Yo – Or Arbel
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About the Episode
Coming up is a story of how a failed bar owner went on to build the wildly controversial app called Yo!. Also, listen to how he is able to overcome the negativity that the tech press has unleashed on him.
Or Arbel is the Co-Founder & CEO at Yo.
Show Notes
Building Yo!
Or had invested his time and money on his dream of owning a bar but was forced to close it and this venture became his first big failure. He was devastated but it became a milestone as it led him to study computer science which brought him to where he is now.
It all started when a friend asked him to come up with a simple push notification to get his personal assistant to show up when he needed her. Realizing that it is the same concept with the text message exchanges between him and his friends wherein they would send SMS with no content but still have meanings, he became excited and bought the domain immediately on his iPhone right then and there in his car in a red light.
They then rolled it out to friends and family and soon everyone was downloading and lovingYo! After that, they released it to the App Store and they started seeing blogs and Tweets about how they liked, or hated, the app. Some people found the app stupid but there were others who saw potential and due to that, they were able to raise money for the project and Or moved to San Francisco to work on Yo! full time. The time the news really exploded was when a reporter covered the app and it kept going and going from there.
Overcoming Negativity
From Day 1, they have been getting negative opinions about their app but they understand that these folks do not understand what the ultimate, long-term plan was. As an entrepreneur, he believes that if you know that an idea works, you should not listen to naysayers and for him, it just fueled him to show them that it would be a success.
What advice would you give to anyone looking to build a mobile app?
Learn programming just enough to make it and get it done.
Show Mentions
– Fav app: Twitter: (iTunes | Google Play)
