GenXYZ: Rob Carpenter, 28

CEO and co-founder, AppIt Ventures

Nora Caley //October 18, 2013//

GenXYZ: Rob Carpenter, 28

CEO and co-founder, AppIt Ventures

Nora Caley //October 18, 2013//

Carpenter develops apps for small businesses with limited budgets.

Were you always interested in technology?

I wanted to build video games. I grew up in Dillingham, Alaska, which was very secluded. I went to Northern Michigan University because it had one of the top three video game graphics departments.

How’d you make your way to Colorado?

After college, I moved to Orlando, Fla., and I worked in commercial real estate, just as the market collapsed. I was good at sales, and I raised $100,000 from investors and I started doing property renovations. I got tired of flat swampy Florida, and I had a friend who lived in Colorado, so I moved here in 2010.

And how’d you make your way to making apps?

I worked as a consultant, helping people write business plans. I wanted to find an iPad app that would help write a business plan, and there weren’t any. So I wrote the content and a friend did the programming. That was in 2011.

Any pivotal moments along the way?

I was in a Starbucks with a friend, and we were talking about the app. An older gentleman approached us and said he worked for Apple and he had some ideas for apps, and asked if we could help him. I told him no, I didn’t really know much about apps. As soon as he walked away I knew it was a pivotal moment, and that I should think about creating apps for other people.