The App Startup Show - Digiruu

Yup - you read that title correctly! Saasha Celestial-One, who is one of the most talented entrepreneurs I’ve ever had the pleasure of speaking with, created an MVP for her business, Olio, on Whatsapp. Fast forward to now, they have their own with over 7 million users worldwide, and secured a Series B investment of $43 million dollars! For those of you who don’t know, Olio is a sharing app for local communities, from food, furniture, books, clothing - anything, making it easy to give away the things they don’t need to someone else who would value them. You’ve absolutely got to hear her story!

Want to learn more about Olio? Visit olioapp.com

Ready to get started on your app? Visit www.appstarterguide.com

Contact: info@digiruu.com

Instagram: @amanbirdi

Music Used: Your Choice by Alex Menco | https://alexmenco.net

Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Building your first app or digital product can seem super daunting, but it doesn’t have to be hard. I’ve always wanted someone on the podcast to talk about a no-code solution, and I’m thrilled to say we’ve got one of the best entrepreneurs in the world to talk about her amazing no-code platform, Blaze. Blaze gives you everything you need to build your tool with no code. You can create multiple apps with Blaze and easily connect them together. This is a game change for anyone looking to build their first MVP, and I highly recommend you check it out! 

Want to learn more about Blaze? Visit www.blaze.tech

Ready to get started on your app? Visit www.appstarterguide.com

Contact: aman@digiruu.com

Instagram: @digiruu

Music Used: Your Choice by Alex Menco | https://alexmenco.net

Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

If you’re looking to build a travel app, look no further! Introducing Samatha Patil from the Well Traveled Club, a members-only community app that provides users with the best restaurants, hotels and activities around the world, so they don't have to! Travel apps have become super popular in the App Store and Google Play Store over the last few years and that is not looking to slow down. If you have a great idea for a travel app, I highly recommend that you listen and take notes!

Want to learn more about Well Traveled? Visit www.welltraveledclub.com

Ready to get started on your app? Visit www.appstarterguide.com

Contact: info@digiruu.com

Instagram: @amanbirdi

Music Used: Your Choice by Alex Menco | https://alexmenco.net

Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

On this episode, we have a mind-blowing guest on. He is one of the Product Designers at Meta (more commonly known as Facebook), previously the product designer at Twitter and Google amongst more. You may have seen some of his videos on TikTok and Instagram. Introducing Mustafa Kurtuldu. He takes us through what it takes to make a great app design, the biggest mistakes companies make when it comes to app UI and UX and what the best approach is to great product design. Trust me - you don’t know wanna miss this!

I’ll keep this little introduction short because this is an episode that you don’t want to miss. We’re kicking off the season with Elina Chow, founder of the app JOT, which is going to take your professional life to the next level! The timing couldn’t be more perfect with everything opening up due to Covid restrictions (hopefully!).

In this episode you’re going to learn about how you can start your own app from knowing a market very well and solving a problem within that market. Some of the most successful apps in the world are born out of solving a problem. Just look at Skype. Niklas Zennström travelled a lot and was often calling colleagues across Europe, but as a result, was picking up huge phone bills. Whenever he travelled, he had to buy a new SIM card for his phone and pay overseas rates to call his team. This was a problem he had in his life that needed solving. He knew there had to be a better way. Using his knowledge in peer-to-peer networks, Skype was launched by Niklas and his co-founder Janus Friis.

Jot™ is a mobile application that helps professionals manage their contacts and their relationships. It gives you quick and easy access to information about past interactions with the contact you are meeting. They want to give professionals a simple and fun way to share contact details, jot down notes and action items and then recall the information as needed.

It was created for professionals whose careers depend on the value of their database. After spending decades in senior relationship management roles, they found other solutions on the market too complicated, too expensive and too difficult to use on-the-go.

18M+ downloads, #1 in the Travel apps category, #1 in Adventure & #1 in Simulation Games categories, trending everywhere with 700 million views & counting and finally #1 in Apple & Android Free Apps & Games - introducing Randonautica, the world's first quantumly generated “Choose Your Own Adventure” reality game. We speak to the COO, Auburn Salcedo, and one of the developers, Simon McCorkindale, behind the hit app which has one of the largest cult-like followings ever seen in the app world. Learn about their journey, how the app started and what you can learn to grow your app virally!

Randonautica is an app created to encourage users to venture outside of their day-to-day routine by using a quantum random number generator to derive a coordinate to journey to. The app was developed by the global movement, The Randonauts. The phenomenon has taken the world by storm and there are millions of Randonauts exploring their surroundings in nearly every country.

Who’s it for? Anyone who wants to break out of their normal, mundane routine or would like to go on adventure to interesting places around them they never knew existed. ​The user gets to create their own story through an exciting adventure and the things they find along the way may have meaning that only they can uncover and understand.

To build an online course requires a whole bunch of time, dedication, effort and resources. After building it, how would you feel if no one was interested in it? You would be pretty devastated right? But that’s exactly what happens to many entrepreneurs right now in the knowledge industry. In fact this happens to a lot of entrepreneurs in many industries. They build products that they think their audience want but in fact, don’t! The same applies with apps. People invest a whole bunch of time and resources into building apps that no one uses or wants, and ultimately it fails because quite simply, they didn’t validate their idea first.

So how can you validate your idea first? Well, going back to online courses for just a moment, what entrepreneurs have learnt to do is to pre-sell their course first. This means they get their ideal audience to pay for the course first before one piece of content is even made. They sell a product that hasn’t been built first! It’s genius, and really helps to validate an idea. If people want it, they’ll pay for it - that’s plenty of validation for an entrepreneur to know that they should build that course.

The question on your mind I guess right now is...can you pre-sell an app? Meet Teresa Young, founder of the app TrueKonnect who talks you through the gold-standard way to get started on your ap and the answer to that game-changing question.

About TrueKonnect

TrueKonnect is the first of its kind that instantly “konnects” you to local beauty pros for all of your beauty needs, based on exactly what you are looking for in your next beauty professional.

TrueKonnect is the most authentic way to find a hairstylist, makeup artist and many other beauty pros. It’s the new modern day word of mouth app that connects you to your ideal beauty pro based on your preferences.

Asking a friend for a referral to a hairstylist or sourcing social media for the perfect beauty pro can be a disaterious hit and miss plan. Why risk the way you look and feel by asking a friend for a referral... let Truekonnect match you up to the perfect hairstylist or beauty pro based on exactly who you want, what you want, and when you want it.

If you’re looking to get into the app industry, you need to listen to this episode. I am unbelievably privileged to bring you this episode with one of the legends in the app world, Hovhannes Avoyan. He is often described as a serial entrepreneur, investor, scholar, AI expert, Harvard Business School graduate, speaker plus more. But to me, I would simply say genius.

He has more than 25 years of experience in business and has founded six startups, five of which have had successful acquisitions. The other one he’s currently serving as the CEO too, PicsArt - the number one photo and video editing app in the world. I’ll save the story on how he started it to him because I bet it’s not what you expected!

About PicsArt

PicsArt Photo Studio is an easy-to-use photo editor, collage maker, and a powerful drawing tool with millions of users around the world who share their amazing creations. We know amazing things happen when you express yourself. Whatever you love to do, PicsArt’s got everything you need to create and share awesome pictures.

It’s the best all-in-one photo and video editor on mobile! Unleash your creativity with one of the most popular apps with over 1 billion downloads to date. PicsArt gives you everything you need to create awesome edits. The best part? It’s free!

Edit photos and videos, have fun with our sticker maker and collage maker, doodle on photos, and do way more. No professional experience needed!

I am both thrilled and delighted to welcome you back to the App Startup Show - we took a little break due to Covid - and what better way to kick things back off with a man who has gone from selling bras to co-founding one of the most successful apps of all time, Receipt Bank. Meet Alexis Prenn. As he put it himself, there is almost nobody in technology who has ever worked in the business end of a factory. This is an entrepreneur who knows what productivity looks like.

With his co-founder, they wanted to take away all of the fuss and horrid, dreaded paperwork accountants get from all of their clients. After presenting the initial idea to their potential customers, they were told they wanted something to take care of only the invoices, credit notes and anything to do with costs. The rest is history. With offices around the world, Receipt Bank has grown into one of the most successful apps of all time, with over 9000 5-star reviews and has even been featured by Apple under apps they love.

I honestly can’t tell you just how valuable and inspiring I found this chat with him, and when you hear the episode for yourself, you’ll see why. I urge you to listen to it undistracted but with a pen and paper to take notes. This episode changes everything.

About Receipt Bank

You didn't go into business to do paperwork. The business expense tracker Receipt Bank tracks, reads and stores your receipts and invoices on the go, so you can focus on growing your business.

* Receipt scanner: Snap your receipt on your mobile, forward via email, or upload through the web

* Bookkeeping for the digital age: We digitise and securely store your paperwork online, so you can throw those receipts away and stay compliant

* Small business accounting: Integrate with your accounting software including Xero and QBO, and save time by automating your bookkeeping

The expense tracker trusted and highly rated by over 200,000 fast-growing businesses worldwide.

Sole traders and small business owners often don’t have time for accounting. Manage expenses, accounting and bookkeeping from your phone with Receipt bank.

A lot of people and businesses for that matter want to go out and create their app and set aside x amount of money to go out and get it built. “Build it and they will come” - it’s something we’ve all heard a lot of the time right? Build that business and they will come. Build that app and they will come. And then they WAIT, for their future dream customers to come to them and download their app. This is great and everything, but unfortunately, they never “just” come. They may come in dribs and drabs, but the reality is that if you can't get a consistent stream of people downloading your app, how are you ever going to move forward with it?

In today’s episode, we speak with Josh Lloyd, an expert app growth marketer who helps you to solve this exact problem. Josh is the founder of Envision Digital, a mobile app marketing agency that helps app founders, current or future, to use data to grow their app faster and easier than ever. We talk about his 3X App Growth Methodology, how anyone can get started now and the tools he recommends that you can use to get started on your app growth. As always, take notes - it’s an important one!

About Envision Digital

Envision Digital is a mobile app marketing agency that focuses on four mobile app marketing areas:

1. Customer Attraction
   
2. Launch & Scale
   
3. Data-led Success
   
4. Valuable Retention
   

They collaborate with their clients to help them attract, acquire and retain their most valuable users. They bring extensive expertise in campaign execution and management, technical knowledge and data-driven decisions that fuel success for your app marketing needs.

Everyone wants exposure with their apps. They want to get as many downloads as possible. But it’s not about that. You heard me - it’s not about getting the MOST downloads. It’s about getting the MOST downloads from the RIGHT people. That is how to succeed in the app game. But you must be wondering, how?

Today I have got one hell of an episode for you because today we speak with Carissa Lintao, founder of the US-based agency, Apptuitive. For those of you who have listened to the show from the start, you’ll recognise the name because Carissa is the ONLY person we’ve ever invited BACK onto the show, and for good reason too. Carissa is an absolute rockstar app strategist who has been featured by Forbes and is currently due to speak on the famous TEDx stage. She’s never given this much value away for free in her life in this episode, and if you’re an app founder, you HAVE to listen to it because the strategies in here are going to accelerate your app growth like nothing before. Listen to it, forward it to a friend or family member - app founders, past present and future, you need to hear this!

About Apptuitive

At Apptuitive, we believe in apps worth talking about, ethical decision-making, and smart marketing that’s built into the app’s experience. There’s more to success than throwing money at advertising, and we’re a small team of dedicated app strategists committed to helping you maximum organic, aka free, app store growth. Our mission is to help anyone cost-effectively market their app whether it comes in the form of working together or freely sharing what we know.

This is the most profound and life-changing episode I’ve ever recorded. Honestly, you won’t be the same person after listening to this.

We’ve all heard it from time to time that if you want to be successful, you should be visualising your success. Picture yourself winning that business deal. See yourself building that app you’ve always wanted to build. Visualise yourself buying that house, driving that car, finding that dream partner - whatever it is, picture it. I know it sounds slightly out of the norm, but time and time again, I’ve found in my business journey that success leaves clues, and one of those clues is exactly that - visualise yourself succeeding, and you will succeed in whatever it is. Trust me, I’ve done it myself and it works. All. The. Time.

And what better expert to have on the show today than none other than world-class athlete Nick Symmonds. He’s 7x NCAA champion, 6x USA outdoor champion at 800m, 2x World Champion Finalist, 2008 & 2012 Olympian. Nick talks about his success on the track and how he used to visualise his races beforehand, which led to him being one of the most successful U.S runners of all time. During his career, he launched his own business, RunGum which he is still the CEO of today that has become hugely successful. I can’t wait for you all to listen to today’s show because honestly, it’s the most profound show we’ve EVER recorded. Sit tight and listen intently - you won’t be the same person after listening to this.

Ever found yourself out in public, whether it’s in a nightclub or supermarket, and you hear a song and think, “wow I need this song in my life!”? You could ask someone if they knew what the song was, or you could do what over 150 million people do monthly which is to use an app on their phone to recognise that song. That app name? You guessed it - Shazam. We’re kicking off season 2 of the App Startup Show with a bang! We’re speaking with none other than Chris Barton, the founder one of the most successful apps ever in the App Store- Shazam. So successful, that it has over 1 billion downloads to date and was sold to Apple for a reported fee of $400 million dollars.

We talk about the early days of Shazam (by the way, did you know that Shazam was released long before the App Store was available?) the rollercoaster of a journey he took to get it to the level it is today and how you can apply some of those lessons to your app. I must point out that not only is Chris super successful, but you’ll also hear in the podcast just how much of an awesome guy he is. Take notes, and listen carefully to his journey because I’m in no doubt that a lot of you will be able to take a lot of lessons away from his story. 1 billion downloads...I’m sure you’ll learn something!

Do you know what the difference is between someone who succeeds and someone who doesn’t? A success mindset. Tony Robbins once said that success is 80% psychology and 20% skill, and that goes for anyone wanting to start their own business, including those of you wanting to launch your own app. To succeed in this game, you’re going to need a success mindset. And what better guest to have on the show, teaching you all about having the mindset to succeed, than none other than 2016 Formula One World Champion, Nico Rosberg.

It’s not often you get the opportunity to sit down and speak with a Formula One World Champion, but when you do, you tend to listen. After dedicating 25 years of his life to emulate his father’s success, Nico achieved his childhood dream of becoming a Formula One World Champion. We speak about his time in F1, how he utilised mindset strategies to beat one of the sport’s most successful drivers of all time in Lewis Hamilton, and also his journey now into entrepreneurship and how you can apply it all into starting your own app business.

And if you haven’t already, I highly recommend you listen to his own podcast, “Beyond Victory With Nico Rosberg”, where he sits down with some of the world’s most successful individuals to discover the secrets to their success, what continues to drive them and to hear a few exclusive stories in the process. He has four podcasts coming out to finish the year, with guests including the legendary actor Michael Douglas, the CEO of Hugo Boss, Mark Langer, adventurer Ross Edgley who’s the first man to swim around Britain, and Lewis Howes from “The School of Greatness”. Be sure to subscribe and check it out. “Beyond Victory with Nico Rosberg”. For now, make yourself comfortable and have a listen to our episode with Nico. He’s open, honest and even reveals a few exclusives you won’t hear anywhere else.

When we talk about apps, sometimes it’s easy to forget that, actually, you’re not just creating an app - you’re creating a business. And what better person to offer advice on creating and growing your business than none other than Dave Woodward, the Chief Revenue and Business Development Officer for ClickFunnels - the fastest-growing, non-VC-backed, tech-startup in the world, growing from 0-100million dollars in just 3 years alone.

You’ll notice that it’s a bit more of a general episode rather than one being specific to apps, but the reason I wanted to share it with you is that my business wouldn’t be where it is today without learning the concepts you’re about to hear. And before you ask, can you use funnels to market your app? Absolutely! Take action after listening to this episode. It might just be the best decision you make today.

ClickFunnels is a website and sales funnel builder for entrepreneurs, that makes it simple for anyone to build their own marketing funnels in just minutes, without needing to rely on a team of techies. It was created so that entrepreneurs like you, who aren't programmers and who don't know how to code, can easily build beautiful pages inside of a sales funnel, to grow your company (including your app business) online!

Guide your visitors step-by-step through the entire process to discovering and downloading your app (so they don’t get confused or LOST, and leave), point your customer straight to the ONE product or service they need most to help solve their problem and follow-up with your visitors, even after they leave your page! If your new to ClickFunnels, I recommend you start exactly where I started, which is with these FREE resources below:

In today's episode, we speak to Phil Neale, the founder of Snoozle, who’s had arguably one of the most fascinating journeys to getting his app started. His story to get where he has today is incredible. In fact, there are parts in the interview where I’m absolutely gobsmacked and speechless - you might just hear my jaw dropping from time to time! He’s honest, candid and trust me, you’ll definitely learn a lot from what he has to say.

Snoozle is the app that helps you feel great every morning, from the moment you wake up! It’s connected alarm clock means you & your friends can wake up to voice messages (‘Snoozle Micropodcasts') from each other, and / or new music from brilliant up-and-coming musicians. You control the time of your own alarm, but instead of a pre-set alarm tone, you wake up to a personalised feed of micropodcasts! Plus, they’re different every day, so you'll never get bored of your morning wake up.

But feeling great in the morning also starts the night before - with a quality night’s sleep. We all know how comforting it can be to have your iPhone by your bed overnight, but we also know the importance of resisting the temptation to check it whilst we focus on getting the sleep our bodies & minds need. Snoozle lets you track your overnight Digital Switch Off & compare your progress in friendly leagues with friends.

I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am for you to listen to this episode, because we are privileged to have entrepreneur and investor, Piers Linney, join us to share with you his experience, insights and practical advice about starting your own business. We talk about his time on TV, notably on Dragons Den, and importantly his new course, #Startup with Piers Linney, for anyone wanting to start or grow a new business. The link to the course is below, where, as a dedicated listener to the show, you can get an exclusive 10% off the normal price. Trust me, you might want to listen to this more than once.

Ready to get started on your app? Visit www.appstarterguide.com

Contact: aman@digiruu.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/appstartuphub

Instagram: @digiruu

In today's episode we showcase an app success story, speaking to Maya Gura, the founder of the wildly successful app, Missbeez. Her story as an app founder is both fascinating and inspiring, and provides many lessons for anyone wanting to build their own app. I promise, you're going to love it.

Missbeez is a mobile application that was launched in 2015 to enable its users to book beauty and lifestyle services to their home or office 24/7. It connects busy women and self-employed, licensed and experienced beauty professionals. All of them are carefully selected and pre-approved in order to provide nothing short of A-list treatment. The application’s list of services include manicures, pedicures, massage, spray tan, hair removal, hair styling, and makeup. Therapists are able to join the application’s program and offer their beauty services to others.

Everyone has an app idea, but when should you actually pursue that one idea you think could actually work? In this episode, we speak with Carissa Lintao of US-based agency, Apptuitive, about when to pursue an app idea. Carissa is an app strategist dedicated to providing innovative startups with common-sense marketing tactics and remarkable copy. She also writes about tech, social media, apps, and marketing. 

Apptuitive are the honest marketers and product designers you didn't know you needed. They help every founder figure out what makes their app different and valuable. Once a value proposition is in place, they amplify it through visuals, copy, and storytelling.

In this episode, we are privileged to have SEO genius, John Hutson of Climb Online, join us to give you his expert advice on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and specifically, App Store Optimisation i.e. how to get your app noticed in the shop window ahead of millions of apps in App Store. We discuss what SEO actually is and the things you can do to get started on optimising your app today for appearing at the top of search results.

Climb Online are a results-driven digital agency – unleashing the success and growth of businesses worldwide based in London, UK. Their services include a personable approach to SEO, Social Media, Paid Media and Digital Branding. 

In this episode, we are privileged to have marketing guru Dean Seddon of Maverrik join us to give you his expert advice on marketing and how you can start the process to get your app noticed by your audience. We discuss what “marketing” actually means, how much consideration you need to give to it and when to start putting things into action. This is one episode not to miss!

Maverrik is a growth and strategy consultancy that helps startups and SME’S build and execute plans to grow their business. Based in London, UK, their services include training and coaching, strategy and consulting and marketing execution.

In this episode, Habib Patel of Discover Brand Creation joins us to dissect exactly what branding is and whether you need to consider it for your app. A lot of people tend to think of it as just the logo, or the name of a company, but here we break it down for you. We discuss the importance of branding, how much you need to invest in it and Habib gives his one piece of advice for entrepreneurs wanting to build an app.

Discover Brand Creation is a branding agency based in London, UK. Their services include delivering brand strategy, brand identity design, digital design and brand communications. 

In this episode, Sam Lester of Inktrap Ltd. joins us to dissect exactly what UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) are. A lot of people tend to think of them as just design, but it actually goes a bit deeper than that. We discuss the importance of UI/UX, how much you need to invest in it and Sam gives his one piece of advice for entrepreneurs wanting to build an app.

Inktrap is a digital product design studio based in London, UK. For over 4 years they have been helping people make brilliant digital products. Their collaborative approach and high-quality output are what set them apart.

"The key to successful, pain-free app development is having the right processes in place" Often I get asked, what’s the process of building an app? How do you get my idea from my head into a mobile app? In this episode, I’m going to give you our tried and tested method which has yielded great results to build an app. I’m super excited to share it with you in the hope that you’ll see why we are so awesome but importantly, the process needed to build an app.

Welcome to the first episode of the App Startup Show! I’m really excited for you guys because I’m going to be bombarding you with so much value in the upcoming episodes. I’ll be going through exactly what it takes to build an app right from the get-go of just having an idea in your head, plus also interviewing experts in the industry who will be providing you with the knowledge you need to get started, from design to branding, marketing and more. In this episode, we’re going to discuss why you should get into the app industry.