After a long day of work, soccer practice and cooking dinner, most parents crash out as soon as the kids are tucked in bed. For Brice Milliorn, that’s just when his “second job” begins. A financial advisor with Edward Jones by day, Milliorn is a mobile application developer by night. “As they say, don’t quit your day job,” he notes, estimating he puts in 20 hours a week on his hobby-cum-business that has generated more than 900,000 downloads to date.
Milliorn graduated from Texas A&M University in 2002 with an Agribusiness degree but no computer background. When Apple started allowing outsiders to develop and submit apps, he originally considered it but then dropped the idea assuming it was beyond his capabilities. As he thought of more and more ideas for iPhone apps he personally wanted to see developed, he pushed himself to learn the coding from self-help books, tons of online resources and Apple’s development software.
Now deep in the app market, Milliorn says his friends laugh about the hundreds of apps he has downloaded on his iPhone and iPad. While some are downloaded for personal use, most are to scope out the competition and to get ideas. Just as with any other business, some of his best ideas come from noticing potential improvements in apps that already exist. The material for one of his bestselling apps, “Prank Me!” was created one night over beers and burgers with his buddies.
Milliorn works with a woman in Russia who creates his graphics because those sometimes take as long to generate as the coding process does to create. On average, he says, it takes about a month to create an app plus time to add features and updates as needed.
There wasn’t much competition when Milliorn started his venture; basically every application put on the market did decently well. But as more developers started dabbling in the industry, especially with some people becoming overnight millionaires, the market today is a much more competitive place. Developers have to promote their products to be successful. To date, several of Milliorn’s apps have achieved bestseller ranking and some have received national recognition including “Night Night,” a network activity monitoring tool that will put your Mac to sleep if you do a lot of late-night file downloading.
Some of Milliorn’s apps are less prosaic designed just for, well, fun. Like “Prank Me,” once ranked 94th on iTune's top downloads list. Among other character voices, “Prank Me” lets you send your frenemies a prank message from a debt collector or police dispatcher. “Some of the best-selling apps on iTunes are the most ridiculous. You never know what’s going to do well.”
More practical is Milliorn's iPhone application Geolerts, which allows users to program notifications to come up at various landmarks tracked by a GPS signal. The alert "buy milk" at a grocery store location was born out of Milliorn's frustration with similar but inferior apps … and the need to remember to get milk.
“If I need to pick up milk at the store or a prescription at the pharmacy, I’ll drive right by it every time,” says Milliorn. But based on the GPS location of you and your phone, his Geolerts app will conveniently alert and remind him to pick up the milk or … whatever.
Milliorn has faced down many challenges with the biggest one being the learning curve. “Obviously this isn’t my forte,” he says. “It takes me a while to learn updated code, but I’m always wanting to do another app.” He started learning the code in late 2008 and had his first app out by early 2009. “I got faster and faster, and now it’s like a second language.”
Milliorn has developed more than 200 applications for iTunes, Android and the Mac App Store among other companies. Their purposes range from convenience to special interests; many are sports related. The application he put the most work into was Prank Me, but his favorite is iZone, which visually shows all of the different time zones. Its function is to help travelers schedule conference calls or call home when family and coworkers are awake.
Milliorn also creates custom apps for other companies upon request. “I’ve helped people in Australia, London and all over the United States. That’s when the iZone app comes in.”
Milliorn’s apps were originally sold under his name, but as production continued to grow, he realized he needed to structure. In 2009, he established JBMJBM, LLC, and his goal is eventually to make the Aggie 100: recognition as one of the 100 fastest growing Aggie-owned or Aggie-led businesses in the world. Criteria for Aggie 100 recognition includes at least five years in operation so he has two more years until he can apply. By then he hopes the app business will be self-sustaining so he can simply create updates once or twice a year.
“I’m always wanting to do another app,” he notes. Although he is explicit that this is still only a hobby, he puts in many dedicated hours. “It’s hard to keep up with, but fun at the same time; it’s worth it.”
