Earlier this month I had another productive and enlightening meetup of the App Marketing group. The topics covered included tips on outsourcing and developing a community around a product as a means of marketing. The outsourcing talk was interesting because I never thought about funding app development as a source of passive income. Similar to having a share portfolio or perhaps a more apt analogy would be investing in a business without being involved in the day to operation of said business.

Obviously, I am developing apps through my company Virgo 19. But the difference here is between being a business that is actively in the app development space. Who is making app development or a specific app the core of their business, e.g. Uber and Lyft. As opposed to being someone with an idea who funds it and then steps back, letting the app go through its lifecycle with minimal intervention. But they retain ownership of the app or at least a significant stake in the app.

I think it would work well with tool type apps, games that do not require active support to keep players engaged. Certainly interactive story apps would be perfect for these kinds of passive investment in the app market space.

The other aspect of this is that in this situation, the person funding the app development doesn't necessarily have the technical know how. They are not a coder to put it simply. They have an idea that they believe there is a market for and so they fund it and put it out in the Google and Apple marketplaces. Depending on the level of investment, they might also undertake some marketing and let it go. Active support is impossible just because they don't have a technical team actively working on the app.

However, the goal for apps as investments does not seem to be to focus on one app and make it the next Uber. But to have a diverse range of small apps that offer a return on investment for people who are looking for complementary income, as opposed to the apps being a primary source of income. Although, I guess the dream would be that your portfolio of apps is so successful, that you can just go fishing all the time! Personally, I hate fish and fishing, but I understand that is the dream of many, many people.