BizSpark Startup of the Day - mtiks

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The BizSpark startup of the day is mtiks, based in the US. Below you will find an interview with Muthu Arumugam, Founder & CEO of mtiks. All the best to them and congratulations for being the startup of the day!

Website: www.mtiks.com

Tell us who you are and your role in the company:

I am the founder & CEO of mtiks. I am involved in operations, management, mtiks design & development.

What did you do before creating your company?

I was also the co-founder & CEO of Abhav LLC. Abhav is a mobile app development firm focusing on Apple iPhone/iPad, Windows Mobile, Blackberry and J2ME apps.

How do you feel being the most promising ‘Startup of the Day’ per Microsoft BizSpark?

We are very excited to be nominated/selected as “Startup of the day” for BizSpark. Our entire business started with BizSpark – a startup friendly eco-system for us.

What is your company’s mission?

To create a platform and services for the growing app market to enable developers reach out to the unpaid or pirated app user community. We consider these users as untapped potential and we would like to enable the communication with mtiks.

In 140 characters or less, tell us what your company does:

mtiks is the first and only anti-piracy solution for iOS apps and FREE analytics solution for Windows Phone 7 & Android apps.

How did you get the idea for your company?

The founders of mtiks came from Abhav LLC which was an app development firm in Cambridge. When our own iPhone apps are pirated, we happened to hit the wall with no solution to protect our apps and experienced a loss in revenue. We did develop the initial solution for ourselves and implemented the same for our app development clients. We later realized that it’s really needed for the market and created this product as a solution for the public and released on Sep 1, 2010.

Tell us about your funding history. Are you currently looking for funding? If so, how much?

We are self-funded so far. We are not actively seeking for funding.

How many employees do you have? How many developers?

Myself & my co-founder are the direct employees. Apart from that, we had contractors for iPhone app development, graphics design and other activities.

Are you hiring?If yes, what are you hiring for and where?

We are not hiring.

Which platform are you building on?Why?

As of now, we are developing for iOS, WP7 and Android.

Where do you see opportunities today in the Software/Internet area?

The current trend is moving very fast towards mobile (hardware/software), Advertisement, Location based or aware apps, and new innovation with Social networking.

What do you think about the BizSpark Program?

It’s the only available head start for any entrepreneur to establish his ideas into a real business without doing much effort.

Do you have any advice for young Software entrepreneurs?

Persistence & learn to Pivot.

What’s the ONE THING you would like readers to take away from this interview?

Think different. Don’t worry about taking risk. Talk about your idea with enough people without worrying about NDA. Pivot and build a business not an idea.