Tag Archives: app
SStartup Newsletter #002: The Latest UK Tech News, Ask SStartup & App Factory Founder Interview
#002.1: UK Tech News
#002.2: Student Startup
#002.3: Ask SStartup
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Friends,
This is the first full format SStartup newsletter, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you do like what you read please drop me an email or call us out of Facebook or Twitter.
SStartup is moving forward at a fast rate. I am looking to get as many people on the newsletter as I can at the moment and then we will start to run more workshops and events if people are interested. We are also looking for people to submit business questions for SStartup, write for us and to speak at any of our workshops. If you feel you have value to add or would just like to help out drop me an email oli@sstartup.com.
Show your support!
All the best,
Oli x
#002.1 UK Tech News
Has Tweetdeck Been Sold for $30m?
While TechCrunch has reported a rumour that UberMedia has just acquired TweetDeck, the company itself is staying tight-lipped. CEO Iain Dodsworth told TechCrunch “We’re not going to comment on acquisition rumours.” Heck, that’s his prerogative. That being said, we have very good sources that told us today that the deal was for $30 million, UberMedia’s largest deal yet. Bill Gross’ company, after buying EchoFon, another popular Twitter client, now controls 20% of the userbase of Twitter.
TweetDeck had raised a little over $5 million in funding. But it started from humble roots.
Tweetdeck had largely started out as a hobby project. But it was clear that many, many Twitter users loved his interface onto Twitter. Suddenly you could filter people you followed into manageable groups. It was a God-send for journalists like me wanting to track the market.
Not long after, in January 2009, Tweetdeck won $500,000 in Angel backing from Betaworks.
Tweetdeck was now on a roll. Even Mark Zuckerberg admitted to using it that March.
An iPhone app continued the traction, and the desktop air app just got better and better. A Chrome app and further improvement confirmed it as the most powerful Twitter client out there.
Last word from Dodsworth? He had no further comment, but he did say “The timing of GeeknRolla is perfect…”
Read that how you will. But it looks like he will reveal all there…
SStartup Comment: It seems a little early to bow out considering the success of Tweetdeck but $30m is an extremely high valuation and opens many doors.
London Startup Songkick Raises $2 Million
Songkick, the London based concert database, is in the process of raising $2 million, an SEC filing reveals. Songkick indexes a host of ticket vendors, venue websites as well as local newspapers to create a database of concerts happening around the world.
This provides people with a centralized way of keeping track of live performances by their favorite bands and artists. In addition, Songkick is trying to build an extensive online catalog of live concert recordings.
Songkick was founded in 2007 by three friends – Ian Hogarth, Pete Smith, and Michelle You – and has raised $6.52 million to date. Its investor roster includes Y Combinator, SoftTech VC, The Accelerator Group and Index Ventures.
SStartup Comment: Songkick is in a busy market place but with investors like YC and Index Ventures there is obviously a good team in place, hopefully developing into a London startup to be proud of.
#002.2 Student Startup
Company name: The App Factory
Founder: David Carter
Age: 18
Based: Manchester
Tell us what your business does:
The App Factory is a mobile application development business. Along with building applications for our clients we also have our own portfolio of applications. Worldwide we are a well-known developer on the Android platform, having brought over 70 of our own applications to that platform alone. We build applications for the following platforms and devices: iPhone, iPad, Google Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Palm, Samsung, Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Amazon Kindle.
Where did the idea for your business come from?
I had heard of applications on the iPhone that had downloads in the thousands for $0.99 per download. When you do the maths you can tell it is a way to make money and in the long term a business based around that. At the start it was simply a way to make some money, as things grew I began to build a business around it.
What were you doing before starting up?
I’m currently a student at Manchester College, coming to the end of my course. I have, in the past, worked at a waiter, cleaner, and office temp. From these jobs I acquired the money needed to start the business.
Have you always wanted to run your own business?
The ownership attached to running my own business appealed to me greatly. I have a greater choice of what I should spend my time doing, which is obviously an appealing factor to anyone.
What planning did you do before you started up?
I spent some time looking through the most popular applications on all mobile platforms. This gave me an idea as to what would sell well, and generally what appealed to people the most. I think it is very important however to just get started. Too many people spend all their time saying ‘I’m going to….’ or ‘once we do this….’ without ever actually getting down to it. Planning is vital but it is only the preview to the main event, which is actually doing something.
How have you promoted your business?
Thus far I have done little promotion. Companies such as Apple and Google who carry our apps on their devices tend to do great jobs of advertising our apps themselves. However as the business has now developed, we are looking at new promotional methods which look positive.
What about staff?
I initially employed college students, however as the complexity of the applications increased I had to seek out professional developers. I enjoy working with others in my business. I learn a great deal from those who work with me. Without their help my business, without a shadow of doubt, would not exist today.
What has your growth been like?
I started 2 months ago with no development experience or knowledge of the area. All I knew was people download applications and paid per download. From this I have created, to my knowledge, the second largest portfolio of applications on Google Android powered phones – the number one company is a large software organisation based in Los Angeles. I now have client work from very well established companies within the UK and abroad. Growth has been amazing, especially considering I have done this while in full-time education.
What was your first big breakthrough?
The day a senior manager at a FTSE 100 company invited me to lunch to talk about my business was a turning point for me. I realised I must have grown this into something fairly impressive if it was catching that kind of attention.
Where do you want to be in five years’ time?
For anyone reading this they may think I’m a technology person, but really I have no attachment to a particular industry. In the future I’ll probably try things in other sectors. I’m always keen to learn about new business models and therefore it is hard to say where I’ll be in five years’ time. In terms of an exit for The App Factory I currently have nothing planned as I’m very much still building it.
#002.3 Ask SStartup
Brent asks: I have more than one idea at the moment for mobile applications, should I build a few at a time to a basic standard or focus on making one great?
It really depends on what your like and what you enjoy more. Some people are very ADD and always have a number of projects going on at around 60% effort where as others have a laser like focus on one project and try to make it perfect. There’s no real right way, it really depends on how you work best. Most importantly you have to enjoy what your doing if you don’t you will fail. If you don’t think you could focus on just one thing at a time it’s clear what choice to make.
More interestingly though is that you have one of the most sort after ideas in the market right now. The mobile apps market is out of control and there are so many people looking for co-founders or people to work with building apps. If I were you I would look for someone else who is interested in the same space and work together to build a business. Clearly two or more people working together would help you develop more than one of your ideas and all to a high standard than on your own.
Build a prototype or at least a wireframe and show it to people to try and get a co-founder. Then if together you build something successful you know that other big mobile app companies like BUMP or ClickGamer.
SStartup Coda
#2 “If winning isn’t everyone, why does it feel that way?”
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About SStartup
SStartup is a business society focusing on technology enterprise. Our aim is to bring individuals with tech business ideas together and to provide a group working environment to build their individual businesses. We also aim to educate those who have yet to develop their business idea in technology based tools that can help build a successful business.
http://www.sstartup.com
About the SStartup Newsletter
Our newsletter is compiled in a collaborative fashion by as many writers, researchers and industry pundits as we can get our hands on. Our conflicts are many, but our insights and facts are always well-researched, honest and to the point. We’re blunt to a fault–by design. If you would like to write for SStartup email oli@sstartup.com.
Remember the Milk, My New GTD App
Over the last few years I’ve been using Omnifocus as my go to app for task organisation. Omnifocus is the swiss army knife of GTD apps but the lack of cloud synchronisation has finally made me start searching for an alternative.
Remember the Milk is an online GTD app that I used for the first time a few years ago but put down in favor of the better featured Omnifocus mainly because of it’s iPhone app. Having started using services like Evernote that sync with the cloud I have been looking for the same from my GTD app rather than having to actively sync my to do list between my iPhone and my Mac so I’ve returned to Remember the Milk with a wholly positive experience.
Why Remember the Milk
So if your not already using Remember the Milk here are my top five reasons to get on board and organise your life.
- Cloud based Sync - For me this is the biggest selling point of all wherever you input data it always automatically syncs to the cloud meaning that wherever I am, on whatever machine I can quickly and easily get to all my to do data.
- Online Interface – This point really carries on from the last. Having your to do lists available in a web app means that no matter what computer I use I can access it without having to download any software etc.
- Locations - Location is the new big thing admittedly but being able to tag all you to do’s with the location they need to be completed is so powerful. If you use remember the milk on a gps enabled device like an iPhone you can then search for all tasks needed to be done close by, great for things like shopping or visiting people.
- Search – Carrying on with Evernote link being able to search just saves so much time. You never have to remember where you wrote your to do’s or what folders you placed things in just type and hit search.
- Reminders – One more thing I really love about Remember the Milk is reminders. All GTD apps have them but with Remember the Milk you can set it to email, text or IM you when a task is due or any information to do with that task. You can also set multiple reminders just to make sure you don’t forget.
Don’t get me wrong a lot of these things you can also do with Omnifocus and it’s a great product but for those of you who have a more mobile life check out Remember the Milk.
*You can now sync Omnifocus using WebDav however this is a lot more complicated than Remember the Milk*
Oli Gibson iPhone App
Hi Everyone, this is just a quick post to let you all know that my new iPhone app is now available in the app store! If you want one tool to let you keep up with my blog and everything else I’m up to the iPhone app is for you.
You can view my blog, my twitter stream and all my youtube videos right there on your phone and it’s all live updating. So please check it out here. Also if you like the app I’d really appriciate it if you could write a review on the iTunes store.
Lastly thanks to all of you for supporting me and reading the blog, it means so much that you take the time to see what I have to say!
