How to Build a Billion Dollar App

George really wanted for the reader to have a view from the inside of both the experienced entrepreneur and first time entrepreneur. He recounts the stories of a lot of people he knows and the businesses they’ve gone through. Then he spends some time talking about mobile genetics and why is it that mobile presents the most exciting opportunities now. At the end of the first part he goes into what makes an idea a billion dollar idea. George takes the reader 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 George explains 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. He analyzes how they went through the step by step growth. After that he talks about the ten million dollar app and the key idea is achieving what’s called product market fit and thats where he thinks 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 the author takes 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. George Berkowski hit a home run with this book. We had the opportunity to interview him on this book so if you would like more information you can check out The Entrepreneurs Library episode 37.

Pretty good book. This is the book for you if you want to launch an app and turn it into a billion dollar business. It covers all sorts of apps (social media, games, services, etc.) and provides real world examples of how similar people achieved success (including the author himself, who helped launched Hailo, a cab hailing service). That being said, the book was TOO big picture for me. I’m going to leave my rating at five stars, because it’s clearly titled with its goal of helping you reach a billion dollar valuation for your app, but I was looking for a simple guide on how to launch a small gaming app company on the side as a weekend hobby, generating a reasonable goal of $10-$50 a day in ad revenue. I wanted a book that would help me with some factors I overlooked in terms of business, like marketing or the beta testing process or growing your user base. This book definitely does that, but then includes a dozen more topics that I’ll never use, like how to secure seed funding or how to hire a quality business partner. Interesting stuff, but information I will probably never need. Overall - good for those of you that want to aim high and start the next Facebook or Uber. If reaching a billion dollars is an unrealistic goal to you, look elsewhere for a more focused book.

I thought I was buying a book that would teach me how to actually create an app. This is more so a book of after you create the app. It's very good. As soon as I figure out how to create a app I know I will be referencing a lot things the author has talked about. I found my self taking a lot of notes while reading. This is a great book and I still have about 35 pages to go

There are lots of books out there ABOUT entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship that are interesting reads but very few that really help you to BECOME a successful entrepreneurs. This is one of those rare books that takes on the challenge of doing the latter and doing it well. The author analyzes opportunities in a very intelligent manner (love the effective use of data in the book) and then lays out the decision points to frame the problem/opportunity and decision tools to resolve the decision point. Once this is done, he then goes through and gives very specific recommendations and resources that make this book much more concrete than other books. It gives the reader/student/aspiring entrepreneur a clear pathway to optimize the chance of success for his new app. It is very well done from seeing the big picture to giving the reader the next step they should take -- and why. I was a bit dismissive of "apps" when they first came out but now it is clear they are the future as the world moves from desktop computers to mobile apps and this is an invaluable tool to help the next generation in their "gold rush" for billion apps -- or to just have a super positive impact on the world. Don't be fooled by the gold and billion dollars clickbait on the front, these lessons can help you if you are a social entrepreneur, corporate entrepreneur or really any type of entrepreneur involved in the mobile space.

"How to Build a Billion Dollar App" is a great read! It's extremely informative AND entertaining! The book provides such invaluable perspective, experience and advice from someone who has clearly had a lot of success in this field! I'm completely inspired while in the process of starting my own app and this book has provided an unbelievable roadmap and blueprint. For anyone in the business, aspiring to be - or just wants a great inside look at the app world - I would highly recommend "How to Build a Billion Dollar App."

If you are looking into a mobile app-based business, then this is the guide book to get you started. I have to admit that I hesitated in buying this book for a bit, because the cover and title reminded me of other mobile app business books on the market that are filled with useless fluff. After reading the reviews I decided to get it and as someone working on building an app-based startup I found this book to be worth its weight in gold. This book is the only comprehensive guide to the world of mobile apps currently on the market and provides unique insights into analytically-driven strategies for product development and marketing campaigns thoroughly backed by case studies. The book is also rich in resources suggestions that are incredibly useful; more than once I was stuck on some aspect of the app development process and was able to find the solutions I needed through this book. Every entrepreneur in the mobile market should have a copy of this on their shelf.

This book is divided into sections on how to make a $10,000 app, a $100,000 app, a $1,000,000 app, and so on. After I got half way through the book I was so overwhelmed with all that goes into building an app that I decided to stop reading the book and not build my app. I read "App Secrets" and "The App Factory Playbook" which which had a lot of the same information, but were not as complete. In short I have nothing bad to say about this book other than that it overwhelmed me and made me not want to finish it, thus my rating (I very rarely don't finish a book). Also, he should update it as it's now 5 years old. Right now I'm a single guy with my regular apartment and renting a room near work on weekdays (if I moved near work the cost would be way too high). I own some rental properties. How can I get investors to help pay people to build this app for me if I have too little time as it is now? My app idea is amazing and will, in part, change the way you live your life. A tool, actually, perhaps as useful as a compass in your phone. And, it will be made. And the builder become a billionaire. But unfortunately that person will not be me. Thanks to this book. And I don't know if that's a positive or negative thanks.

Great Book! I was introduced to this title by a friend who is a website developer and found out I was looking into developing an App. Once I started reading the book I actually found it very "Michael Lewis" esque, if that makes any sense. I love reading Michael Lewis books because they are entertaining, informative and provide an in depth look into commonly known financial events that are very enlightening. I like how this author presents the material in a way that cleverly combines the pertinent information in an engaging style. Very easy read and hard to put down. You definitely do not need to be developing an app to appreciate and enjoy this book. The whole story about the coming of the App-Age and what's in store in the future is worth the read.