Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company?
4xxi is World-class technology partner & Startup Launcher based in London with 3 international development hubs. My role as VP of Product includes business development and branding on the global market.
What was the idea behind starting this organization?
Developing high-end apps using cutting-edge technologies. Help startups to build the apps from scratch, improve the product itself, pack the product market fit for various international markets, connecting with VCs and angels for raising money. And go through this journey hand-in-hand with our startups as a partner.
What are your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors/ outsourcing?
In-house only.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
We add not only “coding” value but the production value as well. Applying our unparalleled expertise of the industries we involved in (see above - we help companies to develop the apps from scratch, improve the product itself, pack the product market fit for various international markets, and also connecting with VCs and angels for raising money).
What industries do you generally cater to? Are your customers repetitive? If yes, what ratio of clients has been repetitive to you?
FinTech, EdTech (Education), MedTech (Healthcare).
95% of our customers are repetitive and recommend us to others.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing a mobile app.
OS versions that need to be supported, design deviations from the given guidelines, number of effects and complex design elements, work with the server (API).
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of a mobile app?
As we use native development platforms, there is no fundamental difference in the efforts.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right platform for a mobile application?
It is necessary to use those development platforms that are enormously supported by the OS manufacturer.
Which platform do you suggest your clients to begin with when they approach you with an idea (Android or iOS) and why?
Native development, of course, because it provides full access to the OS's development tools.
Android or iOS, Native or Hybrid — which platform is best to use to build your app? What are your recommendations?
We recommend the development of MVP on Android, since Android allows you to distribute test builds faster and more importantly, it also depends on what the application is used for.
We advice leveraging only on native development (for high-end products). Hybrid development does not allow using all the features of the OS, and requires native development for the functionalities that the hybrid platform does not provide.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of a mobile application?
OS versions that need to be supported, design deviations from guidelines, number of effects and complex design elements, working with the server (API).
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone (could be in phases, months, versions etc.)
We are quite flexible here, and payment structure can be agreed depending on the client`s vision or product form. For instance, if we are talking about MVP / Prototype development we usually suggest the scheme with 30% prepayment only and 70% after we develop everything, deploy, release and being accepted by the client. Otherwise, the client pays nothing (but it had never happened).
The payment structure could be presented as Time & Material, Team-Based, Phases-based with monthly invoicing and so on. To be honest, it doesn`t matter a lot.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement? If yes, what is the minimum requirement? If no, on what minimum budget you have worked for?
$10,000 is the minimum budget of the project we take.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2018?
The price range we catered in 2018 was from $10,000 to $450,000.
Which business model do you suggest to your clients enabling them to generate revenue from mobile applications? Why?
There is no monosyllabic answer here. It greatly depends on the product goal(s), country and countless other aspects. It could be Advertising - e.g., VICE
Commerce and Retail - e.g., Warby Parker
Transactional Services - e.g., Uber
Subscriptions - e.g. Salesforce
Marketplace - e.g., Etsy
Usage Fee - e.g., T-Mobile pre-paid
Service fee per unit - e.g., most of the Development agencies
Rental or leasing - e.g., Zipcar Licensing
Auctions - e.g. eBay
Data - e.g., Duedil
Transaction processing - e.g., Stripe
App downloads - e.g., Minecraft
In-app purchases - e.g., Clash of Clans, etc
We can work with every mobile apps` revenue model.