How to build a successful app:the (7) lessons learned in the journey to becoming the UKs 1st hosted GPU farm

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Who am I?

Melville Carrie

VP, Product Management

© 2010 Melville Carrie

For who?

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What do we do?

Visual Search

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What is Visual Search?

Take a picture of something...

...get information about it!

© 2010 Melville Carrie

We created: WINEfindr

The world’s first price comparison App for Wine that uses Visual Search

© 2010 Melville Carrie

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Featured by: Apple; twice

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BBC Radio 1

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BBC Something for the Weekend

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FIVE The Gadget Show

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Dennis iGIZMO magazine

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And...

Broadsheets

Local press

Local radio

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Lesson #1

Choose your category carefully

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Which Category?

Games = mass market

Lifestyle = niche

Wine = esoteric

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Lesson #2

Choose your platform carefully

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Which Platform?

iPhone/iOS = crowded

Android = geeky

Blackberry/OS6 = niche

Nokia/Symbian = mass market

Windows Phone 7 = new© 2010 Melville Carrie

What about Bada?

Bada = small

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Lesson #3

Get close to your client

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Client: closeness

Agree specification early

Sign-off continuously

Agree payment (70/30)

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Lesson #4

Be Agile

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Remain Agile

Design templates (Photoshop)

Code to (agreed) spec

Build continuously

Test immediately

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Did I mention...

Build continuously

Test immediately

© 2010 Melville Carrie

And...

Build continuously

Test immediately

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Lesson #5

Define success

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Success?

#1 Downloads

#2 Revenue

#3 Exposure

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Perfect world!

Downloads + Revenue + Exposure

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Reality: Downloads

WINEfindr <10,000 TD

(Tesco Wine Finder 100,000 TD)

(Waitrose App 220,000 in 4 weeks)

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Reality: Revenue

App price – Distributor share – VAT

App price: £2.99

Apple share: 30%

VAT: 15%

Your share: £1.82© 2010 Melville Carrie

Lesson #5a

You are not going to be a millionaire

...least not by making Lifestyle Apps

...on the iOS platform

...with wine as the sub category

...as a unknown brand!© 2010 Melville Carrie

£1.82© 2010 Melville Carrie

Reality: Exposure

Showcase App for Visual Search

...amazing success

Brought us big brands

...and lots of interest© 2010 Melville Carrie

We created: Tesco Wine Finder

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We enabled: centrica App

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Reality: Exposure

We started winning things...

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Winner: Microsoft BizSpark One

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Winner: Geek’n’Rolla 2010

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Winner: WP7 Boot Camp

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Reality: Exposure

We attracted more brands

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Working with: Samsung

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Creating: Waitrose Wine Finder

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Reality: Exposure

Then we started partnering

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Partnering with: Microsoft

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Reality: Exposure

And now being nominated

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Nominee: Tech Media Invest 100

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Nominee: Kemp Little Award

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Lesson #6

Be nice...

...and look after your clients

...and they will be nice to you!

© 2010 Melville Carrie

“The work Cortexica did for us in delivering this app was

outstanding.”

Nick Lansley

Head of R&D

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Lesson #7

Select your host carefully

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Which host?

#1 Flexible

#2 Speed / Peer-ing

#3 Service (SLA + global)

#4 Price

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Flexible: must be

Able to accommodate GPU servers

Customised specification

Adaptable

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Speed: must be

Fast pipe

Low latency (global peer)

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Service: must be

Responsive

Guaranteed

Continuous (24/7)

Global presence (expansion)

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Price: must be

Competitive

Amortisable

Scalable

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Partnering with: Peer1

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Build on: nVidia

© 2010 Melville Carrie

UKs 1st hosted GPU farm

100 interconnected GPUs

Index 1m frames of video per day

Search billions of images

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Lesson learned

#1 Choose your category carefully

#2 Choose your platform carefully

#3 Get close to your client

#4 Be Agile

#5 Define success

#6 Be nice...

#7 Select your host carefully

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Remember

Build continuously

Test immediately

© 2010 Melville Carrie

...and don’t forget

You are not going to be a millionaire

© 2010 Melville Carrie

Questions?

@MadMaxMel

linkedin.com/in/melvillecarrie/

© 2010 Melville Carrie