What is your business model? How does your Startup, Mobile App or Service MAKE MONEY ?

So during my interview series of appbackr,  I didn’t let Jagat go without asking him the same question.

Jagat presenting appbackr at the SFAppPitch at pariSoma

What is AppBackr’s business model? How does appbackr make money?

Jagat: We make money — currently it’s a transaction model. First of all, we take a cut from the buyer’s side when they are purchasing the bulk amount. Let’s assume a 99 cent application. What the developer is getting is 25 cents of that. We take initially 10 cents out of every cent. When the actual application sells on the iTunes market, the buyer gets 53 cents back, we give the developer an additional 11 cents – that’s 39 cents out of the 69 cents or so that he will receive after Apple takes it away. We take — depending on conceptual or finished app, we take 2 to 5 cents.

Then of course, the one thing I did want to add — because we have a criteria to actually put the application on the marketplace — we want to make sure it’s a serious, serious application. We actually do charge a parking fee for that application on the platform. The first month is free, but if you want to keep it on there additionally, right now it’s $25 a month. We’re working with partners — we’re willing to work with developers to figure out how better that money can be spent if they want to actually work with us.

Curious to put the question to bed, I finally got Jagat into a corner at a recent SFAppPitch event at pariSoma. Jagat told me that he was the Directory of Developer Marketing for a Company called appbackr. appbackr is taking a new unique approach to solving the problem that most mobile app developers face these days, which is

How do you fund your app development without being forced to give up a share of your App to potential Investors?

"It's all fun. That's why I am here!" - Jagat @ appbackr

The interview with Jagat covered a lot of areas and answered a lot of questions that I thought app developers and potential buyers would have, so I have broken it up into different parts. In this 1st part, Jagat talks about the people that create appbackr and then explains his unique role in the company.

Tell me about appbackr – the company and the founders.

Jagat: The company, well at this point, there’s been development on the company for about six or seven months. We did a private launch on June 8th, 2010. The founders – and this is something that really helps us – we have four original founders. Three of the four are entrepreneurs that have taken small companies and sold them to larger corporations!

The original founder – the CEO – is Trevor Cornwell. He sold a company called Skyjet to Bombardier seven or eight years ago.

Sam Zappas, he was a senior executive at ArtistDirect. I believe they took somewhere in the range of $97 million in strategic investment before they took it public.

Craig Hall is one of our lead investors. He sold a company called Skywire to Oracle for $250 million.

Our final guy, his name is Robert Clegg. Robert Clegg is a phenomenal product guy. He’s the mad scientist!

What’s your role in the company?

Jagat: I am what we’re calling a Director of Developer Marketing. As I mentioned in the beginning, it’s an interesting marketing kind of strategy here. For me, what we’ve set up is that first, we’ve got to get the applications in the marketplace, then we’ve got to drive the buyer.

It’s really a simultaneous thing, but I’m concentrating on the developer side. We do have someone in the company that is concentrating is on the buyer side, but it’s all one fluid strategy.

You also sound a little bit like a developer evangelist. Are you doing that unofficially?

Jagat: My background for the last two years — I was at Sun Microsystems and they had a program that catered to startup companies. I’m not a developer myself, but I’ve been in the developer world for some time now. I used to lead the business development for the US portion of that program.

I’ve been dealing with startups for some time. I’ve been dealing with developers for some time. I understand the pain and the dynamics that are associated with a startup. It’s all fun. That’s why I’m here.

The 1st SF AppPitch will be held on June 10th, 2010, in the same week that 1000s of developers, apple fan boys and all others will descend onto San Francisco for Apple’s WWDC.

pariSoma promises “thousands of dollars in prizes for the top apps”, as named by the judges, and some great schwag to give out to attendees. Prizes include mobile ad network credit, targeted survey taking, and more.

If you are an App developer interested in showing off your App and possibly winning some prize money that you can use to fund your development, then do fill out the form here to be considered.

If you are a VC or a developer or someone interested in attending this event, get tickets here.

Current list of Apps include the following.