- Nipun from LikeMinds
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- 27th August - Newsletter (ICP Q - Non India)
27th August - Newsletter (ICP Q - Non India)

“I made this mistake in 2019 when we started: I said we’ll build it ourselves”, quoted Arun Bagaria, CEO & Co-Founder of TravClan in a recent conversation with me.
You might be wondering, what was the mistake? Stick with me for two minutes and I’ll circle back to it. I recently asked one of our clients - TravClan to share their experience of working with LikeMinds. Along with his feedback, Arun shared some valuable insights into the complexities of product development.
In particular, he shed light on the common pitfalls they faced while building a mobile application from scratch. Inspired by him, this week’s focus is on these pitfalls that even experienced teams could stumble into when developing a product in-house.
How long do you think it takes to create an in-app Feed? 30 days? 50? My calculation shows that engineering efforts alone can take up to 14 Months. Now, before you say I am exaggerating, here’s a quick breakdown:

Adding other factors like designing and testing cycles, this timeline can stretch up to 18 months. This is exactly where the mistakes begin:
Underestimating time and resources: What’s your core value proposition? Enhancing customer journey, increasing retention, or driving user engagement? Developing in-app features often takes much longer than anticipated, drains resources, and diverts focus from core functionalities.
Lack of Specialized Expertise: Let’s be real, even the most talented teams have their limits. Arun mentioned how attempting to build complex features in-house led to challenges that could have been swiftly mitigated by leveraging external expertise.
Slower Time-to-Market: One of the key requirements for TravClan was going live quickly. Their timeline was highly impacted when they tried to do it in-house earlier. This was due to unforeseen challenges, project complexities, ongoing maintenance, and potential rework.
This is why TravClan decided to pivot. Reflecting on his present-day decision of integrating a third-party solution, Arun shared “There is a lot of expertise and learning that LikeMinds, as a team, adds which is very very important. Otherwise, you make the same mistakes that others have made and you don’t move forward quickly”.
Sometimes, the smartest way forward is to leverage expertise that guides you past the challenges and toward successful outcomes.
About LikeMinds
We turn challenges into success stories. Our expertise lies in building dynamic in-app Feeds and Chats with a deployment time of just 15 minutes. We treat every brand as our own, which is why TravClan isn’t just another client to us, it’s a story of success. And you could be next.
Until Next Story,
Nipun Goyal,
Founder & CEO, LikeMinds