Living the good life - Chocolate Lab Apps founder Elaine Heney with her horse Kola
Elaine Heney, the young founder of Tipperary-based Chocolate Lab Apps, has revealed that the app-creation company has enjoyed more than 40 No 1 iTunes rankings globally and more than 1.5m downloads in nine months.
The enterprising founder who has proven you don’t need to be a city slicker to create a world-standard software company, now has more than 80 apps published across the entertainment, photography, health, fitness, medical and finance categories.
The company was founded only a year ago and not only is Heney’s advice blog for mobile developers worldwide gaining traction, she has founded a new spin-off company called Chocolate Lab Games.
The spin-off has seven games for the iPhone and iPad in the App Store and all seven games have reached No 75 rankings or higher in the US app store this month, including two No 30 US ranks in music games and racing games this weekend.
“One of my main interests in app publishing is app store optimisation, app marketing and monetisation,” Heney explained.
“The market changes on an hourly basis and it’s fascinating to uncover what drives people to choose and download apps. Ideally, you want to be in a position where you know your app is going to be profitable before you start to develop it.”
Heney said Chocolate Lab Games is “happily bootstrapped” and is not looking for investment.
Describing her self as an “appreneur” Heney described her approach to founding companies as more “indie style: earn passive income and live your life as you want to.”
