Inside: a Silicon Valley startup in good company

This is a follow-up to a previous article that can be found by following the links on the left.

Sure it's nice to be Apple, but conventional wisdom move aside- you don't have to be the biggest fish in the sea to get a tasty dinner.

Tucked between the bistro-laden avenues of Palo Alto, an unpretentious, seasoned old building houses appbackr inc - a wholesale digital marketplace. The 70 square foot office might be unassuming at first but it’s fitting for a few tech gurus who have survived off of a personal American Express card.

"I've had closets bigger than this," chuckles Trevor Cornwell, founder and CEO of appbackr. As he sips from his Starbucks cup, it's clear that Cornwell relishes his latest startup just the same.

appbackr inc's rapid fruition is the product of 6 weeks of what Cornwell calls "impossible deadlines" coupled with Silicon Valley know-how. The startup recently took home enviable seed funding from both the PayPalX Developers Challenge and the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs seed award.

Here's why it works so well.

Known to quit desk jobs in favor for a chance to create a smash hit application, developers often bankroll the process themselves in pursuit of a shred of iTune's multi-billion dollar industry. It could be said that these guys have it easy with bootstrapping four-digit pricetags (favorably compared to sky's the limit figures of other tech development). 

Despite the lower startup costs, many would-be developers still shy away from their creative leanings and opt instead for steady paychecks. With the exponential growth and demand of iTunes applications, Cornwell astutely recognized the void to be filled in Apple land. 

"I started looking at developers and realized they are the frontiersmen of the digital age," says Cornwell.

The remedy? Cornwell wanted to enable devs to sell units of their apps to wholesale buyers, giving the developer an immediate cut to help ease the turbulent months of waiting for a final iTunes sale. The buyers, in turn, promote the heck out of the apps with vested interest in their iTunes success. Buyers get their due once the apps sell on iTunes, developers gets an additional percentage, and appbackr gets a final piece of the "Apple" pie, as well.

"Apple is a closed market essentially, but I think the mistake people make is thinking that they need to crack it," Cornwell tells me. Lacking a digital equivalent to physical wholesalers, Cornwell found the niche. "We essentially become the warehouse for the developer's goods."

Previously founding a social information exchange, Cornwell recognized the importance of relationships which manifests itself in the form of a forum for developers and buyers to share input. "Ideas have power. When something is good, it attracts people and ultimately that is what will make it evolve." Likewise, reputation plays an integral role in ensuring developers have transparent information about wholesalers. 

Though appbackr will initially cater to iTunes apps exclusively, it isn't necessarily Apple-centric. "We have a great relationship with Apple but the sky's the limit."  Calling it a democratization of publishing, Cornwell sees online wholesale possibilities for music and games. "How about eBooks?" I casually ask him. "Yes!" his unequivocal answer resounds. "You start batting around ideas and the possibilities are endless."

appbackr could be a harbinger of things to come. Voids are filled, needs are catered to and business flourishes. Cornwell says he wants to stay away from the word ‘revolutionary’, but he might have a hard time trying to explain it as anything less.

"Ultimately, we want to provide transparency between buyers and sellers," he says. "If we do only that, well, we will succeed."

For more information, read Bonnie's previous article: iTunes, developers and wholesalers unite or visit their website. 

Last Edited for sentence structure on: Apr. 28, 2010

Follow Bonnie on Twitter: @BonnieBRandall