Have an App But No Web Version? You May Have Made a Mistake

Can launching a web version of your mobile app make that much of a difference in terms of number of users? GovTribe co-founder Nate Nash says yes. 

His Arlington company launched a web version of its government procurement tracking app in January and has seen 17,000 unique users per month. The site has 1.6 million pages of information on full and open government contracting opportunities for every agency and office, and contact information for every contracting officer. (A couple of code rewrites and you've got yourself a gov-centric dating app.) Nate says the number of users has skyrocketed compared to when the company just had a mobile app offering the same information. 

Co-founder Marc Vogtman at DC Tech Day last fall. Nate attributes the jump to the industry: Government contractors spend more time at their desktops than hunched over a mobile device. Plus all that data, which comes from government sources like the Federal Procurement Data System and the GAO Protest Docket, has been driving organic search traffic. Nate says people view an average of four pages on the site and routinely come back for multiple sessions per week. (The mobile version is still alive and well.)

The third member of the team, snapped yesterday, is Jay Hariani. The company's web launch also included new tools for a monthly subscription of $16-$20 per month. Users can research a competitor and how much business they’re doing with a particular agency or get instant alerts for any activity on a government contract or when new opportunities are posted. GovTribe doesn’t publicly release its paid subscriber count, but Nate says growth has been solid. The nearly profitable, three-person company is raising a round of outside funding to close this summer.