Philippines startup PageSnapp lets you convert Facebook pages into apps in an instant

By now we all know that entrepreneurs solve problems that they have encountered either in person, or by someone close to them. Rolly Rulete turned entrepreneur, to help his father forecast the storms and bad weather that a sailor faces when he goes to sea. His first creation was an Android app: PH Weather - which is today ranked among one of the top natural disaster apps in Asia. Before turning entrepreneur two months back, Rolly has been working as a web and mobile developer for the last 8 years. A Computer Science graduate from University of Southeastern Philippines (USeP), he led the team that won Startup Weekend Davao last year with their idea, Testcovery.

What his current venture PageSnapp helps do is, be a service that enables business owners to instantly create their own mobile commerce apps by utilizing their Facebook page. It's an app generator that aims to help local businesses improve their reach to a wider audience. It provides them a dedicated app that can allow customers to shop conveniently through their smartphones.

Genesis of the idea

The idea started came up when Marvin Consuegra (CEO), encountered difficulties in viewing latest updates of his favorite Facebook pages on his Android phone. He asked Rolly, if there was a dedicated app for a Facebook page and found out there’s still none. The two then agreed to code a dedicated Android app for a Facebook page. Around the same time, they heard of AngelHack Manila and saw that was the opportunity to convert their idea into reality. They approached friends Raymund Delfin (Lead Web Developer) and Mio Miguel Galang (Chief Data Architect) to join them in the hackathon and Jay Albano (Business Development Head and Front-end Web Developer) to join with them during the event day. The PageSnapp prototype app was done during the 24 hours hackathon and won the grand prize. The team is now all set to go to Silicon Valley to represent Philippines in the AngelHack Global Demo Day and Techcrunch Disrupt events.

Traction and revenue model

Currently 10 businesses are using the PageSnapp app, who will be charged a monthly or yearly subscription fee. Currently the startup is supported by IdeaSpace. The initial challenge was how to make business out of the idea. “All of us in the team are technically very sound, but not very savvy on the business end. We have limited background or experience in doing business. But we have now overcome it and are still learning by regular training provided by IdeaSpace Foundation Inc, says Rolly talking about the support from IdeaSpace

Talking about the opportunity, Rolly says there are 50 million Facebook Pages of which 16 million are Business Pages. 751 million out of 1.11 billion Facebook users are active monthly on mobile. And that they believe is the opportunity that PageSnapp is looking to tap into. The plan is to start here in Philippines, then Southeast Asia, and then spread out worldwide. They also have plans to target US from the very beginning and will be going there next month for participating in the AngelHack Global Demo Day and Techcrunch Disrupt.

The PageSnapp team currently operates from IdeaSpace’s office and among the many startups from Philippines, Rolly says he likes ‘Date Cola Primera’ the best. “We like drinking their cola and we usually eat date-enriched foods they make. Incidentally, the people behind DateCola are also from Davao City,” says Rolly.

Sign up to check out PageSnapp here http://www.pagesnapp.com/