Turning an iPhone application company - Sam Vermette and Guillaume Campagna made of Transit, their application for iPhone, a key critical success. Will they now do their business, The Transit App, a business success? This is the challenge that they actively focus for a few weeks in the FounderFuel program. The Transit application was launched just last a little less than a year, on 22 June 2012.
"I had the idea about two years ago, to an app that when you come to a stop, gives you immediately the bus schedule on the line, without taponner" says Sam Vermette.
Guillaume Campagna, meanwhile, was planning to add cities to her own baby, the application of transit MTL Mobile. The interests of the two young men crossed to complete the creation of Transit.
Transit is simple, but is appreciated because of its efficiency and its elegant design. Upon opening, it identifies the location of the user and displays the next hour crossing subway lines or the nearest bus.
"At the time, we did not included path function because Google Maps, which was available by default on the iPhone, did very well," says Mr. Vermette.
The arrival of iOS 6 version changed that. Apple has replaced Google Maps with its own application, without a path function. The two developers, encouraged by Apple itself, jumped on the opportunity and added this feature. They also built several new cities, so that their application now covers 37 North American cities.
The launch of iOS has generated strong interest in Transit downloaded 18,000 times the next day. Like many small businesses in this situation, this sudden demand caused a panic, the server failing to meet demand. It took a few days to resolve the situation.
Since its inception, Transit offers some features for free, but charges $ 5 for an annual subscription that entitles all. If the first few days after iOS 6 reported a few thousand dollars, the source has dried up quickly, stabilizing at about $ 100 per day.
"There are some who say it is good, but two, maybe it makes us $ 12 000 per year each," said Guillaume Campagna. "We had to do something, you could not roll like that," adds his colleague. No business experts and a little short of ideas, they ended up being persuaded to appeal to outside investors.
"We were both really against the idea, we wanted to be independent, says Mr. Vermette. We see a lot of people make millions of dollars with their application, this is what we wanted. But the transit market does not work like that. People are close to their sub. For us, an app for $ 5 for the year, while a single bus ticket costs $ 3, it was a good deal, but people do not want to pay. "
On the advice of people FounderFuel, the two men quickly produce a completely free version of Transit issue maximize popularity. Launched on May 31, it was promoted "Editor's Choice" by the Canadian App Store and has climbed the charts of the most popular apps. In six days, it was downloaded more than 70,000 times.
In total, last year, more than 600,000 people have downloaded Transit. In the coming days, the creators of Transit will work to develop revenue opportunities they have identified: Ticket transit, advertising and marketing companies to transport statistics on the use of their network in order to allow optimization.
Then, on July 11, the FounderFuel program in which they participate will end with the Demo Day, where they will have the opportunity to present their project to investors. From there, the rest of the way to be determined.
"I had the idea about two years ago, to an app that when you come to a stop, gives you immediately the bus schedule on the line, without taponner" says Sam Vermette.
Guillaume Campagna, meanwhile, was planning to add cities to her own baby, the application of transit MTL Mobile. The interests of the two young men crossed to complete the creation of Transit.
Transit is simple, but is appreciated because of its efficiency and its elegant design. Upon opening, it identifies the location of the user and displays the next hour crossing subway lines or the nearest bus.
"At the time, we did not included path function because Google Maps, which was available by default on the iPhone, did very well," says Mr. Vermette.
The arrival of iOS 6 version changed that. Apple has replaced Google Maps with its own application, without a path function. The two developers, encouraged by Apple itself, jumped on the opportunity and added this feature. They also built several new cities, so that their application now covers 37 North American cities.
The launch of iOS has generated strong interest in Transit downloaded 18,000 times the next day. Like many small businesses in this situation, this sudden demand caused a panic, the server failing to meet demand. It took a few days to resolve the situation.
Since its inception, Transit offers some features for free, but charges $ 5 for an annual subscription that entitles all. If the first few days after iOS 6 reported a few thousand dollars, the source has dried up quickly, stabilizing at about $ 100 per day.
"There are some who say it is good, but two, maybe it makes us $ 12 000 per year each," said Guillaume Campagna. "We had to do something, you could not roll like that," adds his colleague. No business experts and a little short of ideas, they ended up being persuaded to appeal to outside investors.
"We were both really against the idea, we wanted to be independent, says Mr. Vermette. We see a lot of people make millions of dollars with their application, this is what we wanted. But the transit market does not work like that. People are close to their sub. For us, an app for $ 5 for the year, while a single bus ticket costs $ 3, it was a good deal, but people do not want to pay. "
On the advice of people FounderFuel, the two men quickly produce a completely free version of Transit issue maximize popularity. Launched on May 31, it was promoted "Editor's Choice" by the Canadian App Store and has climbed the charts of the most popular apps. In six days, it was downloaded more than 70,000 times.
In total, last year, more than 600,000 people have downloaded Transit. In the coming days, the creators of Transit will work to develop revenue opportunities they have identified: Ticket transit, advertising and marketing companies to transport statistics on the use of their network in order to allow optimization.
Then, on July 11, the FounderFuel program in which they participate will end with the Demo Day, where they will have the opportunity to present their project to investors. From there, the rest of the way to be determined.