In winter 2009, while brainstorming for ways to earn extra money on top of my day job, I had an idea that seemed like it might lead to something. I thought of a sort of game that could help you let off steam when you are annoyed at someone without driving them crazy or hurting the relationship—someone like your boss or your spouse or even the dog next door who barked all night long. I imagined it as a Wii game, but after a little research I decided that was too difficult and costly to pull off. Then, I thought, “maybe I could create a web site around it and find a way to make money from that. I know how to make web sites and I could get help.”
I mentioned this idea to my dad, a seasoned businessman. As I described a rich interactive web experience, he interrupted with “how are you going to monetize this?” “Hmm,” I said aloud and rambled on about generating hits to attract advertisers or maybe setting up a paid members-only space. My dad interrupted again to say, “I think it should be an app for the iPhone.”
Apple had just opened the “app store” about 6 months before. The typical price for a paid app was 99 cents and the developer could keep 70% of the revenue generated (pre-tax). We knew some people with iPhones and they were buying all kinds of apps, even silly ones. This would definitely be more of a silly app than a business app. (Silly app or no, I imagined that it could help people vent off steam instead of directing it at their loved ones.) Then, Dad interrupted—again—and said, “I got a new iPhone last week. You can have this ‘old’ one [hands me phone] and just see what happens.” So, in spring of 2009, armed with an idea and an ‘old’ iPhone, my husband and I began our journey toward creating an iPhone app.
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