A Q&A with Appsee co-founder and CEO Zahi Boussiba. The Tel Aviv-based startup, which offers a mobile analytics platform for developers that features recordings of user behavior, heat maps, and in-app analytics reports, closed a $1 million Seed funding round earlier this month. Investors include Giza Venture Capital and Angel investor Moshe Lichtman. It was founded in 2012.
SUB: Please describe Appsee and your primary innovation.
Boussiba: Appsee is the world’s first mobile analytics platform that is focused on user behavior and experience. There are a lot of other mobile analytics platforms, but the insights Appsee provides regarding behavior of users in mobile apps are very unique. Appsee provides a deep understanding like no other existing platform.
SUB: Who are your target markets and users?
Boussiba: We target companies that strive to deliver an exceptional user experience in their mobile apps. Unlike some mobile analytics platforms, Appsee is not free, and our customers value that Appsee is a premium mobile analytics service.
SUB: Who do you consider to be your competition, and what differentiates Appsee from the competition?
Boussiba: Currently our competition is mostly from other mobile analytics platforms. I believe that most of them offer pretty much the same features. Traditional mobile analytics don’t reveal the full story, emphasizing numbers instead of reasons.
Appsee enables app developers to put themselves in their users’ shoes and visually understand exactly how users interact with their app.
SUB: You just announced that you’ve raised $1 million in Seed funding. Why was this a particularly good time to raise funding?
Boussiba: The mobile market is exploding. Today, users spend more time using their mobile phone than their PC. And on mobile it’s all about the user experience—it’s a very big change for companies, they need to deliver an exceptional user experience on mobile, and that’s what we help them achieve.
SUB: What was the inspiration behind the idea for Appsee? Was there an ‘aha’ moment, or was the idea more gradual in developing?
Boussiba: My co-founder and I are both app developers and actually started working on an app called ShopTalk. The story is that we wanted to test our app with the help of our beta testers before releasing it. We got a lot of verbal and text feedback regarding usability and UX.
We felt that the best way to really understand our users and their experience with our app was to be next to them and watch them use it, but we wanted a better solution—and that’s how Appsee was born.
SUB: What were the first steps you took in establishing the company?
Boussiba: In the beginning, we were bootstrapping and we were 100 percent focused on providing a solution to a real problem. So, we worked hard just to get a working product as fast as possible and [start] getting feedback. It took us a few iterations before we got it right.
SUB: How did you come up with the name? What is the story or meaning behind it?
Boussiba: Initially, we were named UserVOD, but a lot of people didn’t understand the meaning behind the name. It took us a lot of time to choose a new name, but ‘Appsee’ is a really straight forward name considering what we do—we help companies see what’s going on in their app.
SUB: What have the most significant challenges been so far to building the company?
Boussiba: Well, it’s a cliché, but building a startup is a real roller coaster. You have a lot of highs and lows, but the important thing is to keep focused and believe that you’re doing something that solves a real problem.
SUB: How do you generate revenue or plan to generate revenue?
Boussiba: Companies that use our services pay according to the volume of data that Appsee collects. We also offer a limited free plan, and our paid plans start at $250 per month.
SUB: What are your goals for Appsee over the next year or so?
Boussiba: We’re currently focusing on increasing our customer base. Today, Appsee has dozens of paying customers and we are growing very fast. In addition, currently our solution only targets the iOS platform and we plan to support additional platforms, Android being the first one.
Appsee – www.appsee.com
