Episode 9: Stand Up! With Jim Biancolo

Jim Biancolo, half of Raised Square, joins me to talk about creating their first app, Stand Up!, a work break timer for reminding us all that we need to occasionally get up from the desk and move around.

Raised Square was founded in 2014 by Mark and Jim, two guys who wanted a place to build things that they like to use.

Mark, a self described Brit living in the USA, found computers so early in life he started on an Atari 800 XL. Later he went on to study them at University. He started working in tech after graduation and has spent most of his life building web stuff. He is now enjoying building stuff for the computers in our pockets and is a baseball and cycling enthusiast.

Jim found computers later in life, and spent the last 20 years making up for lost time. He's happy to pick up the UX end of things for Raised Square. In his spare time, he enjoy's watching movies, and carries a Netflix queue that's around three years deep. He is self described as just enough of a movie nerd to know he watches around 80 movies a year.

Stand Up! The Work Break Timer, because sadly we need reminding we should get up and move around.

Stand Up! is a fun, flexible work break timer. By now you know that sitting down is slowly killing you, and Raised Square wants to help you live longer. It's as simple as standing up! It's also great for RSI sufferers, or anyone that needs to take regular breaks. Stand Up! is free and fully functional! It comes with one alert tone, and one In-App Purchase unlocks the rest. It is completely customizable to your work schedule so you can truly set it and forget it. You can also customize the color theme of the UI. The header shows you at a glance how you're doing, and how long to your next alert. You can even limit alerts to your office location so it doesn't bug you when you go out to lunch.

The Stand Up! and Raised Square story is closely intertwined, as their practice project turned into their business product.

When Jim & Mark started, they were looking for a simple idea they could create relatively quickly to give themselves experience building for the App Store. When they couldn't find a work break reminder app that did everything they wanted, they decided that seemed like a good candidate. Initially thinking it would only take a few weeks to build something they'd be proud of, they ended up spending about a year perfecting it. In the course of the building the project they experienced lots of learning, lots of abandoned designs, and lots of life intervention (including Mark having a baby!), but in the end they created something they're very proud of, and are now focused on turning it into a sustainable business model.

Contact Links:

• Stand Up! Website
• Jim Biancolo on Twitter
• Mark Wright on Twitter
• Vic on Twitter
• App Story on Twitter

Support Jim, Mark, & the show by using this link to get the Stand Up! on the App Store:

• Stand Up! The Work Break Timer on the App Store

Additional links:

• Raised Square
• The Guru's Guide to Transact-SQL - Jim's recommended relational Database book

If you're an indie developer and you'd like to tell your app's story on the show, click here.

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Thanks so much for your support!