Tonic purchases U-M student-designed app DoGood

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

The DoGood iPhone application is doing more than a little bit of good for the University of Michigan students who designed it last year.

The catchy app has been acquired by Silicon Valley-based Tonic, creating a profitable exit for the handful of studentpreneurs that created it at the university's new Web App Class last summer. Those students created the app under the Mobil33t start-up banner last year, but have since move onto new projects since then.

"DoGood got really, really popular," says Jason Bornhorst, one of the co-founders of Mobil33t who is now a part-owner with Ann Arbor-based start-up Mobiata. "It became a full-time job for us over the last summer."

About 70,000 people use DoGood today to get their daily dose of virtuous deed suggestions. The free app's suggestions include things like don't criticize today or give someone a second chance today. They are formulated by a community of university students who call their group Do Random Acts of Kindness.

Tonic plans to keep the same group to provide the suggestions. The student creators are also working with Tonic on the future development of the app, expanding into other smartphone platforms and perhaps even growing into its own website. The students also have their own entrepreneurial ventures cooking they expect to put forward later this year.

"Stay tuned," Bornhorst says. "We have some really interesting stuff in the pipeline. I can't talk about it right now."

Source: Jason Bornhorst, co-founder of Mobil33t and co-creator of DoGood
Writer: Jon Zemke