I've set up a web page that allows users to run a demo of a mobile app that I have developed.
Now I've done it I'm wondering if l potentially allowing my 'competition' to see what the app does is somewhat foolhardy!
The market for this app is very niche so I could probably get by with hiding the page and only giving the URL in an email rather than making it freely available from the web site.
Am I being paranoid?
Main point is, if you are in any way uncertain, take the page down now whilst you make your decision.
Depends on what you are selling.
Is it the apps function, or the tech behind the scenes to generate the results you are demoing?
If by giving a demo, you are showing your trump card, which could lead to competitors thinking 'Why are we not doing that', then it is dangerous.
In that scenario, if you can't copyright / trademark your app in such a way to safegaurd it, I'd remove it and tell a story on the problem and how your solution solves it instead. Show you understand the problem and have a solution, rather than show your solution outright.
If it is something for the general public that one of the large tech companies can quickly disect and recreate once they see what you've done, it will be tricky.
PS. Don't show it anywhere whilst getting your thoughts together. Once it is leaked, you've lost.
Is it not possible to add some sort of permission or role based functionality just for the demo? The only people who can access it are the ones you permit?
(I’m not a techie so presume you’ve thought of this and the answer is a no)
A login page so only authorised users see it, and without a login you can only see the pretty page
Presumably rivals can just get a demo of the app or buy it? Or is it really expensive? I can’t see any way of protecting what it does. You can presumably hide how it does it though
twonks covers the main issues.
However what would hiding the url do. How would you validate the people asking for a link?
The more friction you put in the way in terms of checks then the more chance people will get bored and give up.
Personally if I see a "give email" unless I am really interested I will just walk away.
However your competitors are likely to be really interested and will probably just create a new gmail or whatever address to have a look if needed. So just checking email address wont help.
Depends how good your product is and if you are sales vs product led. I wouldn’t let the competition factor into it too much.
If sales led or product isn’t AAA then pull down the demo and make users sign up for a demo. You can then qualify them first and weed out competitors.
If product led to the point where your demo is good enough to convert a user without speaking to you then keep it up.
If your competition really wants to see your actual product they will and there is nothing you can do about it. Assuming it is in the wild and people are using it.
It's not for public consumption, it's a business process streamliner for one particular industry.
There's probably only a few of other apps out there doing similar and it's only the content that I'm concerned about.
I'm probably being daft but I'd still rather not leave it open for all and sundry to play with 🙄
But I think it is a good tool to have.
I've hidden it for now and will just share the link when appropriate.
