How to Pitch Your Startup and Get Investment Capital
In a recent episode of This American Life, first-time startup founder Alex Blumberg found himself in a situation most iPhone app developers would kill for: meeting one-on-one with investor Chris Sacca (of Twitter, Instagram, etc.) to pitch his app idea. Unfortunately, the meeting didn’t go as planned — to put it lightly, Blumberg crashed and […]
How to Make Hires as a Non-Technical Founder
Whether you’re an iPad app developer looking to hire a designer or an entrepreneur looking to hire a coder, finding and vetting talent is no easy task. Especially when the specialty you’re hiring for is something hard to judge like backend coding, how can you be sure you’re hiring the right person for the job? […]
The Cult of Failure: Why Startup Culture Celebrates Mistakes
One failure is bad. Two is questionable. Three indicates persistence. Beyond that? Unstoppable. One of the most confusing things about startup culture, from an outsider’s perspective, is the tendency to celebrate failure. Just browse Medium, Twitter, or anywhere else where iPhone app developers and entrepreneurs air their opinions, and you’re sure to come across dozens […]
App Store Review Process Cut by More than a Third
New data from AppReviewTimes.com indicates that review times in the Apple iOS and Mac app stores are down approximately a third in both categories, prompting widespread approval from iPhone app developers excited about faster and more frequent app update possibilities. As of this writing, the Mac App Store average review time was down to 1.17 […]
Apple Watch Apps Blaze the Trail for Wearable Developers
The Apple Watch has been on the market long enough now that it’s begun to lose the new gadget glow. This is good for iOS and Apple Watch developers. Soon it will have completed the transition from “toy” to “tool,” offering developers much more long-term value in building relationships with users. Early apps for the […]
Discovering Startup Talent at the Knapp Venture Competition
A mobile app that brings employee engagement to the cloud. Revolutionary medical devices for spinal cord injuries. Year after year, UCLA Anderson students participating in the annual Knapp Venture Competition create positive-impact startups that have a huge effect on the community. We’re honored to be on the panel judging this year’s startup pitches, and Dogtown […]
4 Ways to Guarantee Your Startup Doesn’t Get Funded
Venture capital firms, angel investors, and iPhone app development companies all have one big factor in common: they hear dozens of new startup ideas every single day. The mobile industry is only growing in 2016, and with that growth comes a rush of smart young technologists and entrepreneurs with big dreams. More often than not, […]
Dogtown Campaigns for Tech Policy Progress at AppCon16
Dogtown Media CEO Marc Fischer had the honor of joining over 50 mobile industry leaders and app developers from around the US at AppCon16 on Capital Hill, organized by ACT | The App Association. During the three-day conference last April, Fischer met with senators and policymakers to build bridges between tech and government. The event […]
Why Tech Companies Care about Maternity and Paternity Leave
If you follow tech, chances are you’ve seen at least a handful of think pieces about maternity/paternity leave policies (or the lack thereof) in the US. While it’s true that the US is one of the only western countries with a zero-paid-leave policy, the question remains: why do tech companies care so much? Is the […]
Material Design Levels the Field for Android App Developers
When most mobile app developers think of cutting-edge design, we think of one brand: Apple. For years, the company’s iconic flat UI has been the touchstone for great interface design. Thanks to Google’s heavy involvement with the Android operating system, however, that association may see a challenge over the next few years. Android Lollipop has […]