Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company.
I am the founder of 7C Studio. My role includes sales, business development, and account management. The company was founded in 2014. We are a full-service mobile app development company that turns ideas into products customers love. The services we offer are market research, developing prototypes, design, focus group testing, and development for Android and iOS apps.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing a mobile app.
We look at the features and their complexity, platforms to be supported (Android or iOS, or web app) and then take a call on deciding the time frame of developing app.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of a mobile application?
It largely depends on the product that we are building. However, from our past experience with the products that we have developed, it is typically a 50:50 ratio. 50% of the time is devoted to front end and the other 50% to back end.
What is your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors / outsourcing?
We want to make sure we stick to high standards that we have set for ourselves in terms of quality, delivery timelines and meeting customers. So we do not outsource any work.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
To build a product you need to be agile and requirements cannot be completely understood on Day 1. We start with a flexible set of requirements, figure out a rough effort and timeline. We do weekly scrum and build the product iteratively. This flexibility is a huge benefit for any start-up.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right platform for a mobile application?
It largely depends on what problems we are solving. If it is a consumer app for India, we will suggest Android. But for some niche products, even in India, we might suggest iOS. For example, we worked on a music app designed for musicians. There we had to choose iOS, because through our market research we figured out there will be more iOS users in that particular segment. Sometimes, clients also come up with their own expectations so that also weighs in a lot while taking this decision.
Native or Hybrid - which platform is best to use to build your app? What are your recommendations?
We generally prefer native platform. Based on our experience, we have seen that hybrid always falls short of expectations when it comes to user experience.
What are the key factors that you consider before deciding the cost of a mobile application?
The important factors would include what are the features the client wants, what is the MVP or the product that we are going to build, what kind of services the client is expecting from us, does it include design, app development, DevOps and what are the timelines that they are looking at.
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 have 2 types of pricing models - Fixed Cost Model and Hybrid Time and Materials Model. In case of a fixed cost model, it really works well for the founders who have an idea and want to build MVP. In case of Hybrid T&M model, it works well for start-ups which are funded and are looking for a dedicated team for a longer we set up an independent and dedicated team and set up a monthly billing cycle for them. The team directly works with the client on a day to day basis and then they will have weekly updates about the tasks.
Do you take in projects which meet your basic budget requirement?
Most of the times, we do not worry about the budget. It’s always about whether the product excites us and can the client work well with us.
What is the price range (min and max) of the projects that you catered to in 2015?
The minimum was around US$10000 and the maximum was US$175,000 to US$200,000.
Which business model do you suggest to generate revenue from mobile applications? Why?
It mainly depends on the product. It will be done based on the market research, on what problem we are looking at, which segment of users we are catering to and other such things. We have seen In-App work well for few companies, we have seen Ads work for few companies, and we have seen Freemium model work for few companies.
