Over the New Year holiday, some friends and I were talking about iPhone apps while we prowled around the Mission. It seems a lot of people see the app store as brimming with opportunity…just come up with a unique idea, code it up and chuck it over the fence and poof a nice little revenue stream. Honestly, I’ve never been all that interested in iPhone apps…sure, I have my utility apps, waiting in line apps, WTF is this apps and such but to date I think I’ve only paid for 2 (ESPN Radio – WASTE of $ and Tweetie – indispensable). But when it comes to actually building something, I’ve never been interested in getting involved. What’s that cliche, “never say never“?

Gutters, Neglect and Beer

After a few too many drinks and feverishly jockeying for Gowalla check-ins at the venues we were trolling, I awoke the next morning with a wicked…umm…idea. Later that day, over more drinks and Gowalla check-ins, I mentioned to partners in crime that based on the previous days discussion and late night escapades, I had a fun idea for an iPhone app. I’m not much of a ‘creative’ person in a traditional brushes and paints sorta way but I love creative brainstorms when it comes to cooking up applications and business ideas. But coming up with a good idea isn’t as difficult as figuring out which ones to invest time and energy into, so after a few minutes of batting it around with my crew it fell into the gutter, more a victim of neglect and beer than anything else.

In the days that followed, I busied myself with jump starting the new year but one morning last week over coffee the same app idea bobbed to the surface. “What if…?” On any given day asking myself this question typically leads to mental gymnastics in order to figure out whether the idea has merit.  This idea was no different. I slid in front of my computer, disconnected the internet connection and started piecing together this iPhone app. After 35 minutes (I’m big into time boxing) I realized I had hit on something that was inherently simple to a user yet had potential to generate multiple revenue streams. Understandably, there were an infinite number of influential real world variables that could topple my pretty little model but conceptually it had some teeth to it which meant it was time to phone a friend.

Shout Outs & Phone a Friend

The more I thought about the app, the more I realized that while I thought it was a good idea, I didn’t really feel like learning iPhone development just to develop it, so instead I tweeted. At that point, I would have gladly collaborated on it with someone or given them the whole thing to run with…it was and is a solid idea but I wasn’t exactly passionate about building it from scratch. Unsurprisingly, my random tweet didn’t gain much traction, then again, I didn’t really expect it would but @BonitaSmokeShop did pass it along (check out their cigars here).

Nonetheless, after my shout out fell on deaf ears, I decided to phone a friend. First, I sense checked the idea with a couple friends that have varying non-technical-business and iPhone experiences. Their responses were similar to mine, “sounds like it would be fun”. They also took pop shots at the cobbled together revenue streams but generally liked the idea enough to strongly point out that if I were to build it, I most certainly should not give it away away for free. My second move, was to reach out to a friend that’s building an app that uses some of the same technical elements and would be able to run with it or pass it along. He was intrigued and agreed to bait a few people to get a feel for it’s potential. A day later, I had an answer…