The soft launch of AppLink.io’s Mobile App Analytics platform in 2017 aimed to get the Des Moines startup on the radar of the rest of the Midwest’s ecosystem.
Now, a year later, the company is launching their new App Growth platform and preparing for a national launch.
“We took a step back and really worked on our platform and our messaging,” said Applink.io CEO and founder Adam Hass. “We took it from the initial product that it was and turned it into the App Growth platform, which now encompasses more than just analytics. We talk about it in terms of tiers now.”
Those three tiers are analytics, engagement, and performance. Hass said the three tiers gives app owners a 360-degree view of their app, instead of silos.
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Hass said feedback from early adopters and their unique needs and pain-points led to the changes in the platform. The Applink.io team set out to solve potential issues within the whole app, instead of just small changes that users wanted. They also corrected for gaps in the market.
The biggest changes include:
- additional marketing-centric features such as location-based marketing
- defining geofences and Bluetooth beacons
- being able to market based on a user’s location
- implementation push notifications
“That ties into another feature we have, which is mobile marketing automation,” said Hass. “When someone does an action, you can start prescribing certain automated behaviors based on that.”
For example, if an app user drives by a restaurant with a local deal, the user can receive an automated notification of the deal. Hass said that people from consumer industries to game developers have been excited about it.
“We’re going to keep adding more integrations as we get asked about them,” said Hass. “Being able to connect your mobile app to the marketing automation tools you’re already using has been a huge value-add for companies.”
Hass said the company is also seeing interest from financial services sectors, banks, and credit unions.
“Primarily, our biggest segment of customers are other B2B SaaS companies,” said Hass. “Typically, those companies use multiple apps that see problems with apps industry-wide.”
Applink.io also raised a seed round of funding in April of 2018 of an undisclosed amount, and has since added two employees to the team.
“You can only wear so many hats and get so many things done in a day,” said Hass. “I’m more of the technical founder. One of the things I knew I needed to do was bring in someone who understands marketing and analytics, and specifically, someone who appreciates the data.”
Hass said that being a small company, the team needed someone who was agile and could help with multiple business and marketing pieces. They hired on a sales development representative to help get the name out and who could help with a variety of projects.
The team recently moved into a new office in Johnston, Iowa outside of Des Moines. Hass said that the Des Moines area is a good fit for the company.
“It’s great for the Midwest having a community that’s very involved in entrepreneurship…and not only a community that supports entrepreneurship, but also entrepreneurs who support one another,” said Hass. “It’s one of the key values that the Des Moines metro has.”
