Getting a mobile app discovered, downloaded and then highly ranked is a challenging business - and one that’s now being dominated by larger players, it seems. One company benefiting from that trend is Mobile Action, a one-stop shop for mobile app user acquisition. Now on track for $2 million in revenue this year, the startup has also just raised $805,000 in seed funding from Felicis Ventures, Streamlined Ventures and various angel investors.
Mobile Action was founded last July by CEO Aykut Karaalioglu, a self-described growth hacker who had been working as a freelance consultant while fielding job offers from several big-name companies. But instead of choosing to join just one company, he decided to productize his knowledge in the form of an online dashboard which provides businesses with market insight and intelligence, competitor insight, ASO (app store optimization) assistance, and more.
The founding of the business is actually a funny story, the way Karaalioglu tells it. Last year, during a meeting with eBay’s StubHub division, the company wanted to bring him in-house. But he told them, “I have a company, and we’re doing this thing as a full service product.”
When they asked what his company was, Karaalioglu says the first thing that popped into his mind was “Mobile Action,” so that’s what he said. After the meeting, he called his accountant and said, “dude, we’ve got to start a company because I just closed eBay!”
StubHub became his first client. They wanted a top-ranked app, and gave him a million dollars. He spent just $20,000, delivered a top 6 ranked app in their category and top 15 overall. Karaalioglu then returned the rest of their money.
Through word-of-mouth referrals, Mobile Action, now a team of 13 growth hackers and others, has grown its customer base to 85 active clients, including also NBC Universal, Spoonrocket, Runtastic, RideScout, Chefs Feed, Slice, Flipps and TextNow. Most of its customers are either on its premium ($5,000/month) or enterprise plans.
The company is also cash flow positive, generating around $150,000-plus per month currently.
In the Mobile Action dashboard, the service offers tailored insights into an app’s visibility, what actions a business should take to improve that, as well as when those steps should take place. For example, it knows when a competitor has dropped out of the top 20 or isn’t using a specific keyword you can target.
The company also helps optimize app names, keywords, descriptions, and screenshots and works with 45 mobile ad companies to help manage a business’s app promotion efforts and various campaigns. Mobile Action will also work with customer to help them improve upon their app’s functions and features by focusing on users’ feedback.
With the additional funding, Mobile Action is looking to hire in sales and marketing, specifically for senior level positions, including an enterprise sales director.
Correction: The figure was $20,000, not $200,000. Apologies for the typo.