BEST FRIENDS AND COLLEGE STUDENTS Keith Shields and Joshua Tucker wanted to provide a way for anyone with a mobile app idea (even a person with no tech experience) to see their idea become a reality. They started Applits in 2012, a company that connects idea people with tech people to create new mobile apps.
In 2014, Inc. magazine named Applits one of the 100 Coolest College Start-ups. Readers voted and Applits won the top honors.
Ironically, when Shields and Tucker first came up with the idea for Applits as college sophomores—Shields at The Ohio State University and Tucker at Alfred University (NY)—they had no knowledge of how to actually create an app. But the mechanical engineering majors did know apps were big business. Case in point: Facebook had just purchased Instagram for $1 billion. And despite how “hot” apps were, the friends also knew apps were expensive to develop and hard to code.
So Shields and Tucker set out to launch a “socially driven app creation” company. They created a website and invited users to submit new app concepts. Then they wrote a business plan and raised $70,000, thanks to friends and family. With the help of freelance developers and designers, which today includes team members from Romania, Paraguay and India, Applits really took off. Tucker transferred colleges to expand the business, which is now headquartered in Columbus, Ohio.
So how exactly does Applits work? People from around the world submit app ideas. Then, during the last week of the month, the public votes for its favorite ideas. The winning app is developed and released, and the submitter receives $1,500 and 15 percent of the app’s profits.
To date, Applits has received over 2,000 ideas. Of these, the company has launched nine mobile apps and has 10 more in development. Two of the most profitable apps have been FaceCap and ReadyMic. The former allows users to make custom emojis using their own faces. The latter transforms a Bluetooth headset into a mic for videos made with an iPhone.
Other winning apps include Ribbon (a space survival game), Tword (a fun word game), Copy This (a drawing game) and #Selfie (a photo app that tells you how to pose). You can check out these apps on the company’s website or in your mobile device’s app store.
Applits also offers an additional service, which provides “idea people” with affordable, flat-rate pricing for the design, development and marketing of their app idea. If you have an app you want to developed or just want to be involved in the voting process, visit www.applits.com.
