SYRACUSE — Bojaga Studios, a startup company that is a virtual tenant at the Syracuse Technology Garden, has a mobile-phone application (app) that will soon be available for iPhones. The app, called Farmstand Finder, is already available for Android devices, says Alexander (Alex) Jones, the fledgling firm’s chief information officer. It’ll be available for the […]
SYRACUSE — Bojaga Studios, a startup company that is a virtual tenant at the Syracuse Technology Garden, has a mobile-phone application (app) that will soon be available for iPhones.
The app, called Farmstand Finder, is already available for Android devices, says Alexander (Alex) Jones, the fledgling firm’s chief information officer.
It’ll be available for the iPhone “within a month,” says Andrew Hockenbery, the company’s CFO, who focuses on administration and consulting.
Both Jones and Hockenbery spoke to CNYBJ on Aug. 8.
“We are trying to reach out to people who run events for farmers, for farm- stands,” Hockenbery says in explaining the firm’s target markets. “We’re really not focused on farmers’ markets because they’re already a niche with websites and some apps for farmers’ markets. We’re really trying to [focus on] the roadside stands, the farmers who sell out of their barn.”
Besides Alex Jones and Andrew Hockenbery, Bojaga Studios includes Justin Jones, who serves as co-CEO and lead programmer; Geoffrey Jones, chief technology officer for design and programming; and Adam Hockenbery, co-CEO working on concept design and business analysis.
All five men have equal ownership in the company, says Alex Jones.
Besides their work on Bojaga Studios, each owner also works a separate full-time job, says Jones.
“I definitely do this on the side,” he adds.
Idea for app
Jones got the idea for the app while driving to a sales appointment in Norwich for his regular full-time job and noticed several farmstands along the side of the road.
“I’m thinking to myself … how is anyone going to know about this [farm stand],” says Jones.
He discussed his idea for an app with his Bojaga colleagues and pursued input from Cornell University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“They gave me their feedback as far as what an app should do for farmers,” says Alex Jones.
When a customer visits and likes a farm stand, the person can upload the information to the app, so other customers can find it.
The app currently includes information on 2,000 farms nationwide, including “hundreds” of Central New York farms, says Jones. The USDA provided Bojaga its full farm-network information for the app, he added.
Bojaga has published the Farmstand Finder app for Android phones, while the app for the iPhone is coming out “very soon.”
The firm has two other apps it is working on for clients, but couldn’t discuss details, citing “confidentiality,” says Hockenbery.
The company is also working on its own app. “It would be a game that we would develop,” he says.
The firm has about a half dozen apps that it is working on, says Jones.
At the same time, Bojaga Studios is also working to raise capital, as it would like to hire another full-time programmer. A programmer makes between $100 and $250 per hour, according to Hockenbery.
The company principals are working with the Tech Garden to make sure they’re prepared if they ever make a pitch to a venture capitalist or a lending institution, says Jones.
Jones figures the process will take about “a month-and-a-half to two months” before the firm’s ready to seek that funding.
Bojaga has been a virtual tenant with the Tech Garden since May.
About Bojaga Studios
Alex Jones started the company as Syracuse Unlimited Resources, LLC in April 2011. He wanted to create an e-commerce or online store, using items purchased through Wynit, a local distributor.
He eventually realized that competing against larger companies, such as Amazon, would be a challenge, considering the amount of money it would take to market the website.
“So we … put the company on hold,” says Jones.
The group decided to begin developing apps because Justin Jones, Alex’s brother, is a programmer.
“He would go home at night and start programming apps,” says Alex Jones.
Justin Jones, Geoffrey Jones, and Adam Hockenbery also started writing apps for games on their own time. Andrew Hockenbery, Adam’s brother, also had ideas for apps and became involved.
Earlier this year, Alex Jones decided to have the group join the ownership of Syracuse Unlimited Resources, LLC and conduct business as Bojaga Studios.
The word “Bojaga” is made up of the first letters in “buyers oasis,” and the first letters of the principals involved.
The company thought about using “buyers oasis” as the d/b/a name for the startup, but decided against it, says Alex Jones.
The firm’s website lists an address of 5701 E. Circle Drive in Cicero, which is a mailbox address, according to Alex Jones and Andrew Hockenbery.
The company’s office is “virtual,” says Jones.
If the principals need to meet with each other or a potential client, they’ll either meet at one of the owners’ homes or at the Tech Garden, says Hockenbery.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com