FounderFuel Alum Ooomf Relaunches as an App and Project Marketplace

April 3, 2013

Montreal-based startup and FounderFuel alum ooomf has officially relaunched today as a marketplace to connect curated projects with invite-only mobile and web talent.

Formerly the company served as a mobile app discovery platform that helped developers market their applications and allowed users to discover and participate in the creation of mobile apps.

Founder Mikael Cho said that “the most important piece of app discoverability ultimately lies in making a quality app,” and they had received hundreds of requests from customers looking for help develop a better product.

“We think this is the beginning of a platform that will not only improve the process of connecting the right projects with the right talent, but will ultimately result in exceptional mobile and web products being created and moving technology forward,” said Cho.

The new platform helps connect mobile and web projects with “the world’s most talented, handpicked developers, designers, and copywriters,” according to ooomf. In the first month of private beta testing, there had been over $125,000 worth of projects approved and over 90% of those had connected with a developer, designer, or copywriter.

Anyone can submit an app idea (or project) for just $10 and Techvibes readers can exclusively submit an idea with the code “techvibes.”

Once ooomf approves the project the company can send it out to a curated community of mobile & web professionals (over 1000 developers, designers and copywriters according to ooomf). Those developers can only join the community through invite.

ooomf was born out of Montreal accelerator FounderFuel. The team graduated as part of the first cohort of businesses and quickly secured $500,000 in seed-stage funding from Real Ventures and BDC Venture Capital. Since then they’ve assisted thousands of entrepreneurs in less than a year’s time.

The company made headlines on New Year’s Day earlier this year when it announced the release of LaunchThisYear.com on Techvibes, a freeplatform for entrepreneurs, experienced or not, to follow through with a resolution to create a mobile app in 2013. Much like New York startup Code Academy’s Code Year initiative in 2011, ooomf had ambitious plans to help 200,000 people launch an app.

It’s no secret that Cho and his team are passionate and respected tech entrepreneurs who want to change people’s lives through app discovery and creation. Ultimately though a company will be judged on user popularity and monetization. Nevertheless It’s encouraging to see this company show no fear in pursuing a new direction and a new way of helping users achieve their goals.