We hosted our final Community AMA session this month with two key team members from Appfire: Gorka Puente, Principal Product Manager and George Dinkov, Director of Product Engineering.
If you’re not already familiar with Appfire, you might know some of the more than 200 solutions they’ve created for the Atlassian Marketplace since 2005. Their mission is to support teams with a powerful platform to build incredible solutions — fueled by innovation and customer feedback.
Gorka and George kindly shared some interesting insights about app building, growing a business as a Marketplace partner, and advice for partners who want to fast track their organization towards acquisition. Here’s just a few of them – read their full responses in the community.
Focus on one idea — with fast iterations
I wish I’d focused on creating a single app, instead of trying several options.
Gorka Puente
Starting out as an app developer can be tough – there’s so much to learn, and it may be difficult to figure out what’s worth your time and attention. Gorka mentioned that he wished he had concentrated his energy on a single app when he was new, and George advised new Marketplace Partners to “drop things that aren’t working as early as (reasonably) possible rather than trying to make it work for way too long.”
Considering acquisition? Look for the gaps.
Study where they are not leaders, where you think they are heading, where you could fill a gap in their portfolio.
Gorka Puente
If your goal for your business is an eventual acquisition, it’s important to position yourself in the right way. The best way to do this is by looking at specific companies that you might like to be acquired by. Gorka and George both suggested doing a bit of your own research, including:
- Examining an organization’s other acquisitions
- Looking for gaps in their portfolio or product offerings
- Studying their future plans and thinking about where you might align
Once you have that baseline understanding of what another company might want, you can formulate a good strategy for a partnership.
Build relationships with potential acquisition partners
Although research is helpful, relationships are key for acquisition. It never hurts to reach out to a company you’re interested in and start looking for opportunities for collaboration. George mentioned that he knew colleagues from Appfire for years before they began talking about an acquisition for his company, RoninPixels.
Thanks again to the Community for all your thoughtful questions. If you have additional questions for George or Gorka, feel free to connect with them on the developer community!