Mobile Roadie
In December 2008, I knew I was in trouble. Lehman Bros. had just failed, and the ripple effect throughout the economy were wreaking havoc on my design agency Fluidesign. Within months contracts were cancelled, people stiffed us for money, and the business contracted significantly. It was in this context that my creative director - Brock Batten - came to me with an idea. We were building a lot of custom apps at the time - and we wondered why we couldn’t standardize apps more, cut costs, get them to market more efficiently… kind of like a “wordpress for apps.” Two weeks later I green lit what would become Mobile Roadie, and somehow found $40k to fund the initial work.
We launched at SXSW in March of 2009. I remember the endless cycle of working in our room, running down to the lobby for a meeting, running back up for a call, running out to pass out flyers targeting musicians, and passing out by my laptop around 3am before doing the same thing the next day. And it worked. There was no better feeling than seeing people order your product on day one.
By the end of 2009, we had turned down two acquisition offers, signed up Taylor Swift and Madonna, taken on investment from great LA angels like Mike Jones, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary, and we were off to the races.
The last six years have been filled with all of the extreme highs and lows that come with entrepreneurship. I’m so proud of the company that we’ve built, a company that powers apps for names like Disney, the Wynn Las Vegas, Taylor Swift, the Dallas Mavericks, NYU, and the World Economic Forum. From the beginning we wanted to make apps accessible to the masses, and democratize the whole industry. There are now many companies that do this, but we were truly the first guys out of the gate with a do-it-yourself platform. I’d like to think we played a small part in the now burgeoning app ecosystem.
I believe a Founder should always know his/her place, and above all keep in mind what’s best for the company. I’ve come to the conclusion that what’s best for Mobile Roadie is to have fresh blood at the top. So, starting today, we are promoting our COO - Andrew Mains - to be the CEO of Mobile Roadie. I will step away from the day-to-day at the company, although I remain a significant shareholder and the company’s biggest fan. I’ll continue to support these guys in any way I can.
It’s been a long and winding road, and when you start a company you never imagine yourself leaving. You just imagine building, scaling, growing, expanding, becoming something great in the world. I believe Mobile Roadie is something great in the world, and I believe that the team in place with the roadmap in front of them will bring the company to new heights of greatness.
I want to thank the entire Mobile Roadie team for being incredible at what you do. I want to thank all of our investors for believing in me and in the company. I especially want to thank my wife Katerina for putting up with my ups and downs.
