The two siblings launched an epic mobile app challenge [link] where they will go head-to-head in a family rivalry to see who can get reach a million downloads first. The thirty-day voting period starts today, Tuesday, September 20th. Mobile app users can choose a winner by downloading one or both of the two free apps, now available on the Apple App Store: Grace’s, Smarter than Grace [link] and Jamie’s, Guess Word Mania [link].
“I love playing sports and hanging with my friends, but how many kids get to say they built their own app business,” said Grace. “You’re never too young to start something, and growing up in an entrepreneurial house made it very natural for us. The best way to learn is to just go for it.”
When your dad is the Director of Entrepreneurship at Ivy League Dartmouth College, you can’t just start a lemonade stand. “Anytime you can meld your personal and professional life together in a teaching or parenting moment, that’s a win/win for me,” says dad, Jamie Coughlin. “When the kids came to me with their idea, I immediately jumped on board. After countless brainstorming sessions around the kitchen table, Grace and Jamie each decided to focus on building an app business.”
“We wanted to find something that we would use ourselves and, at the same time, learn how to build something and reach a lot of people in the process – building an app sounded right,” Jamie, the son, said.
A launch video that captures the spirit of the challenge can be viewed here [link].
As the summer comes to an end, Jamie and Grace are ready to launch their venture. To get the word out, they came up with a challenge – the “Epic App Duel” [link] to be specific – where they will go head-to-head to see who can get the most traction and downloads over the first month back at school.
“There are thousands of ideas and apps out there, so we had to focus on what would make ours special,” said Grace. “We grew up with our parents always encouraging us to go big – and now we’re putting it to practice.”
Their parents are proud of their initiative and will be playing an active role to help support them along this journey.
“It’s awesome when your kids get passionate about something – especially when it’s something you love as well,” says their dad, Jamie. “As parents we need to help harness and focus that energy.”
During the past few months, Grace and Jamie have held Skype calls with developers, reviewed artistic renderings of graphics, logos, and user interface designs, learned about pricing and sales strategies, built marketing materials for launch and formed and incorporated their own business.
“The process has been amazing. We’ve worked with developers and artists all over the world to build our apps. We don’t know what the next few months will bring, but if nothing else happens, we sure learned a lot,” said Grace.
Learn more about Grace, 11, and Jamie, 7, and the Epic App Duel by visiting their website [link] and watching their launch video here [link].
Contacts
Epic Apps LLC
Jamie Coughlin
[email protected]
