I recently started a role in a startup focused on building an audience specific social media product. There's a lot to do here and we have a native Android app, a native iOS app, as well as a rather heavy Rails stack. There's also a heavy reliance on third party services that are just costing us way too much and if we want to run lean, I need to replace them or get rid of them entirely.
There's a good portion of the community that loves us, but there's growing frustration with the bugs. Frankly, I understand. No shade to the previous team, but I feel like the priorities were not well balanced.
With an engineering team of one, minimal resources and still pre-revenue, I don't want this product to die. But being realistic, there is absolutely no way that I can build for both iOS and Android. Using AI tools I've been able to do a heck of a lot with just a few days a week. But something has to give.
I'm curious about those who have been in this position, and have had to drop support for a platform. Android gets the most users, but has the most bugs. iOS is just easier for me to develop for while still providing room for resolving the other architecture problems.
What did you do?
What would you have done different?
Are there examples of startups that have done this and done it right (both PR and engineering)?
Quantify the opportunity cost. How much money are you spending or losing by supporting a specific platform? How much revenue do you gain from that platform. Turn it into math.
There's a good portion of the community that loves us, but there's growing frustration with the bugs. Frankly, I understand. No shade to the previous team, but I feel like the priorities were not well balanced.
With an engineering team of one, minimal resources and still pre-revenue, I don't want this product to die. But being realistic, there is absolutely no way that I can build for both iOS and Android. Using AI tools I've been able to do a heck of a lot with just a few days a week. But something has to give.
I'm curious about those who have been in this position, and have had to drop support for a platform. Android gets the most users, but has the most bugs. iOS is just easier for me to develop for while still providing room for resolving the other architecture problems.
What did you do? What would you have done different? Are there examples of startups that have done this and done it right (both PR and engineering)?