Rick Gilchrist is on the hunt for apps.
iDEAXiS, the company he co-founded with Jo Gielen, is about to launch a fourth app marketplace, or a platform that lets small app builders reach targeted customers.
The latest app marketplace iDEAXiS is launching will showcase apps designed and programmed for native Spanish speakers. Called App Mercado, it will join
Marketing App Exchange,
FOHBOH Apps (front of house, back of house—a marketplace for the hospitality industry) and
App Cum Laude, a site devoted to all things educational, from preschool to higher education.
"We want to have five apps confirmed before we launch at the end of August," Gilchrist says, of App Mercado's progress. He has three in place right now. "These are apps that have been requested by small business owners…apps for invoices, inventory management, timekeeping, workforce management and templates for marketing [in Spanish]."
The apps on iDEAXiS's three marketplaces are cloud- and subscription-based and system agnostic. Small- and medium-business owners sign up for a web account on one of the platforms and receive a dedicated workspace. The apps they purchase can be launched from the workspace, meaning they don't have to have specific hardware to run the apps they purchase. This is a key factor that differentiates iDEAXiS's marketplaces from other app stores.
The goal of the markets, says Gilchrist, is to help app builders find customers. "Awesome developers create great apps," he explains, "but they don't know how to get revenue. We take care [of that end of the business]." iDEAXiS helps with lead generation and marketing. The company also assists early-stage startups with planning their apps and serves as a growth engine for more established companies whose apps are already on the market.
Ultimately, Gilchrist would like build connections between the apps on each marketplace. For example, on FOHBOH Apps, a restaurant inventory management app would ping a loyalty program app when a delivery of merlot is received, so that merlot drinkers could be notified of a special. "It’s something different," Gilchrist explains. "We want to do business smarter."