A frequently asked question among our clients is about the exact costs of the development of an application. Because every problem is unique, the digital solution is unique as well. This means that the price of an app can vary greatly depending on its functionalities and complexity. Estimating the price of app development can therefore be difficult if the functionalities of the app aren’t specified yet. What we do know is that app development requires a significant budget. So even if the price of the development of your app idea isn’t specified yet, it’s a good idea to already dive into different ways to raise money. In this blog, we give you some budget-related tips and tricks that might come in handy in the preparation of your app development process:

• Create a perfect elevator pitch
• Give your brand identity a boost
• Dive into investments
• Create an interactive demo of your app
• Use feedback to grow

1. Perfect your pitch

Your initial pitch is critical to successfully closing a deal with an investor. The pitch is likely the first substantive information an investor (or anyone else) will hear about your idea. First, make sure who your target audience is, and specify their needs and behavior by the means of customer personas. The creation of customer personas is a typical human-centered and Design Thinking approach to obtain a deeper understanding of your customers and the problem they’re facing. By understanding your audience, you’ll have a better insight into how and why your application can help its users. The ability to clearly formulate the unique power of your app in a few sentences will help you convince investors to support your goals.

An elevator pitch is all about efficiency and effective communication. That’s why it’s essential to keep your pitch short and to the point. The longer your story, the more likely it is to confuse your audience about the core purpose of your application. A good elevator pitch should last between 20 and 30 seconds: never longer than a short elevator ride. For creating and perfecting a killer elevator pitch, implement the following elements:

• The problem of your end-users
• The solution you came up with
• The viability of the potential success of your solution
• Your value proposition
• A powerful and effective CTA (call to action)

Besides having a solid elevator pitch, another essential part of a killer pitch is a pitch deck. A pitch deck usually consists of a 10 to 20 slide presentation that’s designed to give a short but powerful overview of your company, business plans, and projects. You could say that a pitch deck is the extended version of your elevator pitch, including visual material in the form of presentation slides. The less text a pitch deck contains, the more clarity it provides during a presentation. After all, its main goal is to support your story with visual elements, rather than being a standalone tool. The people in the back probably won’t be able to read the text on your slides, so images become of higher priority.

2. Boost your brand

The brand identity of your business is your business card. It reflects the unique identity of you and your business, and might be one of the most essential elements of how your customers perceive your company. A professional look and feel of your business can greatly contribute to your search for an investor. Not only does this showcase to others that you’re motivated and dedicated enough to put effort into the identity design of your brand, a good brand design can also greatly contribute to the clarification of the main function of your app idea.

If you’re familiar with design and branding, you can dive into the brand identity design process yourself. However, if you need a hand, our designers at Lizard Global are experienced and specialized in helping business owners create a brand identity that’s perfectly aligned with their business objectives and unique character. Interested? Give us a call and let’s meet up!

3. Investigate investments

Once you’ve made sure your pitch is on point, and the design of your brand reflects the goals and characteristics of your business, it’s time to dive into the possibilities of investments. For starters, the world of investors can be a complex one to get familiar with, and it will definitely take some time to get the hang of everything that comes along with raising money and running a business. To start, research different investment stages, and the types of capital you’re willing to receive. Often, first investment consists of a “seed round”, which refers to a series of investments where 15 or fewer investors “seed” a starting company with a capital anywhere between €50.000 to €2.000.000. This budget is mainly used to support initial market and competition research, before the stage of actual product development. It’s used to get a startup from the ground, so it has a steady base before moving to the development of an application. However, seed investments can also be used towards the process of prototyping and the creation of an MVP.

In our blog about different types of app investors, you can read about the pros and cons of various investors, from angel investors to equity-based crowdfunding. By defining the current state of your business, you’ll have a better insight into what type of investor would fit your current budget and objectives. For example, when you’re in the early stages of your startup, you’ll want to look for investors who want to be involved in this stage of your business. These investors might vary from friends and family and individual angel investors to accelerators or early-stage VC funds.

4. Demonstrate your demo

At Lizard Global, we are experienced with the design of a clickable demo, which offers customers an interactive presentation of an application. Users can click on various buttons and navigate through screens and journeys without a single line of code behind it. Clickable demos are designed to give the user a high-fidelity experience of how the application is supposed to work. This makes a clickable demo an essential part of your pitch to investors. Without having to put too much effort and money into creating a fully functional version of your application, a clickable demo is a cost-effective way to provide a concrete look and feel of your app, so your investors know exactly what they’re spending their money on.

Our UI/UX design specialists at Lizard Global have recently introduced our personalized design workshops. These workshops are designed and developed to help our clients create a high-quality and high-fidelity design of their digital solution. With that design, our clients can greatly optimize their chance of finding external or internal investors for the further development of their product. Want to know more about our workshops? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, and let’s find out what our workshops can do for you, your team and the unique potentials of your business!

5. Flourish on feedback

Practice is key. And although your pitch should be as short as possible, it’s important that it conveys just the right amount of information. Practicing your pitch over and over again in order to know your material from the inside out can get you very far. Besides knowing exactly what you want to convey with your pitch, it’s also essential to anticipate potential questions that might pop up, and prepare for what you would do if you don’t know the answer to a question. One of the best ways to learn is to fail. Chances are big you won’t immediately find your investors after your first try, and you’ll likely hear ten “no’s” before you get a “yes”. With every “no” you receive, make sure you understand exactly why that was the answer you received by asking for honest feedback. By doing this, you can continuously improve your pitch (and idea) to the point of perfection. By seeing failure as an opportunity to learn, rather than a personal backlash, you’ll learn how to grow yourself and your business in a sustainable way.

Need a hand?

Do you want to know more about investments for app development? Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us, and we gladly tell you more about budget estimations for the development of an application. Are you struggling with finding the right digital partner for the development of your application? Give us a call, and let’s meet up to discuss the possibilities of a fruitful partnership!