Five years ago this month the first app built on App Press was released to the public. In 2010, when the original iPad was launched, App Press founders Grant and Kevin were working in the publishing industry. Fascinated with the new up and coming tablet technology Grant was on a mission to build an iPad app. Two problems prevented Grant from building the app:
- He didn’t know how to code
- He didn’t have an idea for an app
It was at this time that Grant sought the assistance from his co-worker Kevin. Kevin, an experienced engineer could write code and already created several iPhone apps. Problem one, solved.
Now to the difficult part - finding an app idea.
After racking his mind for an idea for the next big app, Grant’s wife, Gina came up with a simple yet perfect thought - why not build an app featuring their beloved family recipes? Now these recipes aren’t your average recipes. These recipes were collected over the last eighty years by Gina's Italian grandparents. Grant and Gina worked together to type out the recipes, photograph the dishes, and create the artwork for the app.
In the process of sending Kevin material to code, a number of issues arose. Grant wanted to tweak written content and change artwork but the frequency of changes started to become overwhelming. As the deadline was pushed back, Kevin had an idea. Instead of Grant sending Kevin the material that needed to be coded, what if Grant could design and build the app himself without the use of code? One month later, App Press was born. In six days, Grant was able to build the Italian Cookbook without any knowledge of coding. When the app launched, it made it to the home page of the App Store right next to Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. One week later, the Italian Cookbook had tens of thousands of downloads.
App Press has gone through a number of changes since the original release of the Italian Cookbook . We’ve changed the user interface, added new features and integrations, grown our team, become the highest up-voted app creation tool of all time on Product Hunt, and most importantly we’ve helped to change the way that people build apps. Every day we work to make the product and the experience of our customers the best that it can be. And we’re just getting started.
To honor the 5th anniversary of App Press, we have redesigned the app that started it all. The Italian Family Cookbook is currently available for download on the App Store. We hope that you enjoy the recipes and can make them part of your family traditions.
