413 North Carpenter St. 2E Chicago, IL 60642
1-844-APP-DEVY
[email protected]
Press
Built in Chicago, Hot Startups - Feb 12th 2014, by Carlin Sack
AppDevy is one of those local companies that constantly works to power other digital companies in Chicago. Out of their Wicker Park and their 1871 offices, they have worked with about 35 companies (a majority of which are Chicago-based) to design websites and web applications since they launched in October.
But the AppDevy team isn’t just working with local digital companies this year: they also have some exciting projects in line, like “eliminating Wordpress” and creating a simply analytics application.“It’s really great when you have a team of excellent programmers together, throwing ideas around,” CEO Jason Dunlap said. “You can turn these ideas into products in a few days.
Built In Chicago caught up with Dunlap to hear about AppDevy’s projects, their current collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas (yes, Dunlap has worked with them in the past) and their work with Code.org and Women Who Code to get more women programming (50 percent of their devs are female, by the way).
The stats: Bootstrapped. Eight people on the team, including six programmers and engineers. 35 clients. What they are up to now: “We have some bigger projects half of our team will be working on, such as a web-based, custom CRM for a company and sales software for another. What’s even more exciting is that the other half of our engineering team is building internal apps that will help our customers improve their businesses. We want to eliminate Wordpress for one. We understand our clients want to be able to edit their own content on their website, change pictures, etc. Wordpress themes get broken quickly. We will have a much simpler solution that we will be releasing February. Another thing is analytics, most of our clients use Google Analytics, but don't understand it. We are creating a powerful analytics application, that is easy to understand for our clients.”
Their unlikely partnerships: “Regarding Black Eyed Peas, due to NDA's I can't go into specific details, but we will be enhancing the web presence of Fergie and Black Eyed Peas. I worked with them in 2010 on their production team for their E.N.D. Tour. With Code.org and Women Who Code (out of NYC), we look forward to doing similar events in Chicago, to get women introduced into Computer Science and programming. We want to help the community we do business in as much as possible.”
Their Wicker Park digs: “We are members at 1871, but do most of our work out of another coworking space in Wicker Park (the first coworking space in Wicker Park) called Free Range Office. It’s a beautiful 8,000-square foot location, which used to be the home to one of the heirs of the Drake Hotel. We are in Wicker Park because it is really the heart of boutique retailers and restaurants in Chicago. We really enjoy working with local area businesses, especially with companies who are as passionate about their products as we are creating their websites and apps.”
Crains Chicago Business, New in Chicago - Nov 19 2013
AppDevy launched in October by Jason Dunlap and other members of 1871, AppDevy builds “beautiful responsive” websites and interactive Web applications, focusing on startups. AppDevy has already built more than 30 websites and a few Web applications.
Several corporate clients have signed up for AppDevy's 24/7 website support and monitoring. AppDevy's clients include Citizen Made, a company based in Chicago and New York that helps people sell customized products online.
“When we learned about Citizen Made, we were very happy to begin working with them and building new features and enhancements to their product,” Mr. Dunlap says.
Raising the seed round: 3 Chicago founders tell you when, how much and from whom, Built in Chicago - July 21, 2014
With little cash to fully develop products, many startups can't get past the validation and iteration stages. The tool of choice for many facing this problem is seed capital. It has been preached that the key to any seed investment is to take just enough to get you to the next step but not anymore. But knowing how much is enough to get you to the next round can be difficult as there is no "typical" seed funding amount. Amounts vary wildly depending on the product. Everpurse, for example, raised $1 million last year because their upfront hardware costs were expensive. Some companies even raise, as in the case of Options Away, several rounds of seed funding. Seed rounds are often about more than money though. As stakeholders, your early investors may have significant input into and impact on your business. Choosing the right ones, that is investors who can offer sound advice in your industry and can even make introductions. To help you get the best advice on when to raise seed funding, how much to raise and from whom to raise, Built In Chicago polled a couple Chicago entrepreneurs: Jimmy Odom, CEO and founder of WeDeliver
What they do: A company that helps facilitate same day, online order and delivery for brick and mortar retail businesses. Founded: January 2013 Seed rounds: Jumpstart Capital and Caerus Investment Partners led an $800,000 round in January. The company received $100,00 from Steve Case through a Google Demo Day - and then $18,000 from Techstars Chicago this summer. Odom's advice: "We were looking to raise a quarter of a million and we ended up at a million. We were significantly over-subscribed, so we became way more aggressive towards our goals because at first we started really lean. WeDeliver is a unique case because when we first started we weren’t looking to swallow this market: we were only going towards profitability, not towards scale. It’s extremely important to look at your businesses and determine what are you raising for and really understand what you are looking to accomplish." Robert Brown, CEO and co-founder of Options Away
What they do: A travel company that lets customers put freeze flight tickets at a certain price for a small upfront holding fee. Founded: June 2011 Seed rounds: Options Away closed three seed rounds of $200,000 or under between September 2012 and July 2013. In January 2014, the company raised $1.1 million from undisclosed investors. Brown's advice: "While in later rounds the advice tends to be 'only raise what you need', in earlier rounds (i.e. pre-revenue) I would go the other way and suggest raising more than you need. As entrepreneurs, we are inherently bullish on our businesses. However, it always takes more time, more effort and more money to get to where you need to be. Raising money is a very time-consuming process and if you can bring in a little more than you need in the early stages then you will have more time to focus on getting your business off the ground. We initially planned to raise around $500,000. However, after talking to our advisors they suggested raising $1 million. We ended up raising around $1.1 million for that round."
Jason Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of Appdevy
What they do: web development shop for responsive websites
Founded: October 2013
Seed Rounds: In June, AppDevy raised $250,000 from undisclosed investors.
Dunlap's advice: "Some advice I would give other startups is don't take money from just anyone. Startups need to do their own due diligence with potential investors. They should be prepared to ask the hard questions. Even with a great seed round, taking money from the wrong investor can be very problematic for a growing startup."
Press
Built in Chicago, Hot Startups - Feb 12th 2014, by Carlin Sack
AppDevy is one of those local companies that constantly works to power other digital companies in Chicago. Out of their Wicker Park and their 1871 offices, they have worked with about 35 companies (a majority of which are Chicago-based) to design websites and web applications since they launched in October.
But the AppDevy team isn’t just working with local digital companies this year: they also have some exciting projects in line, like “eliminating Wordpress” and creating a simply analytics application.“It’s really great when you have a team of excellent programmers together, throwing ideas around,” CEO Jason Dunlap said. “You can turn these ideas into products in a few days.
Built In Chicago caught up with Dunlap to hear about AppDevy’s projects, their current collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas (yes, Dunlap has worked with them in the past) and their work with Code.org and Women Who Code to get more women programming (50 percent of their devs are female, by the way).
The stats: Bootstrapped. Eight people on the team, including six programmers and engineers. 35 clients. What they are up to now: “We have some bigger projects half of our team will be working on, such as a web-based, custom CRM for a company and sales software for another. What’s even more exciting is that the other half of our engineering team is building internal apps that will help our customers improve their businesses. We want to eliminate Wordpress for one. We understand our clients want to be able to edit their own content on their website, change pictures, etc. Wordpress themes get broken quickly. We will have a much simpler solution that we will be releasing February. Another thing is analytics, most of our clients use Google Analytics, but don't understand it. We are creating a powerful analytics application, that is easy to understand for our clients.”
Their unlikely partnerships: “Regarding Black Eyed Peas, due to NDA's I can't go into specific details, but we will be enhancing the web presence of Fergie and Black Eyed Peas. I worked with them in 2010 on their production team for their E.N.D. Tour. With Code.org and Women Who Code (out of NYC), we look forward to doing similar events in Chicago, to get women introduced into Computer Science and programming. We want to help the community we do business in as much as possible.”
Their Wicker Park digs: “We are members at 1871, but do most of our work out of another coworking space in Wicker Park (the first coworking space in Wicker Park) called Free Range Office. It’s a beautiful 8,000-square foot location, which used to be the home to one of the heirs of the Drake Hotel. We are in Wicker Park because it is really the heart of boutique retailers and restaurants in Chicago. We really enjoy working with local area businesses, especially with companies who are as passionate about their products as we are creating their websites and apps.”
Crains Chicago Business, New in Chicago - Nov 19 2013
AppDevy launched in October by Jason Dunlap and other members of 1871, AppDevy builds “beautiful responsive” websites and interactive Web applications, focusing on startups. AppDevy has already built more than 30 websites and a few Web applications.
Several corporate clients have signed up for AppDevy's 24/7 website support and monitoring. AppDevy's clients include Citizen Made, a company based in Chicago and New York that helps people sell customized products online.
“When we learned about Citizen Made, we were very happy to begin working with them and building new features and enhancements to their product,” Mr. Dunlap says.
Raising the seed round: 3 Chicago founders tell you when, how much and from whom, Built in Chicago - July 21, 2014
With little cash to fully develop products, many startups can't get past the validation and iteration stages. The tool of choice for many facing this problem is seed capital. It has been preached that the key to any seed investment is to take just enough to get you to the next step but not anymore. But knowing how much is enough to get you to the next round can be difficult as there is no "typical" seed funding amount. Amounts vary wildly depending on the product. Everpurse, for example, raised $1 million last year because their upfront hardware costs were expensive. Some companies even raise, as in the case of Options Away, several rounds of seed funding. Seed rounds are often about more than money though. As stakeholders, your early investors may have significant input into and impact on your business. Choosing the right ones, that is investors who can offer sound advice in your industry and can even make introductions. To help you get the best advice on when to raise seed funding, how much to raise and from whom to raise, Built In Chicago polled a couple Chicago entrepreneurs: Jimmy Odom, CEO and founder of WeDeliver
What they do: A company that helps facilitate same day, online order and delivery for brick and mortar retail businesses. Founded: January 2013 Seed rounds: Jumpstart Capital and Caerus Investment Partners led an $800,000 round in January. The company received $100,00 from Steve Case through a Google Demo Day - and then $18,000 from Techstars Chicago this summer. Odom's advice: "We were looking to raise a quarter of a million and we ended up at a million. We were significantly over-subscribed, so we became way more aggressive towards our goals because at first we started really lean. WeDeliver is a unique case because when we first started we weren’t looking to swallow this market: we were only going towards profitability, not towards scale. It’s extremely important to look at your businesses and determine what are you raising for and really understand what you are looking to accomplish." Robert Brown, CEO and co-founder of Options Away
What they do: A travel company that lets customers put freeze flight tickets at a certain price for a small upfront holding fee. Founded: June 2011 Seed rounds: Options Away closed three seed rounds of $200,000 or under between September 2012 and July 2013. In January 2014, the company raised $1.1 million from undisclosed investors. Brown's advice: "While in later rounds the advice tends to be 'only raise what you need', in earlier rounds (i.e. pre-revenue) I would go the other way and suggest raising more than you need. As entrepreneurs, we are inherently bullish on our businesses. However, it always takes more time, more effort and more money to get to where you need to be. Raising money is a very time-consuming process and if you can bring in a little more than you need in the early stages then you will have more time to focus on getting your business off the ground. We initially planned to raise around $500,000. However, after talking to our advisors they suggested raising $1 million. We ended up raising around $1.1 million for that round."
Jason Dunlap, CEO and co-founder of Appdevy
What they do: web development shop for responsive websites
Founded: October 2013
Seed Rounds: In June, AppDevy raised $250,000 from undisclosed investors.
Dunlap's advice: "Some advice I would give other startups is don't take money from just anyone. Startups need to do their own due diligence with potential investors. They should be prepared to ask the hard questions. Even with a great seed round, taking money from the wrong investor can be very problematic for a growing startup."