Interview: John Casasanta and Austin Sarner of MyDreamApp

A couple of weeks ago, I was lucky enough to interview two of the developers from the excellent MyDreamApp site. The MDA site has been very quiet for a long while, but it turns out that a lot has been going on behind the scenes. Read on below for the exclusive interview with two of the founders of MyDreamApp - John Casasanta and Austin Sarner!

So, what exactly is My Dream App and what inspired you to start it?

John: My Dream App is a concept where we’ve attempted to solicit great app ideas from people who don’t have software development skills and then have them developed by professional, experienced development teams. The ideas were weeded out by the dev teams then were voted on by the public with the help of “celebrity” judges.

The initial inspiration for My Dream App came to creator Phill Ryu during one of his “creative moments” where he felt that combining Mac software with something American Idol-esque could be an interesting idea. After he assembled the team into place, we all helped build it up with him into what is it today.

Who works at MDA and what do they do?

Austin: MDA is headed by Phillip Ryu. John Casasanta handles development and management, and myself, Martin Ott, and Jason Harris are the developers. Scott Meinzer handled creating the web site and offering moral support.

One of the winners of the contest was Cookbook - can you explain more about what the application will actually do?

Austin: Cookbook is designed to be the ultimate recipe manager for your Mac. In addition to allowing you to browse your recipe collection, we’ve built in features for creating shopping lists and viewing your recipes full screen while you cook.

Do you think it will be successful?

Austin: Based on the momentum My DreamApp and other related projects have going for them, we have some pretty high hopes.

Can you tell me how the development of Cookbook is coming along?

Austin: Cookbook development is progressing at a steady pace. We are currently still in the design phase for many parts of the app, working with Wolfgang Bartelme. Some of the core interface and management portions have been implemented, however.

What were the other two apps that won?

John: The other two winners were Portal and Atmosphere. Portal, in development by Martin, is an app that will handle file synchronization across multiple computers with a streamlined and Mac-like interface. Atmosphere, which is being worked on by Jason, puts the weather on your desktop.

Out of the three, which is your overall favorite?

John: I’d have to say that Cookbook is since I do almost all the cooking in my household (my girlfriend pretty much just makes scrambled eggs and salads) so it’s the one I’d most likely use myself.

Has MDA turned out how you wanted it to?

John: It definitely turned out better than we were hoping for for the contest stage. I’m really enjoying the development stage that we’re in now and can hardly wait for when we ramp up the marketing stage and actually have apps ready to be released into the wild.

And finally, can you give some details of what My DreamApp 2 will be about? What are your plans for it?

John: Since My DreamApp 1 was so incredibly successful so far, I think we’d be crazy to change much. The one thing that we’re planning, though, is having a developer competition before the actual app competition happens next time. I’m sure it’ll be fun and interesting…