Bootstrapping to $7M with DIY Business Apps: Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps (Part 2)

Sramana: How much were you charging?

Andrew Gazdecki: When we first started, we had a setup fee of $500 dollars. We then charged $39 dollars a month to maintain and host the application. I quickly realized there was a larger opportunity at hand, and that opportunity was to let other people do what I was doing with the solution I had developed. I could create apps for small businesses or people who wanted to start their own mobile app company.

That is when the company took off. We allowed users to sign up and use the software to develop their own apps. We really went away from a service-oriented business model to a do-it-yourself business model. That was the eureka moment of the business. There were hundreds and thousands of other people that wanted to use the software for the exact same purpose.

Sramana: You had a hypothesis that other developers would want to develop on top of your platform. How did you test and validate that this was indeed the case?

Andrew Gazdecki: My previous business got me well versed with search engine marketing and SEO. We started some modest marketing campaigns to get some new client interest. From there we were able to land a new client every month. That paid our marketing and development bills. The company really took off when I applied to our CSU Chico business competition. I won first place in that competition. After winning that I was introduced to two angel investors in Chico. They invested in the company, and working with them was great because they had a wealth of experience and guidance that they brought to the table. It was not just money. They definitely brought a lot of direction to me.

Sramana: What kinds of marketing campaigns did you do in the early days? How did you find developers who wanted to write applications on your platform, and how much did you charge them for it?

Andrew Gazdecki: Once we moved to the do-it-yourself model, we dropped the setup fees. It was just $39 a month to create your own iPhone app. Our interface is very simple and easy to use, with a drag and drop experience. Any sort of person could create an app using our software.

The very first marketing campaigns were just a lot of hustle. I did some cold calling campaigns, and we focused sharply on search engine optimization. We had a modest pay per click campaign.

Sramana: What kind of keywords were you trying to position around?

Andrew Gazdecki: A lot of industry-related keywords like “restaurant mobile app” or “lawyer mobile app.” I had to use specific keywords because I had industry-specific templates. I wanted to target those industries. Those key terms were relatively non-competitive. We were one of the first businesses that focused on developing apps for small businesses. We had a small head start in that department.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Bootstrapping to $7M with DIY Business Apps: Andrew Gazdecki, CEO of Bizness Apps
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