Money doesn’t grow on trees, bushes, nor can it be found amongst the sea kelp. But money will eventually help you build that mind-blowing mobile app you already know everyone should have in their phone. In building that app, hiring a developer is one of your up and coming action items. Bad news is very few developers accept dental floss as suitable reimbursement. One of your financing choices is a gargantuan business loan and accompanying interest rate from a bank. Another may be a loan from the Bank of Mom and Dad. Yet one of the newest financing choices that has seen explosive growth in the past 5 years is crowdfunding. After all, taking on all the risk of your idea can be intimidating, and sharing the risk with others can be a way to minimize risk and blood pressure levels. If you’ve built a mobile app before, you may know all the anxiety that can go into it - and having other necks on the line with you can add some level of comfortability. Given the aforementioned concerns, the pros of crowdfunding have catapulted this strategy for entrepreneurs. Kickstarter for example has at the time of this writing 425 mobile apps available for crowd contribution, with ideas ranging from gaming to learning curriculum to business building apps. While we can’t speak to the 425 currently available for funding, in 2013 3 million people pledged $380 million to Kickstarter projects. Overall success rates of projects getting pledges on Kickstarter hovers around 40%, not to mention the added benefits of support from the community and exposure this kind of strategy creates. Kickstarter is a popular option and a solid fit for getting an app crowdfunded, but there are plenty of other options. Some sites are even specific to app development. A few examples include Appbackr, AppsFunder or AppStori, the last option being available for US residents only. Is crowdfunding right for your project? Here are a couple ways crowdfunding can support your mobile app. Early Visibility A challenging aspect in any business venture is letting the public know your product exists. Crowdfunding is a way to get your idea out in the world and begin generating buzz as a preliminary marketing measure. It doesn’t matter if your app is successfully funded, your crowdfund request page will receive at least some number of hits, creating more visibility than you would otherwise have with other traditional forms of funding. With crowdfunding your idea can start getting the attention it needs to be successful well before you’ve even written a line of code. Crowdfunding Confirms You Have a Great Idea Some of the beauty behind crowdfunding is that it’s quantifiable evidence that your idea is interesting and has broad consumer appeal. Your app hasn’t, in some cases, even been built yet but people are so intrigued by your vision that they are willing to fork over some plastic. Through the same vein, asking for crowdfunding also lets you know early on if your app has the potential to flop. If your idea isn’t successfully funded, the lack of interest can be important foreshadowing of the potential trouble your completed app could face. This is valuable feedback, alerting you if it’s time to rework your idea before you’ve spent time and money developing it. Whether you choose to crowdfund your entire app, part of it, or simply want proof you have a mind blowing idea, Kickstarter and the like are available. Artists, entrepreneurs and app innovators now have this savvy option to more easily get their idea built for users all over the world. Not sure where to start with crowdfunding, mobile app development, or life in general? Ping us here and we’ll see what we can do to help.

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – EVERYONE is on their mobile. Over the past 2 years smartphone adoption has grown from 36% - 61%. Of those users, mobile apps dominate over three-quarters of phonetime. Sure, many kids are goofing with games but businesses have much to gain by entering the mobile app market. Seattle-based jewelry giant Blue Nile realized the importance of mobile commerce the first time the site made a $40,000 diamond sale via mobile device. “This is the future of shopping,” pointed out then CEO Diane Irvine. Many things will move the needle for your business. Today one of the most important is the mobile app – and here’s why.   More Sales Opportunities People are addicted to their phones. Standing in line, sitting on the bus, or waiting for change from the teller – these are all small pockets of time your customers are on their phones. While they could be checking former colleagues’ LinkedIn profiles, they should be checking out that shopping cart they put together on your app and place that order with you already. They could be browsing the newest and greatest you have to offer - but you need to make it easy for them with an app.   Simplicity Given the small screen necessity of big buttons and clean design, you can focus your audience on exactly what you want them to see. Not only that, but providing your clients with on demand access to your service is not only imperative, but gives them the easiest way to reach you better. Think of an app as a bookmark taking stable residence on a user’s phone screen. It’s familiar, always there, and easily accessible as a part of your customer’s everyday phone life. Now THAT’S simple.   Geo-targeting Knowing where your customers are can sound a little creepy. Even worse, knowing that your competition is already utilizing your customer’s location and sending them offers...while you sit idly by. Think of geo-targeting as helping your customer right where they are. A young couple is strolling by a movie theater and the fair lady receives a 10% off push notification to a movie showing starting in 30 minutes. They happen to be a 5 minute walk from the theater and decide to head on in. Thank you mobile app! Geo-targeted advertising is not only helpful for your customer, but can be profitable for you. Use the information everyone else already has - and capitalize on it.   Reward Your Customers Who doesn’t love earning rewards? Or getting free stuff? Providing a rewards program for your customers is easy via mobile app, and a fine way to encourage user engagement. Rewards programs can efficiently be tracked and redeemed via mobile app, while the instant gratification of this method makes for a fun and satisfying game your customers. Then you can be the fun company with a loyalty program that engages your customers and encourages them to interact with your brand.   Boost Team Productivity You want to be the boss who gives your team the right tools to do their jobs well. Mobile apps are a great way to simplify complicated programs to get your team the data they need quickly.  For example CRM mobile apps are a great way to assist sales teams while they are on the road closing deals. What could be more important to a sales professional than the ability to quickly find the information they need, without the complications some of the most robust CRM software programs can provide? Additionally sales tracking apps are a great way to manage deals while running around meeting clients. Mobile apps are a great way to make every trade show, convention, and off site meeting simple and well documented.   Brand Building Much of traditional marketing has died with oversized 90’s desktops, but the importance of boosting brand recognition will never change. The mobile app is a great place to do it. I wasn’t kidding about phone addiction - the average consumer spends 127 minutes a day on mobile apps. Now remember how your app could be a bookmark on their everyday mobile home screen? Yeah, that’s cementing your logo right into their everyday life - making your brand memorable, friendly and familiar. The added joy? It’s fun to get creative with your branding. For example, Volkswagon’s SmileDrive Android app allows users to share fun moments with their friends via virtual travelogue. They connect via Bluetooth (safety first fellas) and record their adventure whilst traversing the road. They can earn badges and points for passing other SmileDrive users, and at the end of the trip can share experiences with friends and family. All the while, Volkswagon gets the attention - and business.   Mobile apps are one of the best new ways to grow your business - hands down. Don’t know where to start? Just ask us here.  

Startup companies are an exciting sector of business, and watching them grow is as interesting as being a team member making it happen. For example, the hit HBO series Silicon Valley has viewers like us well entertained by the shenanigans these entrepreneurs get into. By observing humorously how important the group’s creative solutions move their business forward, other startups can learn from the clever ways these characters get around tricky situations. Though Silicon Valley is a work of fiction, the scenarios these tech geeks face are quite common in startup culture, especially in technology. Forming a leadership team, honing the idea, getting funding, you name it; getting a startup off the ground and into a profit earning place is not a task for the faint hearted. As such, many startups get buried in the ever-growing startup graveyard, yet others become household names and keep the startup dream alive for everyone. Here’s a few startups with stories that caught our attention. Some have launched into celebrity success, others are young and growing, but all share the similarity of an interesting idea. AirBnB In 2007, a couple of dudes in San Francisco couldn’t pay their rent. The dudes, Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia, looked around their apartment and decided to rent out their air mattresses, which they did to three people for $80 each. Thinking they might be on to something, the dudes invited their engineer friend Nathan Blecharczyk to build a site, AirBnB, and launched the project at SXSW. Unfortunately, the idea gathered little attention and the team was back to square one trying to figure out how to pay rent. The 2008 presidential election was around the corner, so they had an idea that could raise money for the fledgling business as well as make ends meet. They decided to make presidential themed cereals, Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains, which they sold at campaign parties at $40 a box. They ended up raising 30,000 from the clever cereal effort, and invested the cash back into the idea they were determined to work. Revamping their design and positioning, AirBnB finally did gain traction, and is now valued at over $10 billion dollars. ReviewBuzz Beginning from the closet of his home in Vista, CA, Mike Montano started and launched a successful home services company that grew to a multimillion dollar business. Yet around 2010, online reviews started to become a noticeable factor in the SEO game, and a big reason internet shoppers would choose one company over another. Montano knew customers weren’t just looking for any ole plumber to walk into their house, they were searching for a service professional they could actually trust. He realized online reviews were a way of proving his guys were worthy of trust, and started to encourage his team to ask for reviews. From there, he began to showcase those reviews as social proof for customers looking for help - and realized he was onto a solid idea. With that idea Montano started ReviewBuzz in 2012, a tech company that helps service companies get more 5-star reviews organically. The core of the business is to make it easy for service professionals to request reviews, and for customers to write reviews online. Only 3-years old, ReviewBuzz has grown beyond home service businesses and has helped companies across a range of industries earn more than 150,000 5-star reviews on sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook and more. Organically! Dropbox The file sharing world in 2008 had certainly progressed beyond the floppy disk, yet was dependent on saving to flash-drives or emailing files. Two MIT computer science grads, Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi, left the giant MIT network of computers they were used to, and went out into the mainstream norm of how most users stored on computers. Already growing tired of this system, one day while on a public bus Houston realized that he forgot his USB-drive. That moment was the last straw, and he started creating what would later be a cloud-based file sharing system, Dropbox. Steve Jobs of Apple learned about the product, which piqued his interest to such a degree he offered for Dropbox to join Apple. Houston denied the offer, determined to build the business on his own. And build the business he did, as the company is now estimated to be worth over ten billion dollars and employs over 700 people. HandUp One cold San Francisco night in the winter of 2012, Rose Broome was walking down the street and noticed a homeless woman. The woman was sleeping on the street, shivering in the dark. The image haunted Broome as she wondered why, given all of the advancement in technology, this woman was still in a position of living without a home. Broome wanted to find a new way to give to the homeless as a result. Broome partnered with her friend Zac Witte and created HandUp, a startup company that utilizes crowdsourcing for the purposes of helping homeless people get off the streets and into a better position in life. The app allows people in need to team up with local nonprofits to post their story, photos and videos to request donations that will help them get to a place that will help them off the streets. HandUp has been able to raise money from people like Eric Reis, Salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff, and companies like Google, Twitter, and - tying it all together - Dropbox. These stories are just a few, and proof that any range of creative ideas can result in startup success. Have a story you’d like to share? Post in the comments below.