find time limited trials useless. For user, it is inconvenient, because maybe the time is not enough to test complex software. For developers it's bad because user can simply reinstall the software again when trial period is over.
In my apps, I limit the amount of data you can store in trial version. So, you can try it as much as you can. For example, if your software was an e-mail client, you could limit it to 30 messages in any folder (inbox, sent, trash).
One scheme I saw required a code that worked for a day. They had a server that generated a new code and posted it to their web site every day. So you could use it as long as you wanted, but you had to go to their website every day to get a code to use it that day. If you used it every day, you probably got sick of going to the website and just purchased it.
Although not a top paid app for a side project my app is doing surprisingly well even outside the app store after I took it out recently.
The number one factor which he alluded to is which pricing strategy to follow. My app is not 70 but 9.99.
I too am using a time limited version and I am realizing that this isn't the best approach for my app either. So I am working towards something like what Sublime is doing.
One of the biggest learnings I have gotten from this experience is that an app is rarely a business and that the MAS is rarely a good distribution channel if you are doing something unique.
I could make at a minimum double as much as I am doing right now if i spent som more time on it (I will make around $50K the first year) and there is money to be made if you have something unique. Unfortunately thats hard to do on the MAS with Sandbox.
It was crucial to pick the right business model for PDF Expert. Since we are a privately owned company and never raised any capital, we have to make profit in order to develop great software — an expensive endeavor these days.
Kudos to someone else who actually wants to make money these days, not just spark investor interest, burn a ton of other people's money and then retire to write a book while their company goes down in flames.
> PDF Expert is available at an introductory price of $19.99, but that will rise in the near future to $60–70 once we add PDF editing and OCR.
$60–70 for a fancy PDF reader ? By doing this you will get only the people that really, really need your software, the others will turn away unable to justify such an expense for a non vital software.
A bit like an iPhone in fact. I could afford one, but I don't want to make sacrifices on other more important things. Sometimes I wonder if the peoples that make these prices live in a kind of "rich people bubble" where money grows on trees and 70 bucks for a PDF reader or almost a grand for a smartphone is just chump change.
Those that can justify the $70 need the software. Those that can't didn't need it in the first place, and probably wouldn't pay $1.99. If it saves me an hour, worth $70. YMMV, and it obviously does.
[+] [-] ericjang|10 years ago|reply
Not sure if their business model will work out (given the sad state of affairs that is the Mac App Store) but I liked that they were transparent about it.
On another note... the Vimeo ad they released https://vimeo.com/145400917 features a white, well-dressed man working at an empty desk with nothing on it but a macbook, coffee mug, iPhone, and Moleskine notebook. I find this marketing trope hilarious and want to amass a collection of such images. Is someone already curating such a thing?
[+] [-] mathgeek|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dubroff|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] api|10 years ago|reply
Sometimes the domain specificity of advice is not immediately obvious from its context.
[+] [-] stevesearer|10 years ago|reply
The article though was pretty effective in making me want to try the app since I make a handful of pdfs and exporting from photoshop is a pain since I always forget the settings I want to use to make the file not gigantic.
But to your point, I kind of like the idea that people can make a business like this and eke out a nice income and have happy customers. It reminds me of a tooth whitening supply company I temped for a while back. They had 4 employees and were 100% happy with the number of customers they had and would get more via tradeshows, dentists liked their product, and the profits were really good. I imagine the owners knew that at a certain size managing the business would not allow them to live the lifestyle they enjoyed, so they just maintained it as is.
[+] [-] orky56|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] awakeasleep|10 years ago|reply
https://twitter.com/Desk?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Es...
If you look for more than a second, you realize nothing, absolutely nothing about it makes sense. It's insane.
[+] [-] free2rhyme214|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] petejansson|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] apineda|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] placeybordeaux|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Denzhadanov|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] colmvp|10 years ago|reply
In the case of Dropbox (whoa, that was a long time ago), I think I just had it verbally recommended to me from techies or I just read about it on HN.
In fact, all of what I end up installing and using comes from the backs of people rather than videos. Maybes it's a generational thing.
[+] [-] Denzhadanov|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] imron|10 years ago|reply
If you want video, go for it, but make sure to also include text somewhere because if the only way to find out what your product does is to watch a video I'll probably just close the tab.
[+] [-] zkhalique|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pavlov|10 years ago|reply
Apple is being very helpful these days, and they want developers to succeed. That is why you really should keep in touch with App Store Business Management and keep them updated on what you’re building and when you’re getting ready for a launch.
It's a highly rarefied group of developers who have a contact in App Store management that would be interested in hearing about an upcoming launch.
[+] [-] jerols|10 years ago|reply
Our apps have been featured dozens of times and there is definitely a method to the madness. I shared my 2 cents on how to get featured as a comment on that HN link.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bluedino|10 years ago|reply
It's not a buggy, slow, unusable piece of crap that a lot of low-end software is. It's easy to use and it works well.
[+] [-] jobu|10 years ago|reply
Beyond Compare[1] has a 30-day trial that is 30 days of use - not just 30 consecutive days. If I actually use a piece of software 30 different times on different days, then it's definitely worth a purchase. It's too bad more developers don't design their trials this way.
[1] - http://www.scootersoftware.com/
[+] [-] babuskov|10 years ago|reply
In my apps, I limit the amount of data you can store in trial version. So, you can try it as much as you can. For example, if your software was an e-mail client, you could limit it to 30 messages in any folder (inbox, sent, trash).
[+] [-] vitd|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ThomPete|10 years ago|reply
The number one factor which he alluded to is which pricing strategy to follow. My app is not 70 but 9.99.
I too am using a time limited version and I am realizing that this isn't the best approach for my app either. So I am working towards something like what Sublime is doing.
One of the biggest learnings I have gotten from this experience is that an app is rarely a business and that the MAS is rarely a good distribution channel if you are doing something unique.
I could make at a minimum double as much as I am doing right now if i spent som more time on it (I will make around $50K the first year) and there is money to be made if you have something unique. Unfortunately thats hard to do on the MAS with Sandbox.
[+] [-] zerr|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FussyZeus|10 years ago|reply
Kudos to someone else who actually wants to make money these days, not just spark investor interest, burn a ton of other people's money and then retire to write a book while their company goes down in flames.
[+] [-] hooloovoo_zoo|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stevoski|10 years ago|reply
It is polished.
It works well.
They marketed it like hell.
[+] [-] s73v3r|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] n0on3|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jmnicolas|10 years ago|reply
$60–70 for a fancy PDF reader ? By doing this you will get only the people that really, really need your software, the others will turn away unable to justify such an expense for a non vital software.
A bit like an iPhone in fact. I could afford one, but I don't want to make sacrifices on other more important things. Sometimes I wonder if the peoples that make these prices live in a kind of "rich people bubble" where money grows on trees and 70 bucks for a PDF reader or almost a grand for a smartphone is just chump change.
[+] [-] mikestew|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] flybirdx101|10 years ago|reply
Finally, it all depends on what exactly you need from the app. Fast, reliable and well-designed software can't be cheap - and I don't think it should.