Start a New Tech Project the Cost-efficient Way

I want a Web app. I want a mobile app. I want a desktop app. This all sounds REALLY expensive. And it can be if you don’t pick the right technology.


If you’re creating a new startup company or passion project that has some technology component to it, you will be overwhelmed the number of choices for technology. Which one do I choose? How much will this cost to build? What about the future? I want a Web app. I want a mobile app. I want a desktop app. This all sounds REALLY expensive. And it can be if you don’t pick the right technology.

Here are some of the downsides of picking the wrong technology:

  • Picking an unpopular technology can result in massive costs – fewer available developers mean higher hourly costs. I know a developer who charged 10X because he didn’t want to work in an older, unpopular technology, even though he knew how to code in it
  • Unpopular technologies tend to fade away over time. It will be harder and harder to get developers over time.
  • Tools and free libraries / plugins are harder to get for old / unpopular technologies. Hot and proven technologies always have great support.
  • Unpopular / old technologies don’t have large sponsors / big company backing. It’s expensive to develop technology tools and programming languages. It’s not a problem for trillion-dollar tech companies.
  • Unpopular technologies will not be ported to new platforms or will be poorly ported versus popular technologies
  • Unpopular technologies will be harder to secure because fewer resources will be present to maintain them
  • Onboarding of new developers will be harder because documentation will be more scarce or written poorly, increasing the barrier to entry
  • You won’t have the marketing appeal of saying you are on a popular, hot platform / programming language

So what’s a startup / investor / entrepreneur with a tech passion project to do?

Must-Have App & Web Technology for Startups and Passion Projects

You can research programming language / platform popularity. I have for 2022, and what I’ve seen I truly haven’t seen in many years. One technology is taking the whole pie – React, a library developed by Facebook that uses javascript, the most popular programming language on the Web. It’s been out for several years now but what’s causing it to rocket higher is its flexibility – it can be used for BOTH Web sites / Web apps AND mobile Apps via its React Native platform. This is huge. It allows startups / investors / entrepreneurs the ability to save costs by leveraging the huge pool of React developers to build both Web apps and mobile apps, necessary for today’s marketplace. Developing Web apps, iOS mobile apps, and Android apps would require knowledge of 3 different programming languages – javascript, Swift / Objective C for iOS, and Java for Android development.

Having developed an iOS app years ago, I can tell you it was a difficult experience focusing on learning the entire iOS platform and even a new, harder language – Objective C. Chances are, you would need a project manager familiar with all 3 platforms to build out your project. But with React and React Native, common functionality is programmed the same, while it leaves room to do unique, platform-specific things if you need to. Mobile apps nowadays have common layouts and functionality… we shouldn’t need to know multiple programming languages to do basic tasks. What’s also great about React is that it’s just javascript, so it greatly expands the number of potential developers and allows continuity of your project because the available pool of developers is greater. This is beneficial to BOTH the startup AND the developer, since there will be a large number of job openings for the developer and downtime will be reduced for programmer dropouts, which happens frequently for business owners.

Conclusion

Being an entrepreneur and programmer I have both perspectives and 2023 is the win-win year we’ve all been waiting for – low initial investment costs and an abundance of jobs for developers.

Need help with your company or startup? Let me guide you with cost-saving guidance. Book a session now.



Ken Morico
Ken
Tech enthusiast
Building a solo business while sharing personal + business development tactics. Advised Fortune 500, celebs, startups.

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