How to Build a Billion Dollar App: Discover the secrets of the most successful entrepreneurs of our time

George Berkowski

Sep 2014 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BUILDING AN APP-BASED BUSINESS

'A must read for anyone who wants to start a mobile app business' Riccardo Zacconi, founder and CEO King Digital (maker of Candy Crush Saga)

'A fascinating deep dive into the world of billion-dollar apps. Essential reading for anyone trying to build the next must-have app' Michael Acton Smith, Founder and CEO, Mind Candy

Apps have changed the way we communicate, shop, play, interact and travel and their phenomenal popularity has presented possibly the biggest business opportunity in history.

In How to Build a Billion Dollar App, serial tech entrepreneur George Berkowski gives you exclusive access to the secrets behind the success of the select group of apps that have achieved billion-dollar success.

Berkowski draws exclusively on the inside stories of the billion-dollar app club members, including Instagram, Whatsapp, Snapchat, Candy Crush and Uber to provide all the information you need to create your own spectacularly successful mobile business. He guides you through each step, from an idea scribbled on the back of an envelope, through to finding a cofounder, building a team, attracting (and keeping) millions of users, all the way through to juggling the pressures of being CEO of a billion-dollar company (and still staying ahead of the competition).

If you've ever dreamed of quitting your nine to five job to launch your own company, you're a gifted developer, seasoned entrepreneur or just intrigued by mobile technology, How to Build a Billion Dollar App will show you what it really takes to create your own billion-dollar, mobile business.

Ratings and reviews

An interesting insight by someone who's been on the ride to building a billion dollar app before. The book follows a logical approach to identifying the opportunity, formulating a team, prototyping the idea, building the MVP, testing, iterating, financing, growing, growing, and growing some more. These stages are broken up into the million dollar, ten million dollar, one hundred million dollar, five hundred million dollar, and finally billion dollar app. Along the way are some golden little nuggets to make sure you’re keeping track, but most importantly keeping track of the right things. Chapters on analytics and KPIs put a laser focus on metrics like CAC and LTV. Formulas and industry standards are applied throughout to let you know exactly what is bad, good, and great at each level of the app lifecycle. The author references those business that have cracked the big B in valuation and shares insights into each one as validation for a lot of his ideas. Companies like Square, Uber, Snap et al are names you’ll time again as he steps through each of the phases on the way to being a billion dollar app. One of the best lines is a direct quote from Steve Jobs - “Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that are no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use … shake off this erroneous notion that life is there are you’re just going to live it vs make your mark upon it”. It sums up the theme of the book. Follow a formula and build something people want.

The book is pretty good, it teaches you the fundamental of the real business world and what's the latest technology trend. Thanks for giving me a nice book to read with good advice :) keep it up!!!

If u wanna know how to build a billion dollars app then buy this app and pay him money and everyone keeps doin this till he collects a billion dollars from the money you people are paying to buy this ebook...so simple... #too_old

About the author

George Berkowski is a serial entrepreneur who has built businesses in manned space flight, online dating, transportation and mobile apps. He is one of the minds behind the internationally successful taxi hailing app Hailo where he led the product team until September 2013. George studied rocket science and economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and business at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris. He was Chairman of MIT's Enterprise Forum in the UK and is heavily involved in the UK and US startup scenes. George now divides his time between London and Silicon Valley.