Trevor McKendrick

Today I have the pleasure of presenting an insightful interview with Dave Stevenson, owner of Stevenson Software. Not only was Dave nice enough to give me a Google+ invite back when they were cool, but  Dave is a great example of bootstrapping your way to independence. He worked nights and weekends for over 5 years before deciding to take the plunge and work independently.

Some of his most popular apps are Landscaper’s Companion and Kids in Mind, both for the iPad. He’s been featured by Apple and had a successful corporate software career before starting out on his own. No matter what your goals are, there is definitely something you can learn from Dave!

And with that, here’s the interview:

(1) What was your developer experience prior to going indy? What was your last job? (who’d you work for, what did you do, did anyone report to you, etc.)

My background is in enterprise Java web development. In the last 13 years, I’ve held various programming and management positions at software companies in Utah. At my last corporate job, I was a director at a software company in Provo, UT. I managed two teams – the support services team and a team of integration developers. I spent about 40% of my job programming, 35% managing the two teams, and 25% traveling to visit customers and participating in industry workgroups. Needless to say, it was a cushy job that I loved.

(2)How many hours do you work now vs back in corporate?

This is a hard question to answer. Entrepreneurship and programming not only pays the bills, but is my hobby. It’s my favorite thing to do. So I don’t know how much I work, other than *always.* Now, for a practical answer, in the corporate world I worked a 35-40ish hour week and on average worked 10-20 hours additionally on “side” projects. I did this for 5 years before going indy. Now that I’m indy full time, I spend anywhere from 20-60 hours working each week. The best part of being indy is the ability to shift my working hours. For example, lately I’ve spent a lot of time during the day learning to fly R/C planes and working in the evenings. I also take July pretty much off, but leading up to July and then in August I end up working 60-80 hour weeks. I think overall I work about the same amount, except I find much more enjoyment now working long hours than before.

(3)How did you come to the decision to do independent development? Did you quit cold turkey, do moonlighting development work to get started, or somewhere in between?

I’m proud of the fact that I’ve never done any contract work. I read the Robert Kiyosaki book, Cashflow Quadrant, and knew that I wanted to be a business owner and “make money while I slept.” So I spent 5 years developing various side projects, a few of which I sold along the way. When I started my last job in 2005, I told everyone I knew, “this is the last time I’ll work for someone else.”  Then at the end of 2009, I put a stake in the ground and told everyone “2010 is the year I’m going to quit.” I didn’t know what day in 2010 – other than it was going to happen. Without that decision, along with telling everyone about it, I doubt I would’ve had the guts to really pull the cord and leave on May 7, 2010.

(4) How do you decide what apps to make? 

I’ve done apps based on a variety of reasons. One of my first apps, Landscaper’s Companion, I like to think I did because I had a casual interest in gardening, but really it was because I saw a market opportunity. There were not many gardening apps in the app store. Other apps, like Kids in Mind, have come about because my wife loved the website and suggested I get in touch with them for a partnership. Lastly, I’ve done apps like Airplane Quiz based purely on the passion for airplanes that I have. If you’re looking for an app to develop, a good rule of thumb is to make something that “scratches your own itch.”

(5) We hear so many success stories in the news, but in reality of course most apps never see the light of day. Why do you think you’ve been able to make a living developing iOS apps?

I think there’s a few reasons. First, I like to think that my apps are of high quality. They are not going to win any Apple Design awards, but they do their job well. Second, I think, for better or worse, I haven’t given up. The very first app I did, One Hand Clapper, I did on a whim and it was a bomb. But I didn’t let that deter me. I learned from my mistakes and tried again. Lastly, I would be honest if I didn’t say that there is a luck component to selling apps. Landscaper’s Companion was featured by Apple early on and that has contributed to it’s success greatly. I read somewhere that Angry Birds wasn’t a top-selling app until Apple featured it. So don’t I discount the luck factor – I do try and increase my odds of being lucky by developing good apps that Apple would be proud to promote.

(6) You’re a one man shop. How do you provide decent customer support?

Easy answer: I work a lot Seriously though, selling apps is very unique in that support costs are low. Since most customers do not have a direct relationship with you (i.e. they never went to your website, they didn’t purchase directly from you, they don’t have your phone #), most customers don’t ask for support. They instead leave 1-star reviews, which unfortunately Apple provides no recourse for developers to respond to. So I make sure my apps are well tested, easy to use, and self-explanatory. In 2010 I sold a previous business selling virtual private server (VPS) hosting. There were a lot of support issues with this business and it did not fit a one-man-show operation. I ran it for over 2 years before deciding that it was not a good fit for me. I took my laptop *everywhere* and always made sure I had internet access. This caused problems whenever I travelled, and especially on vacations. I will never forget being in Hawaii with my phone buzzing letting me know that a server was down, and then having to spend the next few hours resolving issues with it while my family was out playing in the sun!

(7) How do people find your apps? Is word of mouth enough to rely on? Surely you have to start somewhere….

My #1 rule for marketing apps: build a killer app. Nothing you do will provide better results than that. Why? Because good apps get promoted by Apple. Instead of spending 30 hours emailing a bunch of review sites and bloggers trying to get them to write a story about your app, spend that 30 hours on polishing your app. Instead of spending $500 on Google Adwords or Facebook ads, hire a good designer. Make your app pixel perfect. Work on your app store description. Good apps will get noticed and sell themselves.

(8)What’s the hardest part about being indy?

I don’t have too much to complain about. If I picked one thing, it’d be that its sometimes lonely. You don’t have coworkers to hang around with during the day. If you do hang out with corporate friends, it’s hard to relate: you don’t have a boss to complain endlessly about and there’s no upper management that is making stupid decisions

(9) And the best part?

I love having control over everything I do – my apps, my schedule, what I work on, what technologies I work with. I love that I get to try things (new businesses, new apps) just for the learning experience. I also love being able to work from anywhere.

(10) There are a lot of extra expenses that self-employed people pay, health insurance and self-employment tax come to mind in particular. How much income should someone working a corporate job estimate they need to earn to equal their former take home pay? Maybe a general rule of thumb?

I don’t have a good answer to this. Yes, being self-employed I pay 100% for health insurance, don’t have a 401k match, don’t get 5 weeks of paid vacation and 12 sicks days. But at the same time I have the opportunity for more deductions to lower my taxable income. I didn’t start out going indy for the money. I did it for the passion of being in control of my own destiny. At the time of quitting, I was making only 70% of what my full time job paid on my apps. The money is nice now, but I honestly don’t pay much attention to it.

(11) What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned in the past 18 months? Advice to other developers thinking about going indy?

It’s not an overnight success. I worked nights and weekends for 5 years before finally being in a position to go indy. You need to be passionate about your idea, and more importantly, passionate about being an entrepreneur. It’s not easy. It’s hard on your self-esteem – you are not following the conventions of most of the world (get a job, work hard, retire at 60), so people will doubt you left-and-right. But ultimately, I think it comes do to just making the decision and doing it. You’re going to make mistakes, and you won’t have all the answers, but just take a step back and ask yourself “what’s the worse that could happen?”. Chances are, it’s not as bad as you think.

Thank you Dave for taking the time out of your busy schedule. You can (and should) follow Dave on Twitter and check out more of his apps at his company’s site. Thanks again.