The team who dreamed up a mobile app for local visitors looking for the best places to eat, drink or shop didn’t quit working after winning Asheville Startup Weekend last fall.
“I came with an idea after talking with my friends around town. I wished there was something to give people an easy way to find local beer, or the best restaurants,” said Hartley Brown, an AmeriCorps volunteer who needed another line of work after her gig at Asheville High School was winding down. She pitched her idea among 24 business ideas that weekend.
She soon found a team willing to work on the idea, including marketing veteran Ted Pate and programmer Trevor Parker. They drew up a business plan and a functioning web page during the grueling 52-hour marathon.
By Saturday afternoon, Pate called his wife, Flori. A graphic designer, she also was friends with Brown, but she couldn’t attend the weekend event because someone had to stay home with the kids. “Ted was frantic,” Flori recalled.
“We have a chance of winning this thing,” he said. “But we need a logo, and we need it in the next three hours.”
