Building an App & being featured in The Next Web - We interview new startup The Super Times

by Startacus Admin

Building an App and being featured in The Next Web - We interview new startup The Super Times

"One of the best news, media and movie apps of 2012" said The Next Web - with that statement alone, the Super Times had got Startacus’ attention. After all, getting featured in The Next Web is a pretty big deal for virtually all technology based startups!

The Super Times App delivers a fresh playlist of the best ‘listening’ available straight to your iPhone so that you can listen anywhere. So rather than hoping that you manage to catch the best of the week’s available audio podcasts, The Super Times does it for you and saves you the trouble of downloading them in the first place too.*

*A bit like going to a nice restaurant really - all the nice foods you really like appearing on one plate at the same time...Well, a little like that! :)

With that weak analogy out of the way, we chatted with Aisha Yusaf one of the Founders of The Super Times to find out more...

Publicity is really important to the majority of startups. You got some great coverage in The Next Web a few months back. Talk us through how you managed to get featured in The Next Web?

We were approached by The Next Web when we were working on our first startup Said.fm and we received a great feature on us by them. Following this we maintained contact with them and when we launched The Super Times we got in touch with them about it. We have also chipped in with views or opinions from our perspectives, as entrepreneurs, for articles they've written and forging these types of relationships is really important for startups. Journalists want something interesting to write about and startups want coverage, as long as you are honest and straightforward the two can really help each other.

How have things gone in terms of users signing up to the premium subscription?
Approximately 20% of people who download The Super Times convert to paying listeners. We're very encouraged by this number and our next step is to let more people know that our app is out there.

What's next for the App and for the business?
Our emphasis is currently on getting more people to try the app. We've ironed out some minor bugs and worked on improving the download speeds of the podcasts to give listeners a better experience and are not planning on adding any features to the app at this stage. If enough people download and subscribe to The Super Times then we'll be looking to add some nice little extras in the future.
In terms of our business, we've been on quite a learning curve; it's only our second startup, it's the first iOS app we've ever built and marketed and we've come out the other end in one piece! Although we're still learning a lot, we have gone through the mobile app making process and we're now excited about building more apps. We've got a few ideas up our sleeves that we'll be experimenting with this coming year.

Who within the Startup scene has helped you the most, or do you see as your biggest influence?
So many people have given us tips, introductions and feedback - it's amazing how generous people are when you start on your own business adventure. We're consistently taken aback by our customers too, we get emails with useful feedback from them and they also get in touch to say how much they like what we're doing. It's important to hear both the criticism, to improve what your building, and the praise, to keep you going.

I've already mentioned them but The Next Web team has been great and we feel really fortunate to have crossed paths with them.

In terms of influences, I'm personally a fan of startups like Etsy, Vimeo, Mubi, Dropbox, Air BnB and recently Buffer; these are all services I use regularly and my life is richer for it. I follow entrepreneurs like Catarina Fake and Neil Patel on twitter as well as read blogs by venture capitalist Fred Wilson and business founder Joel Gascoigne - they all have relevant and interesting things to say for me to expand my thinking.

...And with that Startacus went on its merry way and we wish The Super Times all the best with their App and their business going forward...

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Published on: 29th January 2013