May 11, 2011 - David Yeiser

Classic Mobile is a small mobile software startup that is building educational games for children and adults. Last week we released our first app, Borderlines which is a geography trivia game that is equal parts fun and educational.

Classic Mobile was born like a lot of other startups: we had an idea that we wanted to exist in the real world - then it took us two years to ship it. In startup time that's usually a death sentence, however, with perseverance and patience, we made it. Here are three things we learned along the way.

 EXECUTION PAYS

The product we launched was essentially the same as our initial idea. However, what we learned when we got deep into the execution of the idea is what became the most valuable. 

We set out to build one game. As we began building, we realized that we could build a host of related games using the same base game framework and delivery mechanism. Since we decided to use individual graphic assets for each country, this opened up the opportunity to release supplemental material (printed flash cards, etc.) for the game, creating another unexpected possible revenue stream.

Towards the end of the first release cycle it was clear that we could use the guts of the app to not only create related games but also entirely new apps.  It's important to note that forming this base wasn't entirely an accident; it was a by-product of crafting a product with skill and industry best-practices which allowed us to move far beyond the initial product.

Lesson Learned: You can only go so far thinking about an idea. Some things can only be discovered by trying to implement it.

YOU'D BE SURPRISED AT WHO CAN HELP

We had little capital for hiring outside help - so we looked "inside." 

• My sister, a comedy writer in Chicago, offered to help us for free. She wrote the majority of the copyrighting for our marketing website and a major section in the Borderlines application.
• My mom came up with the name of our first app – Borderlines.
• My wife gave us a key piece of feedback on the color of the countries in the app that elevated the game to a whole new level.
  

OPTIMIZE YOUR CONSTRAINTS

Everyone works within constraints. Optimizing and identifying your constraints is what can push you ahead of the competition.

So what were our constraints?

• Both founders had full time jobs and families. We knew it was going to be a slow startup.
• We didn't have extra cash to invest so we had to do all the work ourselves. (Note: Except for tax stuff. Get an accountant.)
• We didn't have a large pre-existing audience. The product had to be self-marketable.

Working within these constraints we set a few filters to see if our idea passed the test.

Filter 1. Our success couldn't rely on being first-to-market because we would get beat by faster, bigger teams every time. A trivia game is timeless (for the most part) and we thought we could execute better than similar existing products.

Filter 2. We are a designer + developer combination so the product needed to be heavy on programming and designing and light on distribution infrastructure, customer acquisition costs, deal making and the like. The app store model and price/volume combination fit this perfectly.

Filter 3. There was no critical mass awaiting the release of our app so it needed to be something that could be easily discovered and recommended by others. The app ecosystem seemed to work for this because (1) the product is always present in the app store and (2) there are a lot of well-trafficked sites that regularly review apps.

These are some things we learned by going through the process of executing an idea and shipping a final product. We didn't start by choosing an idea based on what made it through the three filters mentioned above. We had an idea that we liked and we started building it.  I suppose you could say it was part intuition and part luck that it worked – like a lot of startups.