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I

n the evolution of communication technology, humans have

returned to tablets theyre just no longer made of stone.

Handheld devices like the recently unveiled iPad 2 and da-

ta-enabled smartphones can connect people to one another

and the Internet from almost any location. Their expand-ing use is giving rise to a new class of mobile entrepreneurs

who are seeking to shake up business models and long-held

customs much as their dot-com counterparts have done for the past

two decades. Among those going mobile are five local start-ups. The

challenges their fledging businesses face are similar in many ways to

those of the early pioneers of the Internet. Wireless carriers are just

unrolling infrastructure that can support heavy data usage. And whilesmartphones capture a larger share of the mobile phone market each

quarter, theyre not yet the majority.

COVER STORY

A wave of start-appsOn the front lines of a mobile revolution, entrepreneurs adapt newtechnology to everyday tasks and hope they catch lightning.By STEVEN OVERLY

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New struggles have also emerged.Entrepreneurs must contend with theplethora of devices since no singleoperating platform, such as iPhone,Android or BlackBerry, dominates themarket. The cost of creating an appli-cation is also low enough that thou-sands of competitors have flooded theemerging market.

Nevertheless, these entrepreneursare pushing forward with productsin hand and ambition in mind. Eachstart-up seeks to change current prac-

tices by putting a better alternative atusers fingertips, literally.

EVENT TICKETS

Jason Bond Pratt and Philippe Chet-rit distribute thousands of tickets each

year to attendees at the meet-ups, con-certs and other social events they planthrough their days jobs. Pratt worksfor blog and event planning Web siteBrightest Young Things, while Chetritdirects the D.C.-based business incu-bator Anity Lab.

But the duo has an idea that mightrattle even their own businesses. Tix-elated, an app still in its infancy, seeksto change the way people buy tickets,invite friends to events and keep trackof them once there. Put simply: We

want to make the phone the ticket,Pratt said.

Tixelated permits a user to buy aticket simply by scanning a QR code similar to the bar codes on store mer-chandise from a poster or flier for

the event. The ticket holder can thengive or resell the ticket to a friend, keeptrack of others who plan to attend andsee when they arrive, all within the ap-plication.

We want to enable you to be ableto transfer or sell or give it right toyour friends right there, withoutgoing to a Web site, Pratt said. Wewant to change your notion of whatsa ticket.

Though the application is underconstruction, the District-based pair

already has clients to use it them-selves. Theyll also target eventsplanned by and for college studentsbecause that market adapts more easilyto new technology, Pratt said.

This way of ticketing is so superior

to everything that theyve looked atWe anticipate it being a lot easier forthem to adopt, Pratt said. Its a betterticket than you would normally have,even if you interact with it in a tradi-tional way.

RELATIONSHIPS

Becky Cruze may have walked pastPius Uzamere on the streets of theirshared Adams Morgan neighborhooddozens of times before their paths orperhaps more accurately, their profiles

crossed online through the singlesWeb site OkCupid.

But even as the couples real-life ro-mance burgeoned, they found no on-

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line outlet to eectively chronicle theirrelationship and share it with others.Thats the impetus behind BeCouply,their joint venture that blends the tra-ditions of courtship with mobile tech-nology.

The smartphone app and its com-panion Web site, which are still beingprivately tested, allow couples to cap-ture memories with photos, orches-

trate double dates with friends or cor-ral outing ideas from others in the samearea. The app lets it all happen in themoment.

With everyone having a smart-phone in their pocket, and a cameraalong with it, its just a great opportu-nity to document your life as a coupleand connect with people on the gorather than having to plan everythingmeticulously ahead of time, Uzameresaid.

They hope to make money throughdigital deals tailored to couples or bypromoting companies date oeringsfor a fee, but those revenue streamsalso rely on a critical mass of users thatthe duo will need to rally.

We really want to understand boththe acquisition and retention aroundhow our users are coming and leaving,Uzamere said. If you want to build aproduct that millions of people are us-ing, then you have to make your first1,000 users really happy.

GROCERY SHOPPINGBehold the grocery list, a fixture

in every household. But for its ubiq-uity, Jeremy Monat of District-basedWhite Glove Apps thought it shouldhave more value. Thats when work oniSpeedShop began.

There are everyday tasks that wehave to do and we now have comput-ers in our pocket, [so] why arent they

helping us do these mundane things?Thats kind of the genesis of the idea,Monat said.

Shoppers use the application tobuild a list of items they intend to buyduring their next grocery run. The app

then uploads any coupons that thestore or a particular brand has to oer.For example, add jelly to the list and youmight find a $1 discount on Welchs.

The application also uses the geo-

location feature built into most smart-phones to reveal any specials availableat a specific store while the customeris within its walls. Monat said the ap-plication is still under development but

the team will soon begin peddling it tomid-size grocery chains.

What were thinking of now iswe would partner with the retailersand customize the app for them, andcharge them some amount for that, andthen get some of the coupon revenuethrough those partnerships, Monatsaid.

PAPERWORKFrom the plumbers receipt after a

house call to the membership form at ahealth club, James Quigley sees a lot ofunnecessary paper. He launched Can-vas in late 2008 as a way for businessesto replace paperwork and eliminatedata entry with mobile apps.

We saw a number of very analogtasks that were still left around thatneeded to be digitized, he said. Com-panies who are buying mobile devicesin bulk now are wanting to get moreout of those devices, so thats abso-lutely what our whole vision was andweve been growing quickly since welaunched the service.

Indeed, the Reston-based companyhas its own application store that con-tains blank forms that might be usedin industries as varied as hospitality,education, utilities and government.

Theres a form to track users diabetesand yet another for their golf scores.

Canvas counts about 1,000 paid us-ers, Quigley said, a number that con-tinues to climb month over month.Were hoping with the growth thatwere seeing now, which has been verydramatic, that well be able to fund ourgrowth from our own revenue.

Quigley said many of his customersare companies that use the forms in-ternally. But a nascent use that the firmcontinues to develop is for the surveysor evaluations that retailers, restau-rants and others can send to customersvia mobile phones.

HAPPY HOUR

The sidewalks of the citys popularbar districts are littered with foldingsigns that boast happy hour specials,dishes of the day and live music of-ferings. Venga fits them all in a userspocket.

The brainchild of co-founders RegStettinius, Sam von Pollaro and Win-ston Bao Lord, the application servesas a marketing tool for local establish-ments that pay a monthly fee to keepusers abreast of daily happenings liketwo-for-one beer specials, a live jazzband or a fresh catch of mahi-mahi.

We see this as the next evolution ofmarketing for restaurants, Lord said.What weve tried to do is take all thebest practices from all the previous

marketing platforms out there and ap-ply them to Venga.

Derived from the Spanish verbmeaning come, Venga will launchin April pending Apples approval andthe trio has already partnered with theRestaurant Association MetropolitanWashington to tap its 700 membersacross the region as prospective cli-ents.

Stettinius said District-based Ven-ga was initially conceived as a mobileapp rather than a Web site so consum-ers can view a bar or restaurants spe-cials and events while on the go or inunfamiliar neighborhoods. Regularscan also maintain a list of their go-tohaunts and swap recommendations

with friends.The information is all there at their

fingertips the moment they are makinga decision of where to go, Stettiniussaid.

overlys@washpost.com

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Photos by Jerey MacMillan/Capital Business

BIG IDEAS: Venga founders Lord, left, Stettinius and von Pollaro with their product, which aggregates deals at bars andrestaurants. Below, BeCouplys Uzamere and Cruze oer a way to document relationships.