Startup Founders Looking to AgTech as next Frontier
KisanHub is a startup with a simple mission: using tech to help farmers grow more crops more efficiently, while using less land. While iPad app developers might not immediately think of agriculture and farming when they think of unicorn-level startup opportunities, venture capitalists beg to differ — KisanHub just closed a $1 million seed funding […]
Can Mobile Apps Make a Real Contribution to Social Justice?
While Facebook’s stance on censorship remains murky, the unicorn tech giant has issued multiple statements insinuating that the platform — and Facebook live in particular — can have a positive impact by bringing transparency to everyday life. Last week’s controversial police shooting video, which was quickly removed from the platform before being reinstated after public […]
On-demand Service Startups Start Targeting the Suburbs
Food delivery startup Farm Hill announced their intention to expand into San Francisco last week, which doesn’t sound like hot news until you look at the context — specifically, the expansion “into” rather than “out of” a city. Farm Hill is backed by high-profile VCs like SOMA Capital and associated with Standford’s accelerator StartX. Regardless, rather […]
Freemium Pricing: Can it Work for My App?
In just a few years, freemium pricing for mobile apps has gone from an unusual fringe strategy to the dominant pricing scheme in the mobile app industry. How dominant? Well, in 2014 98% of all app revenue in Google Play came from freemium apps in the form of in-app purchases and monthly subscription fees. Apple […]
Brexit Vote Sends Shockwaves Through Startup Community
The United Kingdom’s Brexit vote in favor of leaving the European Union (EU) has sent shockwaves through the business world, and tech is no exception. Surging stock prices only 24 hours before the historic vote saw Wall Street place their bets against the UK’s departure, making Friday’s 52:48 near-tie all the more bitter a pill […]
Apple App Store Tops $50 Billion in Developer Revenue
Apple recently announced that developer payouts on their app platform passed the $50 billion mark, with a record-setting 2 million apps live and 130 billion downloads. The announcement comes at an interesting time in the mobile revolution as the advancing popularity of app alternatives like voice, bots, and integrated assistants begins to chip away some […]
Facebook Embraces SMS, but Chat Apps Are Still the Future
Facebook recently turned heads among Android app developers with the rollout of SMS support in Facebook Messenger, a development that flies directly in the face of the companies pushback against what the social media titan considers an “outdated technology.” The feature has been testing since early this spring and the feature — which allows users […]
Dogs in the Office Increase Productivity and Lower Stress
Companies looking to boost office productivity are paying attention to a trend that started in Silicon Valley startups: dog-friendly work environments. NYC iPhone app developers have been bringing their canine companions to work for years, and now traditional businesses like Blue Cross, among others, are following suit. The result? Lowered stress levels, increased sense of […]
Some of the Biggest Tech Products Started as Side Projects
What do Gmail and Facebook have in common with a Post-It Note? The fact that they all started as side projects. More than any other industry, tech has offered developers and designers the chance to rapidly prototype their ideas — however off-the-wall or unrealistic — and bring them to market with minimal investment. iPhone app […]
Top 10 Reasons Your App Might Be Rejected from the App Store
Making apps is hard. Waiting for apps to be approved by the apple app store? Nerve-wracking. For developers, the biggest frustration with the App Store review process is that apps are often returned as soon as an issue is found, rather than receiving a top-to-bottom check the first time around. For example, an app returned […]