How your side hustle can land you a new job!

The year is 2009. By this time, I had already released 2 Chess apps out there in the wild.

The 2nd app, a simple chess database reader: 'PGN Reader'

I kept releasing more updates to the Apps. Most of it was based on user feedback. In an upcoming post I will talk more in-depth on how listening to customers and quickly responding to grievances has improved our Apps and also many 1 star ratings have changed to 4 or 5 stars!

Meanwhile, I returned back to India to continue the same project which I was working on while in the US. Work had become quite monotonous by then.

Coincidentally, a colleague of mine mentioned about his friend in Motorola and that they were looking for Android developers. Till then, my main skills were in developing entreprise apps using Java/J2EE. But since Android primarily used Java, I decided to give this opportunity a shot! Android was just picking up and there were not many Android engineers in Bangalore.

In the tech interview, I showed the interviewers the Chess apps running on my Nokia device! Apart from these apps, I had nothing else to show and had no prior Android experience! Voila, I got the job!!

At Motorola we were working on an exciting hardware product called MOTOACTV. It was a device with fusion of fitness and music. (This was much before the Apple watch!) It was based on Android. It also had a companion Android app which would run on the user's Android phone.

The MOTOACTV fitness watch

I got some test Android phones for this work. And naturally after I started using Android devices, the same dilemma resurfaced! I have a Android device, but no good Chess apps; what should I do? Build them!

But this time, since it would be company resources, I decided to approach my senior manager and ask for HR approval. Once that was allowed, I started porting the "iChess" and "PGN Reader" apps on to Android. One thing is for sure, because I was spending extra hours learning Android and publishing apps, it actually helped me in my day to day tasks at Motorola.

Imagine learning on your own out of passion for something that you are building and then using that knowledge at work. It was a win-win!

What sort of tools did I use at this stage?

Google Sheet: This is my favorite go-to tool from the very beginning. Whenever I start a new product, I have developed the habit of jotting down points into it. I call it my "<product name> Plan" document. Ideas keep flowing so having a tool which I can use from both a laptop as well as a mobile helps.

These are some of the sub-sheets inside the main sheet:

• Dates - Here I jot down every date! When the product was conceived, when the work started, first beta release, public release and dates of various releases over the year. This helps in looking back in time and getting some good insights, product anniversaries etc.
• ToDo - Here all the pending tasks that need to be completed are added, along with their priority. 
• Defects - This is where all user reported and internal issues are added, along with their priority
• Test cases - I try to make it a habit to mention all features in a test case form. This helps to think of various scenarios required for testing the app.

Here is a template for you to use. I also use a Google Sheet to track monthly revenue and expenses. Helps in tax filing and also to keep a track of growth!

Recently, I was introduced to Workflowy, which is also very interesting.

How do you generate revenue from Ads?

Ads usually make money when a user taps on it. I had incorporated Google Admob SDK (there are umpteen ad and mediation networks) for showing Ads inside the Apps. I fondly remember checking the Ad revenue which started trickling in, a dollar at a time. Roughly, one can expect to make Rs 2 to Rs 7 for every 1000 ad impressions. So for a comfortable ad revenue, millions of Ad impressions are necessary, which basically means one needs lots of users to be using the product.

How difficult was it to switch from one programming language to another?

If one has the dedication and will-power to solve any problem, then learning a new language to achieve that solution is not too difficult. Over these years, I have dabbled with numerious programming languages and tools that were required for solving some or the other problem. So learning something new is not too difficult, as long as you know where you are headed with it.

Did I register the Company and start hiring more people?

Not yet, since I was still in a full-time job. The upcoming posts would talk about the actual entrepreneurship journey which I started on a full-time basis after my stint with Motorola.

As one can see, it was never a conscious decision to jump into entrepreneurship, but rather something which gradually unfolded over some years, one step at a time!

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Please do leave your comments or ask any question!