Midwestern app maker Bluebridge lands $1 million to expand apps-as-subscription model

Indianapolis-based Bluebridge has just scored $1 million to expand its subscription model for making and managing mobile apps.

Started in 2011 and bootstrapped until now, the 26-person company charges a subscription fee to client companies, with a focus on churches, universities, and convention/visitor bureaus.

It takes “12 weeks or less from [client agreement] to the App Store,” 24-year-old CEO and founder Santiago Jaramillo told VentureBeat. “We’ve done it as quickly as 13 days.”

For that fee, ranging from $4,200 to $20,000 annually, the client organization gets the ability to choose app functions from a menu of options, a downloadable and branded app that is handled through review and placement in the Apple or Google stores, a do-it-yourself mobile management service with updating content, unlimited push notifications and analytics, unlimited support, and strategic advice.

Oh, yes, and there’s also one possible app iteration per quarter, a version for iPad and Android tablets, and what Jaramillo describes as “proactive optimization” by Bluebridge.

The new seed funding was led by Aprimo founder Bill Godfrey and Tim Kopp, former CMO of ExactTarget, with the participation of other individual investors. The money will be “invested into our product and client experience team,” Jaramillo told us, as his company simultaneously tries to shrink the sign-on-to-App-Store timeline even further while expanding its scope to include iPhone 6 and and perhaps such other app platforms as smart cars. Bluebridge has been reporting a 100 percent year-over-year growth every year so far.

Initially, Bluebridge did custom mobile app development. But Jaramillio noted, “Custom app development isn’t a sustainable model unless you’re willing to spend [continually] to maintain” each app.

Instead, Bluebridge has created a roster of functions that clients can largely mix and match, with colors and logo added for branding.

There are three different versions, for instance, of an event calendar app. Other ready-to-integrate functions include social features, turn-by-turn directions, and integration of various kinds of media assets.

“It’s like a Lego kit,” Jaramillio said.

Competitors, he said, include Como or AppPress, but “they are more on the DIY [do-it-yourself] side,” where the client company uses tools to build their own app. Jaramillio said that might work for smaller organizations, but mid-markets don’t want to hassle with the tools, the store reviews, and setting up the management.

“I think we’re different,” he said. “We’re solving the app pain holistically.”