On his second startup out of shared office space Founders Den, serial entrepreneur Jason Johnson is launching the first app out of his new utility app startup BlueSprig. An app for app lovers — and those suffering from app fatigue — AirCover is a security service for both iOS and Android that basically aims to replace another eight apps on your phone.
Johnson and Founders Den co-founders Zack Bogue, Michael Levit and Jonathan Abrams have a rule that once a Den team gets larger than six it has to leave, so the majority of Johnson’s BlueSprig team is run out of Chengdu China by Johnson’s partner Hugo Dong. And because of the China connection, Accel-IDG China has put in $10 million into the startup, because it “leverages the best resources of China and Silicon Valley.”
(Picture of the Chinese team hard at work, below.)
Available in the Android market today, BlueSprig’s AirCover covers a variety of mobile optimizing functionalities provided by standalone apps like ‘Find My Friends,’ ‘Lookout’ and ‘Find my iPhone.’ The ‘Mobile Security’ function protects your phone from malware and spyware. ‘Family Safety,’ like ‘Find My Friends,’ allows you to track family members when you enter in a pin. Like Apple’s iCloud, ‘Cloud Backup’ lets you backup contacts and photos.
AirCover’s ‘Device Found’ feature, functions similarly to Find My Phone and allows you to track your phone if lost or stolen. ‘System Tuneup ‘allows you to shut off and wipe apps all at once for better battery performance and on that note ‘Battery Performance’ gives you granular stats on battery life (phone nerds rejoice!) — like how much battery you have left if you want to talk your phone on 3G versus use the Internet on 3G.
“I wanted to create a mobile utility app that every device should have,” Johnson tells me, touting BlueSprig’s first venture, “If there’s one app you should have on your phone it’s ours.”
In addition to AirCover’s launch, BlueSprig is also releasing PC utility tools JetBoost and JetClean. When asked about future product plans, Johnson said, “I don’t want to overpromise and under deliver. I’d rather just deliver.”
AirCover is available for free with a 2GB storage limit, and Johnson plans on monetizng the app by offering a freemium version with more storage among other things. An iOS app (with a little less functionality because of iOS constraints) is also in the works. Johnson hopes to also have the app on Windows Phone 7 soon after that.
BlueSprig develops personal utility apps. Led by successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and China, BlueSprig has offices in San Francisco and Chengdu, China.
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