Recently, I’ve been commenting a lot on twitter and in other people’s blog about iPhone development – in particular, about our clearly-insane “we develop iPhone apps for free” venture. However, I just this minute realized that as it doesn’t even have a website yet, there’s nowhere people can go to get a brief summary. So here it is.
Well, actually here’s just a few tantalizing bullet points which hopefully answers a few of the regular questions we’ve been asked.
- It’s true – the new company will be developing apps purely on a revenue-sharing basis (and not just app store sales either; subscriptions, advertising – it all counts)
- The new company will be called HasFu.com ™. Great domain, huh?
- Our moto is “We + You = Fu” ™
- No, we don’t have a website yet. Yes it is just a holding page. But “doing” usually trumps “boasting”, so we’re spending most of our time doing right now.
- We’re aiming to release between 6 and 7 apps between now and January. We’re able to do this so fast because we have some very funky tech.
- Yes we can do OpenGL
- We’re already booked out until February. Sweet!
- If you can bring something to the party (marketing, PR, design, distribution) then we’ll share our profits with you. Interested? There’s a contact button at the top…
By now you are probably wondering what this has to do with the title of the post. Well, when we first launched the project we did so with the intention of collaborating only with people/companies who could bring in some Yang to compliment our Yin. The problem is, iPhone app ideas are extremely easy to come up with (”Let’s all do another frickin todo list” or some other project that just skins an iPhoneSDK example) but as with any other business it’s not the ideas that matter – it’s the ability to execute. And that doesn’t just mean coding either which is why “We + You = Fu” makes so much sense.
And this also is why I’m happy to risk so much on this gamble: our strong-ish personal network means that so far we’ve been approached by marketing companies, several startup CEOs, some very well-known bloggers, mainsteam media and a powerful social-media agency. Which isn’t all bad considering until yesterday I’d only told 22 people (I counted. How anal is that?)
Of course from a business point of view, despite the optimism this is still like jumping off a cliff with a bag full of canvas, thread and a needle; whilst everyone else flies their new iPhone-dev-funded private jets, we’re learning how to sew parachutes whilst free-falling. But you know what, I don’t care. So far this project is without doubt the most exciting thing I’ve ever been involved with… Benjie and I are extremely lucky! And hopefully we’ll make you lucky too.