While some people focus on going out for the basketball team or working on the yearbook staff in high school, Joel Mueller had bigger ideas. He wanted to build a business.
The fact that he could do this while still living with his parents with the free food and lodging that came with it made him even more certain that he was headed in the right direction.
MacUpdate is a dotcom business that Mac and iPhone users can visit to find new apps and update the apps that they already own. It’s also one of the largest distribution communities for third-party developers to freely promote their own software to users.
Mueller originally created the business as a means for communicating ideas and news that interested him. It gave him an outlet to be heard and to become involved in communities that shared common interests.
He hired his first employee after receiving an email from a MacUpdate user who was frustrated that the content wasn’t being updated more regularly. After Mueller explained that he was going to college at the same time he was running this business, he asked the frustrated user if he’d like to work for him. This user became his first employee and the company was on its way.
Mueller is different from some entrepreneurs in that he is not consumed by innovation. His goal is to focus on improving what’s out there and already working, and try to make it better. He believes this approach gets people acting more quickly and is more likely to have a successful outcome.
Mueller is a firm believer in pursuing something that he really enjoys, valuing the opportunity to do it and letting that commitment spread to his people.
How to reach: MacUpdate, (269) 873-1357 or www.macupdate.com
