It’s almost an apostrophe after 6 years of perseverance, but today I am operating a “Startup” and I’m having a great time.

I don’t, however, meet any of the criteria present in the media today that define what a Startup is. I didn’t major in Computer Science, but I took a few courses last century. I’m not in my twenties, far from it. I cannot leave my job for 3 months and move to Silicon Valley or anywhere else to attend a Startup Accelerator program, although if I could I would, provided I could get in. I’m not based in the Valley, or even the US. In fact, I live in a Canadian geographic outpost with San Francisco being the closest true city at 1,279km from here.

When I think about how I got here, and how the App ecosystem has evolved in the past 6 years, I am not surprised to finally have a Startup. In 2008 I could never have afforded to build One Degree without outside investment. So I was working very hard trying to secure a Seed or Angel investment from numerous individuals and organizations when in 2010 some other guys in California launched Gigwalk and I thought I was done for.

But I wasn’t. Gigwalk and the several similar Apps that launched in its wake were not doing exactly what I had envisioned for One Degree, so I just kept going. I followed the industry, mainly on HN and TchCrnch.

Then one day in October 2013 an opportunity presented itself. One of the interesting thing about Apps is that since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, many men and women from all over the world have been learning to build iOS and later, Android applications. For a non-technical, or in my case, dead-technical entrepreneur, this has driven down the cost of entry significantly — even without having the development done in the third world.

So it was no surprise to find this one day: “Offer HN: Let me build your iOS app for $200.” The OP was in his last semester of a Master’s Degree in Computer Science in England and was self-taught in iOS development and wanted to build some more projects for his portfolio. He liked the One Degree concept and agreed to build the app. In a few months we had a working prototype and after a few months and a few hundred dollars more it was ready for the iTunes Store.

It launched May 1st, 2014.

I couldn’t stop smiling for a week. My very first App was available on the iTunes Store. How cool is that?

Oh, there was a challenge that became apparent quite quickly. The app was crashing on the iPhone 4/S. My Developer was writing final exams and was unavailable, but I made the decision to wait for him to be free instead of finding someone else. That turned out to be wrong decision. Near the end of his exams he was offered a job with a Techstars funded company for the duration of the summer, after which he would be building his own startup in a London based accelerator.

So I had to find another Developer. Ack.

But my Dev mentioned that it was the beginning of the month and that Freelancer / Seeking Freelancer for June was just posted on HN so there I went to find my next Developer. I posted my requirements. I received several replies from Devs with varying degrees of experience and a wide range of hourly rates and from locations all over the world. So how was I to choose?

Easy. I used the Scientific Method.

I chose the person that was from my hometown. ☺

He was expensive, but with the price came expertise and with expertise — speed. He quickly solved the crashing issues (he found more than one!) and wrapped the App in my Terms of Service. So by June 10th the App was finally stable and I could concentrate on building a business around it.

Which is where I am today. Bootstrapped. Gaining users. Planning for future features on iOS and looking for an Android developer to make it available to users on that platform.

I’m having more fun doing this than I’ve ever had in my life — and isn’t that what it is all about?

We hope that you will join us!