“I took this map I hosted it on a web page and added it to the home screen on a couple iPads so it looks like it was an app but it was just totally a dynamic map on a web page and went to this show and was like oh right you got to have a company name right.”

Validate With a Fake App Before Writing a Line of Code

Adam spent under $1,000 on a boat-show booth and showed a web-hosted map on iPads dressed up to look like an app. People tried to find it in the App Store, asked for their emails to be added to a beta list, and visibly lit up — giving him the confidence to quit his engineering job. The lesson: $1,000 to validate beats months of building and five-figure contractor bills before you get a single signal.