A lot has happened since the last post. Too much to write about in detail. So, I’ll try to summarize it for you.
I moved the web services and database to Azure … Kishore went to work on the Android app … He was planning on working on the iPhone app after that … I went to work on the WP7 app … I then switched to the iPhone app to help out Kishore while he was working on the Android app … Kishore’s contract was running out at our day job so he had to start looking for a new job … I started working on the Android app to keep things moving … Kishore got a new job far away and had to relocate … :-( … Understandably, Kishore’s life got too busy to keep working with me on Mobimity … I got the Android app to public beta … Some very nice people helped me test it out … I got a crazy idea on how I could do things differently and make the experience way better … I ended the beta testing and disabled the app
Time to pivot . Going stealth . Stay tuned
Topic: Movin On Up
As a Microsoft BizSpark Startup, not only do we have access to all of Microsoft’s client side and server side software, we also get a promotional discounted rate on Windows Azure. Windows Azure is Microsoft’s cloud service platform that helps developers build, host and scale web applications through Microsoft datacenters.
In September of 2010, we decided to take our website and apps offline so we could rebuild our framework from the ground up. We moved our website, database, and API to the cloud.
We started looking for funding in mid-August. By this time we had developed our website, database, API, Windows Mobile app, and Android app. We sought the advice and opinions of respected angel investors.
We are based out of Jacksonville, Florida and there isn’t a lot of social media angel funding happening here. If our startup was based out of the San Francisco area we might have had a better shot.
They told us that while it is not impossible to get funding where we are, it was going to require more effort on our part and sizeable traction. In other words, “build it and they will come”. We were just going to have to build it as big as we could.
Location Based Interaction
By the end of that long 3 day Memorial weekend, lobain was born. Lobain stands for Location Based Interaction (LoBaIn). Using a GPS enabled device, a user could interact with other users within a defined radius without announcing anyone’s physical location.
After discovering that there is an anti-inflammatory drug in India bearing the same name, I started working on a new one. Not long after, I came up with Mobimity. Mobimity is a combination of the two words, mobile and proximity.
I worked tirelessly for the next couple of months designing and developing Mobimity. Sometime in early July, Kishore joined on as a partner to help with app development. The member area of the website, along with our Windows Mobile app, went live in the beginning of July. The Android app was released in mid-August.
In the beginning …
Mobimity was founded in early June 2010. It is now mid September 2010 and I am finally getting around to publishing our first blog post. For those of you who really care to know, this is how it all went down.
My carrier is not AT&T, so using an iPhone is not an option. Being a Microsoft developer, I thought it would be a good idea to sport a Windows Mobile device and it would be second nature for me to develop apps for it. So about a year ago I picked up the HTC Touch Pro 2.
I jumped on the foursquare bandwagon sometime around February/March of this year. The app available for us Windows Mobile users is provided by a third party and up until recently was extremely buggy. If not for my work issued BlackBerry, that I ended up using as my foursquare backup, I would have lost some hard earned mayorships.
In late May, I thought about building my own Windows Mobile foursquare app. Over Memorial Weekend I was getting ready to start coding the app when I had a change of heart. Yes, I wanted a more reliable foursquare app for my Touch Pro 2, but I wasn’t satisfied with just working with someone else’s API. I wanted to build my own network.
The Official Blog of Mobimity.
Explore your world.
Discover new people. http://mobimity.com
