Company TextUs.Biz.

• Author: Peterson, Eric
• Position: TECH STARTUP

INITIAL LIGHT BULB Before starting TextUs.Biz, Ted Guggenheim, Andrew Kimmell and Mike Hickman worked together at Rage Digital, the Boulder app-maker best known for its virtual cowbell used during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The trio witnessed the mobile app market becoming increasingly saturated and realized that text messaging had not been leveraged to its full potential by the business community.

"The whole premise behind TextUs.Biz is we build text-powered apps for business," explains Guggenheim. "The most ubiquitous form of communication is now text; there are more texts sent than emails."

Apps require some legwork on the part of users, he adds, but not texts. "Everybody text-messages," says Guggenheim. "We wanted to give businesses a way to open up a personal conversation with their customers."

The four-employee company has released two products, and a third is in development.

IN A NUTSHELL TextUs.Biz's debut app, Text Messaging for Business, enables 10-digit landlines for texting.

"There's this whole layer of functionality that's been overlooked," says Guggenheim. "Phones bottleneck, but not texts."

The company's second product, iPad Receptionist, came out in June, stemming from a request from Foundry Group. The Boulder-based venture capital firm was looking for an app that would essentially replace a receptionist for greeting visitors.

"More and more offices don't have a receptionist or a front desk," says Guggenheim. Now when visitors arrive, they announce their arrival via iPad and it texts and/or emails their contact at the company. It can also require a signature or take a picture.

Nearly 90 companies have signed up for a...