ANKIT GUPTA, a graduate student in computer science, and AKSHAY KOTHARI, a grad student in electrical engineering, have taken an iPad application from “idea to prototype to beta product to release (and revenues!)” in a mere five weeks, according to Gupta. The app, called Pulse, is a news reading application created as part of the Launchpad course at Stanford’s d.school. Not bad for the duo’s first product, which reached the top 20 apps in five days and is now No. 1 in the news category. Pulse sold 5,000 copies in a week at $3.99 an app.
“Pulse employed Stanford d.school’s design thinking methodology to get to their final product. This includes spending several days in the field with target users and continuing to iterate the product several times based on feedback,” Gupta wrote in an email. The application was featured on NBC Bay Area.
