Randy Tovar and his business partner Jimmy Felix came up with their App “Spots” in October of last year, during their first semester of college at SF State. And the 19 year olds have just recently gotten the legal rights for their idea.
“It was a Friday night and everyone said, ‘What’s goin’ on tonight Randy,’ no one had any idea of a party or event,” Tovar said. “Me and Jimmy were hanging out in our dorm room thinking of ways to get rich…and I had a moment where I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have an app that could tell you where the parties are at, with photo sharing, video sharing, guest list and all that.’”
A week later, he asked Felix to go to the library and actually think about what the App would be called and it’s functionality. Another week came and went, and the pair started doing more work on the App. Things got serious fast.
Tovar reached out to his uncle, Bill Elder, CEO for Genius manufacturing company, to find out what the next steps were to come.
He woke up at 6:30 a.m. over winter break in January to meet his Uncle Bill at Panera. They both ordered a cup of coffee and discussed the idea.
“He said the first thing I need to do is protect my idea,” Tovar said. “I always remember he told me ‘Your idea will become more valuable the more you protect it and the more original it is.’”
And so he told his partner Felix about the idea of getting a patent. He was on board right away. Winter break came to an end and the patent was submitted to protect their idea.
“So far we have tried to find programmers. We are trying to learn how to code and we created a trailer…that’s how it has come to life and that’s where we are now.”
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Eloquent beyond his years, the young entrepreneur started an internship with NameCoach this month, and he has learned one important thing: The problem with Apps is they don’t focus on their core. They aren’t focused on connecting with people.
“I didn’t want to make a Foursquare, a Facebook, I didn’t want to make a Twitter,” he said. “Even if the App doesn’t turn out to be big, I wanted to focus on people going from point A to point B to make it safer.”
And he thinks this information is essential in a place like San Francisco.
“It is essential to know who’s going, if a friend is there, maybe if a girl or guy you like is going to be there. It is cool to share photos from all perspectives,” he said. “There’s nothing I’ve seen really like that and we wanted to make it a little more private…to have fun and show off to your friends where you were this weekend.
