Jersey City -

It?s not that web developer Angelo Stracquatanio doesn?t want entrepreneurs as clients.

He just hates watching them wince when they hear how much custom mobile applications cost.

Stracquatanio networks with plenty of small business owners through Rising Tide Capital, a community development nonprofit that mentors entrepreneurs in his hometown of Jersey City. Once the budding CEOs find out he knows how to build mobile apps, the conversation quickly turns to whether he can build one for them.

"If I were to quote them a custom development fee it?d be $15,000 to $20,000," he said. "And obviously for an up-and-coming entrepreneur, that?s out of their price range."

Mobile devices have exploded in popularity and while entrepreneurs have been quick to use existing applications to build their businesses, know-how and cost have prevented many companies from reaching customers on their phones and tablets, according to a study by market research firm Vanson Borne.

More than 90 percent of survey participants said using mobile devices and existing apps puts them at a competitive advantage, the study found, but only 29 percent had built their own app while more than half doubted their ability to do so.

In an effort to knock down that hurdle and launch his own business, Stracquatanio raised $15,000 from angel investors and used it to found MainStreet Apps. The business lets companies customize their own mobile apps by choosing from a menu of in-demand features like task lists for clients, questionnaires, appointment schedulers and directions to brick and mortar locations.

MainStreet makes money from subscription fees; once a business wants to launch its app, it pays between $39 and $185 per month depending on how many of their customers use it.

The four-employee operation, counting Stracquatanio, works out of a Jersey City office and has been using the founder?s ties to Rising Tide Capital to run beta tests. Local businesses who agreed to act as MainStreet?s guinea pigs have been able to use the service for free.

Its slow and gradual roll-out has been strategic

"Most of our actual paying customers are all in the New Jersey or Manhattan area at the moment," Stracquatanio said. "In terms of our user base, it?s upwards of about 200 mostly local businesses in this area that we chose to have a close, personal relationship with instead of amassing a huge, anonymous user base."

For now those customers include mostly private sports clubs, athletic teams, weight loss centers and personal trainers because MainStreet decided the two-way communication features in its apps would be a good fit for trainers or coaches interacting with clients remotely.

It makes sense that companies in the service industry would find value in the features MainStreet offers, said Brian Donohue, co-founder of Echolocation, an app that helps users discover people, events and businesses near their location.

"I think targeting businesses that offer services who have clients and they?re using an app to keep in touch with them works," said the Brooklyn-based Fort Lee transplant. "They?re essentially streamlining the process by creating templates. Websites were very similar in the mid- to late-90s. It used to be very expensive to have a website built, but more and more tools emerged to help people make their own."

Tom Murphy, CEO of Green Lion Digital, said he?s seen a swell of demand for customized mobile apps from the restaurant, retail and health industries. His 30-employee consulting firm based in Wyckoff helps small businesses develop and deploy digital strategies.

"There?s a huge amount of attention that?s been turned towards mobile. A lot of clients are interested in having some type of app for their business," he said. "Having one built can vary anywhere from $5,000 to $100,000. It just depends on the functionality they want built into it."

If customers want their app to work on both Apple and Android devices, it gets more expensive.

When customers balk at those prices, Murphy and his team look into applying responsive design to the business owner?s website.

It?s designer shorthand for giving a website the ability to tell whether someone is using a computer, tablet or smart phone. Then it can display a version of itself that?s optimized for that platform. For example, things like buttons and menus get larger for small smart phone screens.


When hiring an app developer won?t wreck a business owner?s budget, they?re usually eager to start telling people to download it.

"They?re excited to get it out into the market and play with it and chat it up," Murphy said.

http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/ ... y_startup_wants_apps.html" rel="noopener external" title="">
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/ ... y_startup_wants_apps.html