Walgreens Deal Boosts Tech Startup

Thanks to a major contract with the nation’s largest pharmacy chain, a New Haven-based tech company plans to hire its 13th employee — and, the founder pledged, keep the company in town.

Bruce Seymour, founder of MEA Mobile at 59 Elm St., announced that news Monday at a press conference in City Hall.

Seymour founded the company, which develops mobile apps, in 1997 in his Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) dorm room. When he moved to New Haven 18 months ago, he was still the only person in the office. Now the company has 10 employees in New Haven, and is about to hire three more, Seymour announced Monday.

The rapid growth stems from a contract with Walgreens, which runs over 8,000 pharmacies across the country. Last year MEA Mobile landed an exclusive contract with Walgreens to run a service allowing customers to order photo prints from their mobile phones. Using an app called Printicular, customers order the prints from their phones, then pick up the photos any Walgreens store across the country.

Printicular ​“takes the chaos out of getting your photos into print form,” Seymour said.

The app is free, available on Android, iPhone, Blackberry and even Windows 8. It allows customers to pick photos from their social networks, such as Instagram, Flickr and Facebook, and print them without having to transfer them onto a computer. Prices vary depending on the size of the photo. Printing a 4‑inch-by-4-inch photo from Instagram costs 39 cents.

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MEA Mobile earns a percentage of each sale. In the past year, ​“tens of thousands” of photos have been printed at Walgreens stores from the mobile app, according to Seymour. The money has allowed the company to continue to expand. On Monday, the company added a new feature that allows users to order home delivery of the photos that are printed at Walgreens.

Seymour said his company has developed 150 apps in the past 16 years. The Walgreens contract ​“is our first big break.”

Mayor John DeStefano held up MEA Mobile as proof that New Haven’s tech startup industry is doing well. In recent weeks, he has held similar press conferences to applaud the success of two other tech startups: Track180, which patented a way to navigate information systems; and ShugaTrak, which recently launched a diabetes-themed app.

Their growth ​“emphasizes the emergence of the knowledge-based industry,” DeStefano said. ​“We are a city that still makes things and builds things,” he said, but on a different platform from in the past, one that is more ​“idea-based.”

DeStefano recently sounded the alarm that New Haven has a dearth of software programmers to meet these companies’ needs. One of the companies he praised, Track180, relied on programmers from Barcelona and Cambodia to build its flagship app. Another tech startup, called Panorama, recently split town upon receiving $4 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Seymour said he has relied on the work of some international programmers to develop his software. His business partner, a former CCSU classmate, runs a sister office in Auckland, New Zealand. The two offices collaborate on projects, Seymour said.

Seymour employs 10 people at at his company headquarters at 59 Elm St. in downtown New Haven. He credited the state Department of Economic and Community Development with helping his business grow by giving him a small business loan that allowed him to hire two more people. He said he posted job openings two months ago for three more software programmers.

“Recruitment is a challenge,” Seymour said, but he professed confidence he would be able to find enough local talent to meet his business’ needs as he grows.

In coming years, the company aims to expand its photo services to allow customers to print photos on mugs and in flipbooks. He said he plans to keep the company in town. He said New Haven has proven a convenient location: He walks to work from Lyon Street, where he lives with his wife, Mariah Sage Seymour, a founding partner of a local theater company called Theater 4. Some of his employees commute by train.

In 10 years, he said, ​“we would like to still be in New Haven ordering pizza for lunch. Hopefully we will have not just a couple of floors, but an entire building.”