We build elegant SMS + web apps for ourselves and our clients.
Preamble
If you haven’t already noticed, we like SMS. We run our own gateway with a vanity shortcode on SMPP binds for carrier-grade connectivity. We like to build stuff that solves real problems. We didn’t like having to remember to move our cars during street sweeping days, so we built AntiTow. We don’t like having to carry around the plastic pagers you get at restaurants, so we built the Recess Paging System to send a text message whenever our table is ready. The more problems we solved for ourselves, the more we were asked to solve problems for others. It all started back in 2004, when Yury launched the beautifully defunct mobile real estate search engine FindHolmes.
Finding Holmes
FindHolmes was a real estate search engine that indexed listings for sale and made them available through SMS. When someone (this is a polite way of saying Yury – but it could have been anyone, from his mother to even less immediate family) drove by a house for sale, they could text in the address to receive basic listing information, like bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage. The idea was to allow consumers to bookmark their favorite homes. Real estate agents could pay to display their information each time a consumer texted in an address, or when we recommended similar, nearby listings.
We found ourselves pursuing both consumers and agents while burdened with a challenging technical undertaking, churning through poorly structured data, processing complex inputs by SMS and navigating through the mobile ecosystem. Had we spent more time talking to our customers and less on devising the most sublime solution for processing texts and handling data cascading, we could have pivoted earlier. By the time we did, we found our passion for data processing diminished. But like a Phoenix rising from Arizona, we were reborn, knowing firmly what we did enjoy, where we excelled and revealing the importance of ideas like Customer Development.
Holmes Mobile
The result of all of those late nights pushing the limits of SMS was a deep understanding of mobile application development. That knowledge allowed us to build a unique mobile messaging platform from scratch that enabled rapid application development using a modular framework and RESTful API. With it, we could build intelligent messaging applications in days. That’s when the real fun began.
Holmes Mobile began developing problem-solving applications for clients all over the United States. Based on real usage, Holmes Mobile improved the platform, its gateway, messaging capabilities and integration toolkit.
Now, Recess Mobile
In 2008, friends Vitaliy Levit (founder of Levit Marketing) and Yury Tsukerman (founder of Holmes Mobile) teamed up to build a simple reminder system to help local residents remember to move their cars on street sweeping days when towing is in effect. The application was a success and the founder chemistry was immediately evident.
Yury and Vitaliy decided to revisit a proof of concept for a mobile paging tool from a year prior. In early 2009, we sketched out the designs for a text message paging system that would run off of an iPod Touch. We built a wonderful team and gathered the pieces of Recess. In June 2009, Recess Mobile, Inc. was founded by Vitaliy Levit and Yury Tsukerman. Today, we focus on building elegant SMS and web applications with reusable IP that solve real problems, emphasizing productization and scale.
We aim to be transparent and approachable. Please take us out for a cup of coffee and pick our brains. You can contact us directly.