Froogloid Interview with androidpt.com
Earlier this week Luis Sismeiro from androidpt.com, a Portugal based android blog, asked if I’d be interested in conducting an online interview. I said sure so here it is:
andPT: Hi Chris, I am glad you had the time for this interview. First of all, I ask you to introduce yourself, your role on Froogloid and explain Froogloid intself.
<<Chris>> Well, my official title is “CEO” of Froogloid but that can be deceiving. Really, I’m a blogger, mobile app functional designer, project manager, marketer and 3rd party relationship builder. As the co-owner of a small company sometimes you have to learn to perform many roles. Anything development and or graphic arts related I leave up to my Co-Founde. Froogloid is a mobile app design and build company, mostly focused on the android platform.
andPT: Why choose to program for Android instead other mobile platform like Windows Mobile or iPhone?
<<Chris>> Pretty simple really….. more opportunity than other platforms longterm. android will eventually be on every device that doesn’t use their own proprietary OS. Also, almost every carrier will be using android handsets. More eyeballs on more of our products means more opportunities :)
andPT: We would like to create a community of developers in Portugal for the Android platform. What advises can you give to people that want to create applications for mobile devices like the Android? Can you do it all by yourself or do you need some kind of infrastructure?
<<Chris>> Great question…. I would recommend that you try to partner with at least one other person. Don’t try to do everything yourself. Try to find a partner that balances your skill set. For example, my Co-Founder of Froogloid is almost 180 degrees different than me regarding skill sets but, our business works because we partner well with each other. Also, don’t be afraid of what you don’t know. Android and mobile developement in general can be intimidating at first but if your time in and leverage the right publically availble resources such as development forums/blogs etc then eventually you’ll be able to build a credible product. One vlauable lesson we’ve learned is that when you build your first app you frst learn how to build it, then you’ll learn how to build it the right way haha. So, don’t be surprised if it takes you building your app 3 times to get it right. It’s just part of the learning curve.
Here’s a couple development links that I recommend:
- Android development book: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470344717?ie=UTF8&tag=interventione-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=0470344717
- Visio UI Android Design Stencil (great for helping create screenshots): http://artfulbits.com/Android/Stencil.aspx
- MOTODEV.com: http://developer.motorola.com/
- Android source code snippets: http://www.androidsnippets.org/
- Q&A Dev Site: www.stackoverflow.com
andPT: What were the ideias that lead to create a2b and Key Ring? Personal necessity or someone elses?
a2b ~ Chris and I we’re at a local store here in Texas and we’re testing the ability to scan barcodes from our screen. When we went outside to find our car, we looked at each other and said, “where in heck did we park?” haha So, that spurred the original idea for a2b but the product has evolved into quite more such as; the ability email saved locations to others, turn by turn google maps directions, radar, manually saving locations etc. Actually, one of my favorite uses is using it to manually save locations. That way I always have that address in my phone and I can navigate to it real-time from any location without having to type the address in again.
Key Ring ~ back in December Chris I started working on a patent for another shopping application and during that process we came up with the idea of being able to store your club cards while you shop. In fact, Key Ring was only one small feature of a much bigger application. But, after thinking about it some more we thought, wow this could really come in handy because I hate carrying around all those savings cards! I have 6 of these cards on my key chain and they are such a pain to carry! So anyways, we decided to build a stand alone app called Key Ring and decided that those “bigger and better” features that we originally had in mind could later be added to Key Ring once the core product was built.
andPT: A few weeks ago, Key Ring changed to be a free application on the Android Market. With all very good applications on the Market, many of them doing the same as some paid ones, how can you make a living giving software for free or selling something that some other free application offers? What is your business plan regarding Froogloid?
<<Chris>> Great question. It’s actually only been free for the past 5 days and during that time we’ve added close to 3,000 users! We realized that selling the app was only going to limit our exposure as development company. Regarding the monetization stream, we have plans to start partnering with retailers that may be interested in target marketing thier products towards their customers. We haven’t entirely figured out how this is going to work but, step one is build a large user base and enhance the product based on user feedback. Once that’s done, we’ll then give more thought regarding the monetization stream. I will say this to all would-be mobile entreprenuers, it’s going to be hard to make a substantial living off of selling apps. Especially in the android market where the user base is relatively low. Just my 2 cents.
andPT: On your site you say: “We’re frugal, aka “economically viable”, which is a fancy way of saying funded by our own pockets.” Did you try to get funding for Froogloid? What were the main obstacles for getting funding? Do you have any advice for people wanting to start a business like your own?
<<Chris>> Just recently we were approached by some outside investors. I will say this, getting funded is not our primarry objective. Money certainly helps move things a lot faster but at the end of the day I’d rather have less funding and more motivated and intelligent people to work with to execute our business strategy. Money is nothing without a team to help execute. With the partners we’ve recently been talking to we feel we’ve found a good mix of talent and capital.
As far as advice is concerned, I would say focus on building a strong business first. If you build a great product and showcase your ability to execute, people will actively pursue you…beleive me…
andPT: You have been using Tweeter to distribute some freebies, like licenses to use the a2b application and also to announce some news regarding Froogloid. Do you have a marketing strategy to sell Froogloid applications?
<<Chris>> Our marketing strategy is pretty simple. 1st build a great product and provide best in class customer support. If you product is great and your customers are happy, they’ll help sell it for you. 2nd ~ leverage social media to talk about your product and showcase it to the world. Twitter, blogging and youtube are some of our favorite social mediums.
andPT: How do you see the idea behind the Android Network Awards and the gathering of Android sites and blogs to create something like this? Is the community at it’s best?
<<Chris>> First, let me say this is a wonderful idea. One thing I really enjoy about android is that there is a real sense of community. When I was at the google I/O developer conference this year I met several people in person that I’ve been chatting with on-line ….owners of android related blogs, other android developers etc. Usually you see most target markets competing against each other for thier audience but I think it’s great that all the android sites are banding together to make this happen. Very cool! Just shows you how smart the android community really is :)
andPT: Right now the two applications from Froogloid are nominated on for “Best GPS app” and the other for “Best shopping app”. Also Froogloid is nominated for “Favorite developer or dev team”, we hope that you be on the final 5 for all nominations. What do you think of this? What contributed from your part to this?
<<Chris>> One word, honored. 10 months ago nobody knew who Froogloid was and now we have 2 products in production, close to 10,000 customers (and more and more every day) and a 3rd poduct in development. We’ve put in a ton of hours over the past 10 months and I have to say it feels absolutely great to be nominated for these awards!
Let me see if I can help explain why I we were nominated for these categories:
- Best GPS app (a2b) ~ Simply put, our product works and works quite well. Also, we make it a priority to listen to our users and incorporate their request features. We continue to update the product and try to release an update at least every 10 days.
- Best Shopping app (Key Ring) ~ Key Ring has what I like to refer to as “wow power”. When you see your reward cards digitally recreated on screen it makes you say “wow” and then when you scan your reward card from screen at the checkout the cashier says “wow” haha. We put a ton of time into design and testing this app to make sure it works as best as technically possible. You may not see it, but we’ve done many things to enhance the layout of barcodes etc to make them scan better. Also, we continually update the product and add more retailers on daily basis. Users love love our real-time ability to add new retailers. So, Key Ring is innovative, works well and we support the product. Those are the reasons I feel we were nominated for best shopping app.
- Best developer (Froogloid) ~ I think this comes down to great customer support. You’ll notice many of our comments in the android market mention how well we’ve treated our customers. If a customer has a question or issue no matter how big or small we alsways follow up with them and do everything in our power to make our products work for that user. We’re able to do this because I spend a lot of my time managing customer service while Chris and other developers work on code in the background. I’m sure there are lots of other great developers out there but probably few that put as much effort into supporting their products as we do. In conclusion, building useful, user friendly, innovative products and supporting the products = great dev team :)
andPT: Any new application on the forge of Froogloid? Can we know about it?
<<Chris>> You know it :) We’re working on a product right now with an android game developer, Jeremy Slade, and a 3D graphic artist, Mark Reisch, called “CowPotato”. We hope to release a demo version in Mid August and then submit an updated version at the end of August for the android developer challenge II. All I can say is the name is CowPotato and it’s a shooting game. You’ll have to use your imagination until it’s released haha :) I would say users of all ages will enjoy this game.
andPT: Do you have anything you would like to say to the users of Froogloid applications especially the one in Portugal?
<<Chris>> Download Key Ring and send us your retailer request for Portugal stores. I’ve received a few from Portugal so far but keep em coming! If you want to try out a2b there is a trial version in the market that allows 20 unrestricted uses. Give it a go!
Also, if you feel so inclined, leave comments in the marketplace for our apps and vote for us in the android awards J We LOVE feedback!
andPT: That’s all for now. We would like to thank you for your time for this interview. We hope to keep getting news from you and Froogloid.
<<Chris>> Thanks for having me and let me know once you’ve posted this interview. I’ll make sure to link to it from www.froogloid.com
Link to original: http://androidpt.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=15:entrevista-a-chris-fagan-do-froogloid&catid=11:entrevistas&Itemid=10
