Carla White is a local app developer who’s been involved in the creation of nearly 100 different apps. Her work has been featured in USA Today, Good Morning America, Oprah, Telegraph, BBC, and Successful Living Magazine. In 2013 Carla published the book Idea to iPhone, which is a beginners guide to developing iPhone apps. Recently Carla came to the studio to talk about her success.
Carla when did you start creating apps?
Well, it was right when the first SDK came out. The Software Development Kit. When the iPhone came out in 2007, it originally just had apps from Apple. No third-party apps. About six months later, they released the Software Development Kit, so other people could produce apps. I released my first app about two months after that.
What was the old process of creating apps like?
It was really interesting because nobody really produced any apps at that point. I had one friend in Washington D.C. who launched an app right when it came out. He was really cutting edge. Otherwise, I knew nobody because I was working at EROS Data Center, which is pretty much in the middle of a corn field and I owned a flip phone and I had no Apple products at the time, so I had to invest in some Apple computers and what not. There was no blogs, nothing. Apple didn't even have any resources online. It was just reach out to anybody who knew anything about producing apps and ask them if they'd share their secrets and help you figure it all out.
As an aspiring app entrepreneur with no connections and no Apple products, how did you go about reaching out to people that you thought could help you with your journey?
I came across one blog by a company called taptaptap.com and reached out to the guy who founded Tap Tap Tap. And the cool thing about the app developer world at the time was that everybody was trying to figure this out together. The community was extremely helpful. He wrote back. He put me in touch with a couple of other people. I got in touch with them and it just grew from there. It was at a point where if you tweeted out an issue, you'd get about five replies. It was a really strong network and everybody just helped each other out.
How did you come up with the idea for your first app?
It's called Gratitude Journal. It was released in 2008. It's still going really strong in iTunes, which is amazing. The way it came about was I was living in London before I moved back here in 2006 and I was running my first start up, which wasn't going very well to say the least. About two years into it or about 18 months into it, my dad suddenly passed away. So, I was already in a rough place. When he passed away, that was sort of the roof falling on my head and I went into a downward spiral of drinking and being lethargic and eating poorly. My husband thought it was wise to move us back to South Dakota. That's why we re-located back here. To be closer to my family. That just made it worse ironically because it was winter. Long story short, I came across something called a gratitude journal where you just write down five things each day that you're grateful for. I started doing this and two months into keeping this journal my life changed so drastically. I lost weight, I was sleeping better, I did a complete 180. That was right when Apple software development kit came out. I thought, "Why don't I create a gratitude app?" It was pretty crazy because I didn't know anything about creating apps and went about figuring it out anyway and launched it. I spent $500 creating the app. Launched it in 2008 and it's been going great ever since.
How did creating that first app spur you to create more apps after that?
When I originally decided to create the app, I was hoping at least one person would download it. Then I would have felt like I accomplished something. At the time when I was creating the app, I came across a blog post written by Tap Tap Tap that said they made something around $55,000 in one month with two apps. That's when I realized that this could actually be a business. I could quite my day job and create apps full time. Low and behold, when my first app came out, I made something like $7,000 in the first week. It was something where you could be an independent person and produce apps independently without having a big team.
If I can do it here in South Dakota, I'm absolutely positive that other people can do it as well.-Carla White
That's something that you are trying to teach now, correct?
Yeah, because over the years the big companies figured out how much money could be made. $55,000 in a month is nothing. Apps are making that in like a minute in downloads. There's some big players. It's a big business. There's some big sharks in that tank. Unfortunately, over the past five years, eight years, slowly and slowly the independent developers have been pushed and squeezed out of the game. I believe there's still a lot of opportunity for independent developers and I really want them to get back into the game because that's where a lot of the creative independent thoughts come from, the unique ideas come from, new perspective for app opportunities come from. What I'm trying to do is share everything I know about producing apps independently. Just to give you a background, I spend no money on advertising. I don't have any funding. I haven't hired anybody on my team. I outsource all of my work. Yet, my apps still linger in the top ten downloads on the app store. If I can do it here in South Dakota, I’m absolutely positive that other people can do it as well.
Do you have a favorite app that you created over the years?
It has to be Gratitude Journal, of course. I still use it every single day.
What are some of the things that you've learned that make an app a good product?
Users have to understand what your app does in five seconds or less. I used to say 15 seconds or less, but that has drastically cut down over the years. By that, I mean when they open it up, they have to intuitively know what to do next and what the app will do for them. The next thing is your app has to give users super powers. Make them funnier or smarter, quicker, thinner, whatever it is that you want to do. Give them super powers. Lastly, you have to constantly be entertaining your apps. Think about how you're going to transform your app from being a piece of software into being a little buddy that is in their pocket that they can feel connected to. Also, something I discovered over the years is the hook model. How to get people to be triggered into using your app. How to get them to produce information into your app. Reward them for producing that information. Then to get them to have a long-term commitment in your app.
What would you tell aspiring app creators? What's the most important thing that they got to have?
You need a tribe. That's the most important thing you have to have. Figure out who your users are. Really take a look at what motivates them. What are they eating for breakfast? Who are their influencers? What brings them down? What brands are they wearing? Understand exactly who that audience is because you're going to be creating the new opportunity for them. Understanding that it's really important what this opportunity is and how you can clearly communicate that to them. Building the connection between you and your tribe is absolutely the first thing you should do.
Is there a particular business model for an app that works better than others?
It really comes down to the content and what you're offering to people. If you need at tribe to use your app, then you have to give that app away for free. They're doing a favor by creating the content inside of that app. If you're producing new content over and over and giving that to your users then that's a good opportunity for a subscription model. Other models might be pay per download. My apps are pay per download. The disadvantage of having a pay per download is that that's it. Once you get the download, there's no other opportunities to make money inside the app unless you have other opportunities outside the app.
Another thing you've talked about in one of your classes is that you're going to see your idea somewhere. It's already been done. But, that doesn't really matter.
Oh yeah. It doesn't matter. If you take a look at all these top apps, like Instagram for example. They were not the first photo app on the app store. They just figured out a way to make it quicker, easier, more fun, faster. You can improve on an existing idea or mash up two ideas to make it even better. The only key is to keep it really super simple. Have your app do one thing and one thing really, really well.
Building the connection between you and your tribe is absolutely the first thing you should do.-Carla White
Creating apps has taken you a lot of places around the world. Can you talk about some of your favorite places that you've been to and the people that you've met?
I have met such a wide range of people. One of the most impressive people I met, in fact, was eight years old. She's from Australia and I got to meet her at an Apple developer conference. Apple flew her in and we got to talk for a while. I'm not the oldest app producer, but I was the first female app producer. We got to hook up and have a great conversation. Now I mentor her, which is, well, I think she mentors me more. Secondly, there's a woman that, she used my app while she was rowing across the Pacific Ocean solo. She just got out there on this row boat all by herself with my app helping her get through it. At some point when she was rowing across, I found a tweet that she was using my app or something to that regard. I stalked her for a couple of years and told her, "Hey, you used my app." She didn't reply. Then a few years later, she wrote me an email saying, "Hey, I'm using your app." Her name is Roz Savage, by the way. Now we're absolutely really wonderful friends and she's from England and I'm going to go over to England and hang out with her and her tribe and we're going to figure out what great things we can do in this world. I’ve been able to go up to Canada to meet up with different app producers and people with wonderful ideas on how to create apps. In fact, all over the world. It's been quite an experience.
In one of your classes, you talked about the big market that there is for women in the app industry.
Just for example, when I go to the Apple developer conferences, it's probably about one to ten female to male ratio. It's very outweighed by the male population. A lot of these apps are being designed and produced mainly by male teams. Not that that's a bad thing. There's some needs that aren't met for the female population when it comes to apps. You're starting to see a few more female app producers in the game. There's absolutely a lot more opportunity if you add some females to your app team.
Please talk about your book.
It's called Idea to iPhone, and it was published by Wiley and it's the absolute beginners guide to producing your first mobile app. Basically, over the years I produced close to 100 different apps. Or, had my hands involved in 100 different apps. My formula, despite the technology changing at such a rapid pace, for producing the app is still exactly the same. And that's what I outline in that book.
If I have an idea for an app, is it more important to start with app design or the technical side of it?
Definitely the design. What's most important is to take that idea out of your head and get it on a piece of paper as soon as possible. There's really quick and easy ways to do that. Mapping it all out. The flow of your app is really important. That gives you an idea of how complicated your app is. The simpler, the better. Looking at other apps that are similar and not ripping them off but looking at what they do well and what they don't do well. Look at the reviews, get the feedback and figure out how you can improve on what's already there.
What's next for Carla White?
I'd like to get some funding for my apps to take it to the next level. So far, I've never had any funding or any team built up or any sort of advertising. What I want to do for the realm of my app is to do what Headspace did for mediation. Make it very accessible to everybody and make it something that everybody can use every single day.
Is there anything else you want to say?
If you have an app idea, the most important job that you have is to get it out of your head and get it into the hands of people as soon as possible. If you're sitting around waiting for the perfect designs or the funding, that's just going to slow you down and somebody else is going to beat you to the market. Your job as an app producer is to just get it out of your head and get it into people's hands as quick as possible and not to make it as feature rich as you think you need to do.
Video Courtesy of NovakMedia.