Chicago Booth MBA students tap the knowledge of the crowd for their “Midterm Experience” in Building Internet Startups class taught by Groupon co-founders

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chicago, Illinois, United States of America (Free-Press-Release.com) February 7, 2011 -- CHICAGO, February 7th, 2011 – Chicago Booth MBA candidates, Jennifer Kim and Jeb Ory, are responding to the challenge issued by Groupon co-founders, serial entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists Brad Keywell and Eric Lefkofsky. The professors, who are also the founders of Innerworkings, Echo Global, and MediaBank, repeatedly find success in disrupting traditional business practices through technology. The professors challenged the students to create value out of a toy. Whoever creates the most value in a two-week period “wins.”

While the winning team will have the opportunity to receive a “big introduction” facilitated by Keywell and Lefkofsky, Ory and Kim are excited about the opportunity to engage the public at large to help solve a problem that Ory’s mobile applications development and publishing business, The App House, faces.

The App House developed and published the fan-favorite puzzle adventure game Simon Graham and the Extraordinary Timepiece, available for iPhone and iPad, which has received critical acclaim as having kick-started the puzzle-adventure genre on the iPhone. Now it is in the final stages of development for a fun, educational mobile application called “Earn Your Allowance (EYA).” The game, however, is still incomplete. The App House needs help to find the right “avatar,” or main character, to tie the game together.

In this exciting, new, nothing-else-like-it game, children are incentivized to answer grade appropriate math questions (K thru 4th grade) that are posed in a fun manner. Once they have answered enough questions correctly, they can redeem their allowance by passing the device to their parent, who then reviews the progress and approves the allowance.

“Earn Your Allowance is a fabulous concept; and we are huge believers in the power of mobile technology to make educational games really come to life. We felt this challenge from Brad and Eric was the perfect opportunity to open up our game development to our fans across the world,” Ory said. “We need to identify a main character for the EYA franchise that will be as iconic as Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog is. We’ve seen some great concepts already but we think the best idea could still be out there.”

Kim appreciates how the use of crowdsourcing disrupts traditional product development processes.

“We believe this to be a win-win situation. It’s a great creative outlet for various communities be it appreneurs, designers, or aspiring artists to have an opportunity to display their work. Crowdsourcing helps generate a diverse array of ideas we may have overlooked had we taken the traditional product development route.”

The App House will be accepting submissions for unique, royalty free artwork and will be facilitating polling on their Facebook Fan Page, www.facebook.com/theapphouse. Submissions and polling will close at 9am on Friday, February 11th, and the winner will be announced by Friday. February 18th. The winner will see their artwork memorialized in the app, receive a listing in the credits page, and have Kim and Ory’s unending gratitude. More details are available on their fanpage. For more information, please contact Jeb Ory, whose contact information is listed below.

About The App House: The App House is a Chicago, IL based mobile software applications development and publishing business dedicated to making apps happen. The App House helps appreneurs to conceptualize, develop, and launch mobile software applications. Visit www.theapphouse.com to learn how you can partner with The App House.

Jeb Ory
(414) 870 0015
jeb@theapphouse.com

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