wejustblog

This is probably a problem faced by many startups that are in development.

For the past 4 months, it had been our intention to complete Alpha development before opening up the platform to a very small group of developers for evaluation and feedback. It would have been like a pre-beta invitation list. But at the end of that phase, I made the decision to withhold the opening up of our platform until later. Let me explain why and perhaps illicit some feedback.

The Widgeo.us platform has a component that comprises an application developer tool. It’s supposed to make the job of creating applications a lot more intuitive. In fact, we go so far as to say that we’re aiming to have it so intuitive that even non-coders will be able to create simple apps. The problem here is this. Apps that are too simple in nature serve little purpose. I’d hate myself if I allowed Widgeo.us to create a tool that allows everyone to only create apps equivalent to the “Hot Potatoes” and “Vampires and Slayers” apps on facebook…I just don’t see how that improves communication between individuals.

In addition to that, the operative word here is “Application Developer Tool”. Based on our quality control measures, it just didn’t make the mark. Sure, we cleared alpha goals. But if we released it to even a select group of developers, the last thing we want is to have them think we’re a joke and never return.

Of course the dilemma is that if we wait too long into the development, we might be wasting precious time and resources developing stuff that no one wants….

I say, let’s just hold out and give everyone something worthy of at least a decent criticism.

What do you think?