A summary of things you should know about How To Build A Billion Dollar App according to George Berkowski:

Introduction

In this episode George Berkowski shares his book for entrepreneurs interested in the mobile app development business. This book is the original guide for showing you how to create an app and what you need to know about the app industry. If you are interested in creating iPhone apps or Android apps and want to get into the mobile business this is a must read for you.

The Book’s Unique Quality

I wanted to offer a realistic perspective of how fascinating and interesting but also absolutely brutally tiring it is to build a world class mobile company.

The Best Way To Engage

This book can be read beginning to end or used as a resource.

The Reader’s Takeaway

Do something that you really love but really inject a spirit of innovation of something different, something fresh that will actually allow you to go build a great company.

A Deep Dive Into The Book

The first part is called Think Big and there are a few different sub parts of that. It starts off with a view from the inside. What I really wanted to do is see the view from the inside of both the experienced entrepreneur and first time entrepreneur. I recount the stories of a lot of people I know and the businesses they’ve gone through. Then we spend some time talking about mobile genetics and why is it that mobile presents the most exciting opportunities now. And we dive into a variety of different areas and reasons why different parts of the world are actually eclipsing the desktop and going straight to mobile. At the end of the first part we go into what makes an idea a billion dollar idea. We go through a variety of different frameworks like the human universals and how the apps actually tap in to these universals.

The second part of the book is called The Journey and that’s where we go through the different steps of building a billion dollar app and how a variety of different companies have done it such as Instagram, Snapchat and others. We analyze how they went through the step by step growth. It’s about building a founding team, validating your product or your service and getting that first bit of money that you need to get to the point where you got an app that really makes sense and how to go about that practically. After that we talk about the ten million dollar app and the key idea is achieving what’s called product market fit and where I think a lot of apps trip up. It gets into the practicalities, the exercises and operational bits that you need in order to achieve product market fit. Step three is about the hundred million dollar app and not very many companies get to this realm. This is about how to not only earn revenue but also profit. If you make it through that step we take you through the five hundred million dollar app stage which is scaling your business. It’s taking something that is profitable and how to sink some deep roots and make it work internationally.

The last section of the book is about the billion dollar app. A huge part of this section is advice from billion dollar CEO’s and how to manage this kind of organization on a billion dollar scale. The message I want to communicate is it’s about the passion, building a great company and adding value. If you can get the perfect intersection of all these things, you have a good chance of building a successful and spectacular business.

Notable Quotes From The Book

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. And if you haven’t found it yet keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matter of the heart, you’ll know when you find it and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

The Credibility/Inspiration Of The Author

I’ve been involved in startups, technology and all that kind of stuff ever since graduating Massachusetts Institute of Technology. I have been working in a variety of different startups, both successful and non from the very beginning. Most recently I was a part of the early team at the International Taxi app called Hailo. Started a few startups before that and then wanted to focus on a new venture which is what lead to this book.

There really isn’t anything out there in terms of books about mobile centric businesses. Given that apps have only been around for very few years, there has been very little in the way of explaining the background behind building a sustainable mobile business. Since it wasn’t really there and I was neck deep in the whole thing I decided to actually put it all together.

Other Books Recommended By The Author

Made to Stick by Chip Health and Dan Health

More Information About This Book and The Author

Buy How To Build A Billion Dollar App by George Berkowski on Amazon today

Visit MyBillionDollarApp.com to learn more about the book

Follow George Berkowski on Twitter and Facebook

More Information About This Episode

Download the full transcript here

Listen on iTunes, Stitcher , and SoundCloud

Related books: Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products by Nir Eyal | Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel | Startup Mixology by Frank Gruber

Relevant advice and tips: 5 Advantages of Creating A Mobile App For Your Business

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Wade Danielson

Wade is a 4-time serial entrepreneur and is the Founder/Host of The Entrepreneurs Library. With a long time passion for reading books, Wade created an online resource and podcast for entrepreneurs who love to read personal and business development books. His long-term goal in life is to start an entrepreneurial home schooling program for children of business-minded families.