Today we showcase the story of an exciting venture, from Sydney, Australia, Mogeneration - Mobile 2.0 Web & iPhone Development House, co-founded by Tom Adams & Keith AhernIn a recent email-based interview with Keith, he gave insights into how he is managing and juggling. This is what he has to say in his interview with us:
• How long it took before it was up and running
The co-founder Tom Adams and I had been talking about working together on iPhone and mobile projects for quite a while. In the end, it took about 2 months for a decision to launch.
• Stage of Venture
mogeneration started in October 2008 and launched "The Australian" on iPhone within a few weeks. We have offices in Brisbane and Sydney are still under 10 people. We have created 9 iPhone applications for Australian and US companies.
• Which Market Segment
We help companies and individuals get a presence on iPhones. We have worked with a wide variety of companies from News Ltd to small startups like Lingopal and Xumii. We are experts in publishing content in an iPhone format.
• Customers
News Ltd, Xumii.com, Lingopal Pty Ltd, Perkler, ShakeAndPlay.com, Perkler and a few more confidential customers.
• Targeted Age Group
It depends on the app - our kid's games are aimed at young kids but also seem to have a dedicated adult following! The Lingopal phrasebook application contains some flirting phrases and is aimed at the twenty-something traveller.
• Users Using Service
We are bound to confidentiality by our clients but we can confidentially say it's in hundreds of thousands of users per month.
• Marketing Technique
As a consulting and development company, we market through a variety of channels including online ads, linked in, and speaking events including Mobile Monday and Cebit, contributing to open-source
• Measuring Success
We were cashflow positive almost immediately and profitable soon after. Internally we measure success on how close our project estimates are to reality. Also, several clients have come to us after having a bad experience with other companies - mostly overseas. iPhone development is new and it's hard - it does not have the 10 years of community and support other environments have. We have also had some repeat business and great testimonials from our customers.
• Monetizing/Revenue Model
We have several models, the simplest is the fixed price or time and materials straight development model. Tell us what you want, and we tell you how much it costs and build it. Beyond that, we have also sometimes entered revenue share agreements where we offer a reduced build cost in return for revenue share. We are moving to a platform model for some vertical markets such as news/magazine publishing, music and movie promotion and interactive kids' books publishing. In these cases, we have a license fee per app.
• Main competitors
Traditional mobile development shops like Hyro and Tigerspike.
• Technology Stack used
Front End is Objective-C and Cocoa. Back end - Ruby on Rails and Scala.
• Main Barriers
Learning curve on iPhone O/S and Objective-C. Working with Apple's rules and regulations. Establishing a new name. Educating clients about development costs and timelines.
• Advice For People
In the wise words of Mick Liubinskas of Pollenizer: "Ideas are easy, execution is hard". mogeneration execute.
• External Funding
Some angel funding
Ongoing coverage on Australian startups, innovation, business and tech trends, and interviews with experts in various domains can be found here
Comments
That segment of the contemporary market is really developing so fast that everyone should think over the possibility of taking part in it's developing and taking some profit of it.