As a previous winner of Startup Weekend Tulsa, Matt Galloway left Startup Weekend feeling confident and ready to create something of his own.
Before Matt could decide his next step, the universe decided for him.
The Monday after Startup Weekend, he found out he was getting laid off in February.
Matt spent the next few weeks deciding what his game plan was. A month after his layoff, Matt cofounded Architactile, a company that makes Apple iPad applications for architects.
Matt attributes the confidence he felt to start Architactile to Startup Weekend.
“That weekend helped me realize that I want to work in a startup environment, not in a big corporate atmosphere,” he said. “Startup Weekend really motivated me to take the leap and try to get something going.”
The company’s first endeavor is tentatively called Inception.
The application helps architects speed up the planning process by putting everything on the screen of an iPad. Architects can quickly show clients the project’s scope and conceptual budget, thanks in part to the fact that the application does formulas for the architects.
Anyone can download the free version of the application, Inception Lite, on iTunes. Matt hopes to launch the paid version in December.
Inception Lite has been downloaded more than 2,000 times. Only 40 percent of the downloads have been in the U.S., something Matt didn’t anticipate.
He soon updated the application to include metric units and international currency symbols to make it more applicable for use outside the U.S.
“We’re very encouraged at this point,” he said. “We have no idea whether anybody will actually pay for it yet. We’ll find that out in December.”