Who is this post for?
Why this question?
In this post I wanted to focus on my strategy as a brand when it comes to releasing apps. It is a big question that new entrepreneurs should ask themselves – do I want to ship to market fast or do I want to create something big and lasting? I asked myself exactly this question and as a matter of fact I tried both options… but only one stuck with me, so let me share my experiences.
Small and big apps
What do I mean by big and small apps? To me, a big app is basically an app that takes more than a year of development, contains multitude of features and requires constant maintenance. On the other hand, a small app is a bit like a microservice – intended only to do one job, preferably in a quick and satisfactory way. Plus, it takes less than one year to create.
There’s no perfect answer whether you should build a huge app / system or go for multiple small apps. Both options can make you rich, both options can make you broke.
Keran Lab strategy
As I mentioned in the intro, I tried both strategies. I worked on big apps and games for few years, put so many hours after my day-job thinking that when I finally release it I will become successfull in just few days and immediatelly I will be in the top #100 list of best apps in the app stores…
Well obviously that didn’t happen.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to do it, I’m just saying it’s extremely rare. You hear stories about Flappy bird and other apps that got rich almost overnight, so you are tempted to go this way. On the other hand – you might even have ambitions to become the next “Uber” or “Facebook” in your business domain, but these big systems didn’t became rich overnight, they ha an army of people making sure they will get rich.
So after releasing the big apps and finding myself still having to go to my day job, I said to myself:
From now on, I don’t want to spend more than one year on a single app… preferably 6 months max.
With that in mind, I started coming up with different small apps that were quick to develop, fast to ship, easy to update and easy to scale. At this moment I’m still building up my portfolio, which you can see by the way:
But the decision to go this way has some pros that to me were the main reason that I chose this strategy:
- Diversification – I don’t know which one of my apps becomes popular, I think that’s almost impossible to guess. But the more types of apps I release, the higher the chance that one of them catches the “big break”. For example, my Katanas Inc. game got a few thousand downloads, while my Keran Event Calculator utility app barely a 100 (statistics as of May 2026).
- Sense of achievement – Imagine spending 5 years building one, big, awesome app or game. Every day you dedicate some time to it, sometimes 0 hours, sometimes 8h… at some point you probably start doubting yourself whether it still makes sense… I wanted to avoid that. I know how easy it can be to get burnt out doing your impossible side-business dream – I was close. Thankfully, I switched my strategy and it brings me great joy when I can release a workable app in just few months and then release a cool update in just a month or so.
- Demand changes – You might have an awesome idea that is very hyped at the very moment that you decided to work on it. 5 years later, you are ready and you release it to the market and you realize that people forgot about this cool notion, moved on to 50 different hypes along the way. Something that made sense 5 years ago can be a completely bad idea by now. Market changes, people change, if you don’t reach that market fast enough then you might lose your shot.
- Ecosystem capability – If you play it right, you might be able to connect all your apps in one ecosystem. Prepare one account for all, create some gamification or other incentives for downloading other apps or buying their premium versions. Maybe you can do some promotional packs or other cool marketing stunts. You might have noticed that Keran Labs has a single account for all my apps plus the website. It’s a conscious decision that I plan on leverage in the future for some cool functionalities (stay tuned!)
- Better focus – Similar to one of the previous points, when you work too long on one app, you tend to take breaks or you tend to move on to some distractions. In some cases, you might even let your idea die somewhere along the way. I was lucky (or strong) enough to have avoided this, even though I wrote apps in 6 months as well as in 3 years. Still, the main difference is that if my 3-year-long app would have had smaller scope, I would have finished it probably in 6 months and the continue expanding it, instead of forever trying to make it perfect… which led to the Demand changes point unfortunately.
Of course, it’s not all peaches and sunshines, there are of course some downsides of doing fast and small apps instead of well polished big ones…
A perfect strategy then?
Around this point you might start thinking that I got it all wrong and that my strategy is completely wrong. You might be even right because at the time of writing this article, I’m still not rich and I do not own a boat. Still, I am aware that my strategy has some downsides and I accept them. The benefits so far outweigh the downsides, but given more time, if this strategy won’t bear enough fruits, I won’t have an issue with changing my approach completely.
Still, let’s take a look what are the downsides that I accepted when signing myself up for this strategy.
Maybe people do want a perfect hamburger made for a long time instead of a McDonald-type of okay-ish and quick burger?
- Nothing is ever perfect – That might be actually applicable to big and small apps – none of them are ever perfect. But you can for sure notice good craftsmanship and attention to detail. Chances are that bigger systems might offer more functionalities but at the same time none of them are deep enough. On the other hand, small apps offer less functionalities but they are very well thought. Where is the balance? I haven’t found it yet.
- You become jack of all trades – You offer everything yet nothing. A lot of apps can seem like a bunch of random ideas that came in a whim (which is pretty true about my strategy of how I design new apps). If you want to become a recognizable brand, but your apps are games, budget apps, party apps, musician tool apps, etc… then what is your real identity? It gets lost. I might call my brand “Keran Labs” and my main intention was to bundle all my crazy ideas into one banner, but if you’d ask me “What does Keran Labs offer?”, I would most likely struggle to give you a straight answer.
- Multiple small revenue streams vs one big one – This is of course best case scenario, but if your big app idea is solid and you will attract customers, most likely you will earn much more money rather than having few small successful apps. It’s an issue of scale. Usually, big apps or games target larger scale and larger scale brings more money. So even if my Keran Event Calculator becomes a hit utility app for settling parties, chances are it will only earn a small amount of money from ads and premium membership compared to for example a trendy new social media platform… Most likely much, much smaller…
- Not all apps will survive – A lot of my apps use Firebase for cloud functionalities. And I can optimize it as much as I can, but still, it might happen that the cloud consumption cost for some apps will be too high and such app might generate losses. Most likely it will be my mistake in planning the app monetization, but it can happen I might need to “kill” some apps that are simply not popular and do not bring enough revenue to at least cover the costs.
- Sponsors and partners are less likely – Without a strong product it is much more difficult to find a business partner or investor. Selling a big, sexy platform is an easier task than selling a bunch of random apps that maybe one of them becomes successful. It’s also a problem of scale, my apps solve pretty unique issues that won’t attract million of users. Not everyone likes to play mobile apps during house parties (GameRoom) and not everyone will like the appeal of a medieval, tactical game that makes fun of real life corporations (Katanas Inc.). But then again, one important point for me is:
It’s not only about money for me, but I still feel happy when I know that my apps help people solve their problems or simply create some fun moments. I may be a capitalist, but I do take joy in more noble things too…
Which strategy should you take?
Deciding on the overall strategy of your business is difficult. I’m sure it’s not something you just do in 5 minutes. Perhaps the below questions I came up with will give you some better clarity:
- Do you get easily bored?
- Yes -> small apps strategy
- No -> keep reading
- Is your life full of tasks and “adult responsibilities”?
- Yes -> go for small apps
- No -> keep reading
- Are you starting your journey as a solo developer?
- Yes -> small apps are a great start
- No -> keep reading
- Do you want to start as cheap as possible?
- Yes -> small apps usually are not expensive
- No -> keep reading
- Do you want to see revenue quick?
- Yes -> if done right, small apps can start earning for you quicker (albeit, smaller amounts)
- No -> keep reading
- Do you truly believe in your idea and want to make something amazing?
- Yes -> Go for big app
- No -> If you don’t believe in your idea… why are you even here?
What’s your take — are you a ‘big app’ or ‘small apps’ developer? Drop a comment below