29 Jul 2008

Business Idea: Web App Competitions

Name ideas

  • Snapplication
  • AppZapp
  • AnteIn
  • AnteUp
  • TakeThePot
  • ZoomApp
  • appcomp
  • applicompete
  • applicomp
  • applipete
  • minimalapp
  • miniapp
  • minimapp

Judging Criterion

  • Fastest App.
  • Most innovative.
  • Most lucrative.
  • Most eyeballs.
  • Most users after certain period.
  • Most revenue after certain period.

Objective

To foster fantastic development principles through cutting-edge application development. And have a blast doing it. Create a burning desire in developers and their companies to create fantastic applications.Incentivize developers to innovate and be creative during the development process. Give Investors greater access to great developers and great apps that will generate revenue. When developers compete, developers get better. Stop dealing with the bureaucracy of development and write some code! Stop writing shortcuts and hack-jobs, write GREAT CODE.

Angle 1

Everyone puts in x amount which goes into the pot. Whoever wins based on criteria x, y, and z takes the pot. Pot = Pot input + investment capital - competition cost (revenue for company) - small payout to losers (or percentage off next competition).

Questions? Considerations?

Are they solving their own problems, or a specific problem? How do you regulate the rules? What are the payouts? How do you generate repeat developer competitions? Competition Blogs

Get an expert panel of judges:

Jeffery Zeldman Dave Shea Eric Meyers Joel on Software Dave Thomas Andy Hunt others?

Separate competitions by:

Team Size Opt-in price Time Period allowed Feature set required Specific Language Specific Frameworks Specific OS or Hardware

Additional Rules (how to enforce?)

Have to adhere to team size. Can’t have previous codebase greater than 1000 lines of code? No OpenSource code that comprises greater than 30% of your application (excluding application frameworks) Inspection of codebase at each phase of competition. Short time periods

Why would people come back?

Discounts for subsequent entries. Getting your dev company on the map. Getting your dev company in front of investors.

Investors

Show investors viable companies/applications that are making a difference. No hassle for investors. They can peruse the database of clients and their apps at their leisure.

Angle 2

Bidding wars (?) for development companies for submitted needs from investors and other companies less apt to do the development. Companies wishing to bid, investors and companies wishing to buy, all pay a service fee to list their app/need for an app.