Bootstrapping to $7M with DIY Business Apps: Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps (Part 5)

Sramana: What is the most successful iPhone app built with your tool sets to date?

Andrew Gazdecki: There is an app called Tacolicious. They were one of our first customers and became a customer in January 2011. They have a fantastic restaurant in San Francisco. They built a beautiful app on our platform and their customers love it. They also have a mobile food ordering system enabled in their app. They send out apps for Taco of the Week and updates on specials. That app has sentimental value for me since they have been with us so long.

Sramana: It sounds like restaurants have been a big channel for you.

Andrew Gazdecki: Definitely. We see a lot of restaurants, bars, Realtors, and lawyers. We also see people on the entertainment side like bands and DJs. We also get a lot of gyms. There are some cool businesses as well like non-profit organizations and places of worship. I think it is a lot of fun to see all the businesses that come through. We see any small business you can imagine. That is our biggest accomplishment. We have built a solution that can be applied to any small business.

Sramana: In terms of functionality, what are your 10 most popular features?

Andrew Gazdecki: We have about 50 features. We have a full-fledged food ordering system that is very popular. That is a feature which some companies try to make a stand-alone product. We also have a shopping cart available that lets you sell merchandise. That integrates with third party e-commerce websites.

Our loyalty programs are very popular. One is a stamp card that rewards you for repeat purchases. We have a GPS loyalty card that will reward you with a coupon for checking in at the restaurant after a set number of times. We also have a code scan loyalty program that requires people to scan a PR code every time they go to the business.

We also have iTunes integration. We give you the ability to upload any type of music in your app and have a really awesome music bar. That appeals to musicians and DJs. You can listen to previews of the songs and purchase them in iTunes. We also have great social media integration. We can integrate LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and a lot of other networks.

We also have a nice mailing list feature. If you are using a third-party mail system like Constant Contact, you can set up a feature that will prompt the user the very first time he or she opens the app to invite them to join your mailing list. I think those features are cool. Another great feature is push notifications. That allows you to send messages directly to the user’s phone. Those have a much higher read rate and are a great way to send special offers to customers, especially when business is slow. There are some simple features that are very powerful. One-touch dialing and GPS are great.

Sramana: What about content management, like videos?

Andrew Gazdecki: We allow you to integrate almost any content you can think of. It could be anything from a PDF to a music or video file. We also sync up with Picasa and Flickr. We give you multiple ways to include content.

This segment is part 5 in the series : Bootstrapping to $7M with DIY Business Apps: Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps
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