A Few Cards Short Of An App
A friend of mine wants to meet my husband and me to talk about something, and she brings her boyfriend. Apparently, [Boyfriend] has a business idea.
I feel a slight dread, as I’ve had people try to pitch me pyramid schemes before. I don’t think she’s that stupid, though, and luckily, this isn’t it.
[Boyfriend] has an idea for an amazing card game he invented, and he wants to make it into an app. They need someone able to program it, however, and as both my husband and I know programming, they’ve come to us.
Boyfriend: “I’ve tested this game with many friends of mine, and they all love it! I think we could make some real money from making an app.”
Me: “So, how do you intend to market it? There are a lot of card game apps out there already. We are both against micro-purchases, and games are a big hobby for us, so we wouldn’t want to create something like that. And it would be difficult to sell an app that isn’t free. Will you have commercials?”
Boyfriend: “Oh, we wouldn’t have that. We want it to be commercial-free. And no, it wouldn’t cost or have micro-purchases. Instead, people will pay to have different appearances and such, to feel exclusive.”
Me: “Those are micro-purchases.”
Boyfriend: “Oh, but it wouldn’t affect the game or how well you do.”
Husband: “Still, it would be a lot harder to program if you need to keep track of logins and purchases. Also, you have to adapt both to Android and Apple; they have different payments for publishing an app, as well.”
Boyfriend: “Yes, well, I work in sales, and I know a guy with his own business. It will take a year before we start to make an earning, but I’ll do all the marketing myself, so we don’t have to pay too much money for it. We were hoping you could sponsor some of it, as we don’t have much money right now, and then we’ll share the profit.”
Me: “Well, we aren’t really rich, either. Besides, it would take a long time to develop an app with only the two of us, as we wouldn’t have much time to work on it, and we have kids at home…”
Boyfriend: “Yeah, well, we would need to work hard for a year, and then we can reap the profits! Now, I am thinking I will take a larger portion since it is my idea, but you’ll get a good deal.”
Me: “So, you want us to develop an app from scratch and help finance everything, but you’ll take the bigger part?”
Boyfriend: “Yes. I’ll steer the ship and do all the marketing! I just need help to fund it and to create the app itself.”
There is silence for a while. We eventually tell him we’re too busy and that if we were to spend time on something like that, we’d find it more fun to do one of our own ideas, as we have plenty of them.
Eventually, they leave in a good mood; we are friends after all.
Husband: “He wanted us to do most of the work, all according to his wishes, he wanted to be the boss, and then he’d reap the money because it is his idea? Having ideas is the easy part! I have hundreds!”
Me: “Well, he is a salesman; perhaps he hoped to work his sales technique on us.”
Husband: “If that is his sales technique, I would rather have you do the marketing. At least you’re educated in it.”
True, funny enough. He knew very well of my studies and still never actually said how he was going to market the app.
I still haven’t heard anything about him getting an app developed.