Listen to this articleadsy.me is a startup that allows you to create and share your own app from mobile browser. Our recent interview below is with Frederick Tubiermont, Founder & CEO of adsy.me:
Q: What is adsy.me and how is different?
A: adsy.me is the first mobile web app enabling anyone to create and share mobile web apps on their smartphone. Nothing to download, no desktop involved, just the magic of your mobile browser. You can create an adsy app in a few minutes to share your passion, communicate knowledge or promote your business. It’s free to use. You can create as many apps as you want. Adsy apps, distributed as short URLs, are easy to share via txt message, email or on social networks. Adsy is optimized for iOS 6+ and android 4.1+.
Q: What’s the coolest use of adsy.me you’ve seen until now?
A: It’s pretty early since we just opened the platform on last friday January 24 in the evening. I would say that the apps created by musicians and artists are usually well crafted as well as branded apps (we have a nice one about the latest Jaguar F Type for instance). We’re publishing video demos of the best apps via instagram.
The potential use cases are almost endless. It goes from a visual blog to a travel guide, from a restaurant menu incl. a QR code voucher to a digital flyer for a dance party. You can also publish a tutorial using adsy or an app about your passion for cupcakes. Since there are no preset templates you can truly unleash your creativity: adsy is a blank canvas.
Q: Who else was involved in the development of the adsy.me? How do you all complement each other skills-wise?
A: It was basically a team of two people for almost one year, Alex, my-founder and I. He’s the lead developer, designer, I’m the product strategist, marketeer, PR guy.
We had a freelance developer from Australia for a few weeks from May to July 2013 and we’ve just recruited a second developer, Iulian, from Romania. Nils, from Belgium, is the fourth member of the team, he’s in charge of community management and growth hacking. It’s a globally distributed team, with HQ in London.
Q: How difficult was it technically to build the Adsy.me?
A: It was completely unchartered territory :-) You know, there aren’t a lot (if any) exciting mobile web apps out there because of a kind of chicken-and-egg situation (nobody wants to invest in mobile web apps since most people think native apps are the only way to go), so we had to develop our own framework (most of the app is hand coded) and since we wanted to be optimized from day one both for iOS6+ and android 4.1.+, we had a lot (I mean, A LOT) of cross-platform debugging to carry out before delivering what you can now try out on your mobile. It was pretty challenging but well worth the efforts, it feels good to promote the html5/JS #noappstores advocacy movement with such an exciting product, not just a “feed reader” but an actual mobile web app that enables you to create and publish content. I would say that our main challenge was to find the right talents, as it’s often the case for startups.
Q: What is your marketing and monetization plan?
A: I won’t go into details about all the growth hacks we have the intention to implement but let’s say that we will first seed the ecosystem with outstanding examples of what can be achieved in order to properly evangelize the product, since people need references before diving into creation mode, it’s part of human nature. You can’t just say to someone: “you can do anything with this”. “Anything” means… nothing :-) Then we’ll set up partnerships with different distribution channels (other apps, media outlets, telcos) in order to bring potential app makers and visitors to the platform. Our product is freemium, free forever for most functions and premium for the most “pro-oriented” features, like statistics, advanced plugins, additional support and bespoke services. We will also add premium UI components and in-app advertising opportunities to the offer (you will be able to get featured in adsy, distribute your content to adsy users, ask adsy app makers to take part in creative contests, etc). We have a solid experience in mobile entertainment monetization that we will apply to this new project.
Q: Do you have any new features in the pipeline? What’s your favorite upcoming feature?
A: Yes a lot. We have a list of those features published in our knowledge base.
I would say that the killer feature will certainly be the public and private messaging that we will introduce in second quarter of 2014, standardly embedded in the platform, enabling any adsy app maker to connect with their followers, in one-to-one instant chat and broadcast mode. This will enable someone with 1,000 followers to message them in a single broadcast at least once a month for free (we will introduce a small fee for more frequent discussions, to avoid abuses). I think this is a major asset compared with social pages on Facebook for instance where you can at best reach 2% of your followers via a status update – Facebook sells “post boosting” to offset this shortcoming. We want to enable app makers to create a real community around their creations.
We’re really excited by the first feedback we’ve received from all over the world and we’re looking forward to seeing how adsy can become the web design platform of the smartphone generation.
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