Learn That Name's iPhone app wins approval from Apple |
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Learn That Name's iPhone app wins approval from Apple
At last month's Startup Weekend, Learn That Name won over the crowd with a new iPhone application designed to help people remember the names of their LinkedIn contacts by flashing photos in a multiple-choice-style game. The idea is now moving forward, with Apple approving the 99 cent app last week and The Wall Street Journal featuring it today in its App Watch column.
I caught up with Learn That Name founder Eric Koester -- an attorney at Cooley Godward Kronish -- to ask how he's running the project now that it has graduated from Startup Weekend. With 14 contributors -- and thefore 14 potential owners -- Koester said the entire process has been a "pretty interesting experiment in group dynamics and business-building."
"As a lawyer, I spent quite a bit of time thinking creatively about how to manage a business like this since it is a very odd scenario here," he said. "We ultimately set up an LLC and decided to split any proceeds evenly among the group (so 14 ways)."
That means on every iPhone app sale -- taking into account Apple's 30 percent cut -- each Learn That Name contributor will earn five cents. Obviously, it doesn't look like anyone is going to be getting rich on a nickle a pop.
But what's interesting is how they plan to spur development going forward beyond the iPhone and Palm Pre apps created last month.
That's a natural challenge, given that some people will lose interest while others will want to keep innovating. To solve that issue, Koester said the LLC will negotiate a license with those who want to keep working on the project, say developing a version for Facebook or MySpace.
"That means that if a subset of our original 14 wants to build the Facebook version -- which will be next, it looks like -- that team will keep the bulk of the royalties but a smaller portion will remain with the original team," explains Koester. "Seems mostly fair from everyone I've spoken with, but incentivizes people to build the next versions."
At this point, Koester said the entire team continues to work on the project. He said they're hoping to have Learn That Name introduced in Palm's app store when that goes live.
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