Be a Feature in Other Platforms with an API

I talk with a lot of entrepreneurs in my travels to conferences, hackathons and online with my API evangelism. I get a lot of ideas pitched to me, asking me for feedback, and ultimately if I think their startup is viable.

I hear a lot of good ones, and bad ones. Even the good ones face an uphill battle to get noticed in an extremely crowded and noisy landscape. The one piece of advice I leave with all startups about how to get their web or mobile app noticed?

Develop an API!!

The one thing an API can do for your startup is allow your product to become a feature in other platforms. If you deliver only as a mobile or web app, you are leaving out numerous opportunities to become the next killer Facebook or Salesforce feature, or something smaller like a Wordpress add-on, but ultimately something that could make enough of a mark, that your startup could survive.

So when you are planning the feature list for your killer startup, make sure you consider an API, and the potential of becoming the next killer feature in an existing platform.