The Value of App Ideas - A Minute of Overpass : Makers of Mobile Language Learning Games

I've been creating mobile apps for a long time. I frequently get offers to partner with people where they share their idea and I do all the work (for little or no money). While this may sound reasonable at first, I find that it really is a lot harder than most people think.

In this minute of Overpass, I talk about the value of an app idea. We all have one. But what are they worth?

Also, if you are an Arabic language learner, check out our newest language game called "Arabic Flash Quiz". It's available on

About Overpass:
Overpass is a mobile app development company based in the UK that actually makes money from its own apps as well as creating money-making apps for clients. We have our ideas and build them. We can build your ideas too. If you haven’t started creating your mobile app yet, and need a UK App Developer, give us a call.

Our team consists of developers and designers with years of experience in various business sectors. We build apps in native iOS, Android, and Corona SDK. We are based in Wantage, Oxfordshire.

About Eric:
Eric Wroolie is the owner of Overpass. He has built software and web-based solutions for very many large and small companies including Macmillan Publishing, RibbonFish, BNP Paribas, Barclays Capital, Deutsche Bank, BBC Worldwide, CircData and Omega Logic. Before that, he was a Chinese Mandarin and Vietnamese Linguist for the US Army and then a school teacher. Now, he makes apps.

Transcription:
Hi, this is A Minute of Overpass. My Name is Eric, and I make apps.
Now this week, I wanna talk about the value of app ideas.
So this week I wanna talk a little bit about app ideas. It's kind of a strange situation where we live in a world where we read a lot of stuff about apps making millions of pounds, millions of dollars. Somebody has an idea and they build it and then they become millionaires, which is a cool thing. I'm kinda hoping it happens to me, myself.
However, people will contact, as an app developer I experience something a lot which, if you're an app developer you probably get this too, where people will contact you and say "Hey, I've got this great app idea and what I'll do is I'll share this app idea with you. If you go away and build it then you and I can share the proceeds fifty-fifty or sixty-forty or something like that.". And I just want to say a little something about app ideas and I don't mean to offend anybody. This is something that just is really strange is that an app idea, like a really good app idea, the best app idea in the world is worth nothing. It really is. The thing that makes an idea worth something is actually building it. I have so many different app ideas. So many things at the backlog of my brain. I have notes written down, I have project specifications that one of these days I'm gonna get around to doing that I started to see that actually building an app and marketing it is the easy part of something. A lot of times when people come and they'll say "I'll give you my idea, you build it and then I'll kinda help market it and then we'll share the proceeds" it really is like going to a builder and saying "I have an idea for a house and if you build it, then I'll help share and then I share in half of the ideas" which is really like giving somebody a ton of work. It's asking to invest lots of time and also lot of money in to a project without any guarantee that something is gonna work. It's like telling somebody you're really good at roulette and if they'll put the money down on the table, you'll give them the number. The app market is so finicky. I've released so many apps, some of them have done really well, some of them haven't done very well and it just really is kinda keep hammering away at it and it's a strange market. It's really strange the way that works.
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[theresajane]

Well said Eric.  I agree.  There's a difference between business and ideas.  Business is getting it done.  Ideas are for sitting around over a coffee.

[teresah]

Ideas are what keep the imagination alive. I like that you keep a written log of them. One day some of all will be ready to germinate.

[JAY-qtbf]

im 16 years old and i thought of an idea and idk if it will work