At Apzumi we make your apps come true.

For any startup which needs to launch their minimal viable product (MVP) quickly - as in yesterday - we have established a dedicated week-long programme - the Private Hackathon. This is a series of sessions designed exclusively for your startup. During the sessions we clarify and prepare the vision, product strategy and MVP together for your startup.

Five basic things are essential for startups in their first year: investment, talent, feedback from customers, an MVP and publicity. Well, we’ve helped startups like iScribes, Sennder, Medici, NappyMe and Meedy form a team, build an MVP, get critical feedback from experts, raise money, get press, and get accepted into elite incubators using this one single hackathon.

At Apzumi we school startup owners from A to Z in how to run a business, basic technology and ins and outs of the high-tech industry. During this time the Start-up heads work together with our cross-functional team including PM, front- and back-end developer. Optionally, we can arrange an iOS and android developer, business analyst, tester and system-administrator.

Why a Hackathon?

Hackathons work. They are powerful because they force small teams to make something specific that founders, technologists, and investors can easily understand and appreciate.

Constraints make great art. Time limit force innovation. Brainstorming within set guidelines creates solutions. Likewise hackathons make great startups. Facebook, for example, used hackathons to come up with some of its most innovative features as in the Like button. And where would we be without that?

By having limited time you have to focus on producing solutions. You will not build ten features. You’re going to build the most important one or two needed to demonstrate your product’s value.

Angel investors love hackathons because they separate the sheep from the goats.

Hackathons show who’s serious and who deserves funding.

Step by Step

I. A carefully-focused process.

The First Step centres on sessions with a Project Manager and a Business Analyst.

To prepare for this you need to have a reasonable understanding of your target market, early user stories, workflow estimates, an initial UX, a budget, and above all, a strong commitment.

We will focus on:

- defining project purpose and scope
- identifying the Owner’s goals
- creating an action plan to realise them
- finding user groups
- creating user stories
- choosing the platform for the app (native app/web app)
- defining expected functions and capabilities of the software
- fine tuning the software to adapt to a particular market/industry
- inventing a list of functionalities according to user stories which are related to market conditions.

II. Design is key.

The Second Step features sessions with a UI/UX Designer and a Graphic Designer.

UI design uses interactive elements of the app to make the app work including drop down menus, form fields, clickable elements, animations. UX design defines the logic and structure behind the elements. App-users interact with and includes sketching screenshots and creating the feel of the app. Functionalities are grouped into a workflow. We configure an early prototype with rapid wireframing/invision to check the feeling of the app in clickable version. We coordinate graphic design of the system elements, for example: colors, fonts, the arrangement of elements, and the app’s look.

III. Software Solutions

The Third Step focuses on sessions with Software Developers.

You provide the content: text, images, videos and databases.

We then:

1. Disect and prioritize functionalities, and then decide which initiatives are worth developing. We guide you in confronting particular functionalities and evaluate their usefulness by pinpointing which features provide the highest engagement.
2. Create specific elements on a daily SCRUM basis by meeting each day and rigorously examining the previous day’s work and delegating tasks for the following day.
3. Adjust the system using ready-made components like calendar, form creator, report creator, admin generator and whatever else applies. To speed the process of development, ready-made lines of code are tailored to the system.

IV. Testing the Product

The Fourth Step Sessions with Testers.

We examine the app’s functionality, usability and consistency. We consider how the app might be used and in chich different situations so to prezent „app-shock,” the situation where your app fails to perform to consumer expectations. The purpose of testing is not merely to suss out errors, but to understand the qualitative working of the app with end-users always in mind. To shorten the time of this phase our testers use specialty designer Apzumi automated testing systems.

Go with the Apzumi Flow. An Apzumi hackathon is laboratory of invention.

You get the motivation and hands-on, minds-on experience you need in a limited and highly focused space of time. People focus. Everybody works intensively. There are no distractions. We call this approach FLOW. When you are fully committed, time flows by unnoticed as you concentrate fully on the task at hand. You speedily launch apps to fit the market and launch at the right time, when customers need them.
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You work with a team. The process is efficient. The flow of ideas and opinions is speedy. They know your expectations. Errors are being corrected immediately. There is no room for misunderstanding. Programmers give suggestions constantly. You learn the process of app development. You learn how to think as a developer so that in the future, it’s easier for you to develop other apps and cooperate with software house. You focus on the practical. There are fewer formal elements in the process (fewer formal reports and meetings). The process is speedier and infinitely more pleasant. You create customer satisfaction firsthand by interacting in the app development, impacts the process and partially controls it.

Is a private hackathon right for your company?

The essence of the Apzumi private hackathon is to get results faster than in a typical software development project. It’s dedicated to start-ups who have a tight launch deadline and which want to be first on the market with their idea and impress investors.

You already have a detailed, coherent concept. You are ready to go to market as soon as possible. You have prepared content or content is easy to prepare.

The Apzumi Private hackathon is designed to bring your app immediately to market using a focused series of sessions to create the proper design and the appropriate functioning software, which, after rigorous testing will deliver a satisfying product to your waiting customer.You’re a start-up. You are ready to go to market. You just need that last push to achieve your dream. It’s an exciting and intellectually rewarding time. But how do you turn your idea or product into a viable money-maker? That’s where Apzumi comes in.