Is there any service/business out there that will appraise your software/website

[jdock1]

I have developed a pretty cool application over the past year and a half written in php and driven by mysql. Its a highly database driven website and is definitely new to the internet. There is no website like it, and its a great idea for a website that can definitely deliver high revenue. It could also be integrated as a facebook app & I could really see it taking off.

 

With the project nearing its completion, I feel stuck, I dont know what I want to do. Idk if I want to start it up myself and possibly build a business off of it, or sell the application & idea to someone else who has the time & money to put into it. Thats my problem, to start up a site and be serious about it you need money to put into it, I really dont have spare money laying around I can invest, nor do I have the time.

 

My questioin here is , is there anything out there that will review your "website" or application and appraise it? kind of dumb, but I guess thats what im looking for right now. Im scared, however, that if I let it out there someone will rip my app & idea.

 

Its definitely, to me atleast, very valuable and unsaturated. I have never mentioned it elsewhere, not even on this site, thats how careful I am about this. I put alot of time and money into this and hired alot of other people to help me develop it.

 

Anybody know where I could/should go from here?

 

Thank you

[WebStyles]

that's hardly a coding problem, maybe this forum isn't the right place. You're looking for something like business strategy, business advice, marketing strategy, or similar.

All I can suggest is, if you're afraid your idea will be ripped off, hire a lawyer before talking to anyone about it.

[RussellReal]

If you haven't told anybody, but you've hired people, how does that work out exactly?

 

But in any event, I suggest you stick to your guns, push forward, and make the site happen..

 

To be honest, look at youtube, you think google would have bought it? even if they put a $10 pricetag on it, before it was ever live?

 

What youtube is, basically, and all that google bought it for, was brandability, they saw tons of money in advertising on a website with alot of traffic, google had their own video site, still do somewhat..

 

For anybody to pay for your application, you're gonna need a working model of it, at the very least..

 

if you feel like its such a good idea, consider an investor, and the great thing about it, is you split profit with the investor (after you draw your own salary), if you don't make any money, the investor doesn't make any money..

 

I'd be happy to help *hints at my signature*..

[.josh]

Even if you want to sell it off to someone willing to put more money into it, your best shot at doing that would be to first put some of your own money into it.  If you've already put in the time/effort/money to make it work...hosting is pretty cheap, especially if you're just trying to get enough traffic to show investors and potential buyers that it's worth putting their money into it.  So that would be my first advice to you; at least invest your own money initially.  It really isn't a lot, a few bucks a month.  If you can afford to be online and coding this thing, you can afford a few more bucks a month for hosting.  If you can't, then maybe you should back up and re-prioritize where you're putting even that money/time. 

 

My next-best bit of advice is if you want to broadcast it to potentials but don't want to do ^^, write up a summary of what your product is.  And make a video/webcast demonstration to show people, instead of pointing  to a live working version. 

[.josh]

Also, you're going to get copycats regardless.  If you can't hire a lawyer to pursue them, then you're going to have to adopt the "do it better than them" strategy.  And to a large extent, you're going to have to have that strategy anyways.  First, there's no way a lawyer can completely squash all copycats.  If for no other reason, because many will be sitting outside the jurisdiction of copyright laws.  2nd...it only takes so much tweaking to allow someone to call their version of your idea their idea, and you can't do nothin' about it.  So you should just get it out of your head this whole fear of people "stealing" your work, because it will most certainly happen no matter what route you take.  So adopt the "do it better than them" attitude and the rest will fall into place, if you're willing to put the work into it.

[jdock1]

Also, you're going to get copycats regardless.  If you can't hire a lawyer to pursue them, then you're going to have to adopt the "do it better than them" strategy.  And to a large extent, you're going to have to have that strategy anyways.  First, there's no way a lawyer can completely squash all copycats.  If for no other reason, because many will be sitting outside the jurisdiction of copyright laws.  2nd...it only takes so much tweaking to allow someone to call their version of your idea their idea, and you can't do nothin' about it.  So you should just get it out of your head this whole fear of people "stealing" your work, because it will most certainly happen no matter what route you take.  So adopt the "do it better than them" attitude and the rest will fall into place, if you're willing to put the work into it.

Great advice people. Your both right, its not shit until its live. Atleast to presentate it to potential investors. I may take that route. Where can you find investors?

 

Your right about the copycat thing to. Im just gona say f*ck it. It would be hard for someone to rip the whole app within a few days anyway.

 

Im just going to make it live and see how many signups I can get for now, then maybe look into advertising it through a CPA network and pay per signup.

 

Thanks for the advice guys.