I know everybody and their brother has a “great idea for an app” and I certainly have a running list myself, but a couple over the years I have actually created, and regularly use, fairly functional representations of 2 particular apps in Google Sheets. I’d love to see them become actual, polished, more fully-featured iOS and/or Mac apps at some point and market them to the public for a monthly subscription, but the learning curve is just too steep for me. Is there a place and/or a way to pitch these ideas and showcase what I have without risk of somebody just ripping off my ideas? I would love to go into business together with a developer and maintain this as a mutual side-gig, but how does one pitch something like this tactfully?
There’s a recent podcast episode of the show Launched by Charlie Chapman where he interviewed Ryan Jones who faced this exact problem. Had an idea, thought it had merit and wanted to find a partner to build it. I would suggest giving it a listen.
If these spreadsheets are functional, can you use them to get customers signed up, or potential customers? If you can go to a technical cofounder with a customer list and marketing or sales momentum, you’re in a much stronger position theft-wise since the idea is worth less without the traction you’ve achieved–and you will also be able to negotiate an even partnership with a stronger developer.
This was amazingly helpful, @motopascyyy, I loved every minute of this episode and the first half of it was eerily applicable to my problem. Thank you for the recommendation!
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