Rekwest
Free in App Store
iOS 7 or later
iPhone, iPad, iPod touch
Needs 3G or a Wi-Fi connection to share
Contact info
rekwestapp.com
Twitter: @RekwestApp
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rekwestapp/info
Bypassing the popularity of Silicon Valley, an alumni-owned Hungarian software company looks to open a location in the Midwest.
Attila Schillinger, a 1995 public relations graduate, said he wants to find a location in Indianapolis, following the growing venture capitalist investment trend of moving into the Midwest.
Schillinger said other Hungarian startups, like Prezi from Budapest, have major offices in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley. However, he compared going to Silicon Valley as “bringing water to the ocean.”
“So why don’t we just do something in the Midwest?” he said. “Invest here, create jobs, opportunities for people and expand from here.”
Schillinger works with three other co-founders, alumnus Csaba Esztári along with Akos Pöltl and János Kurdy-Fehér, for their software company, StorySafe Digital. The four also created the social media app Rekwest with patent-pending technology from the company.
The idea is to run most of the sales, marketing and promotion in the Indianapolis office for StorySafe Digital while most of the developing work stays in Hungary. He said it made sense to open up a United States office in a familiar place.
“I am very committed to Indiana,” he said. “I like to call myself a honoree Hoosier. This is my second home.”
During his time at Ball State in the ’90s, Schillinger said he didn’t go home to Hungary because of money. Instead, he stayed in the U.S. during breaks and worked some odd jobs, including work at a goat farm.
His time at Ball State created bonds with many alumni and professors, including journalism instructor Sheryl Swingley, who he meets up with whenever she’s in Budapest for an immersive learning class.
Schillinger said he even used to babysit the company’s Indianapolis attorney when she was a 10-year-old girl in Muncie.
His Ball State connections don’t stop in Indiana, either. He said university ties across the globe, including people in Shanghai and Berlin, are helping out in some way.
“There is really an international Ball State network out there,” Schillinger said.
The app, Rekwest, launched June 15 with a focus on the “power of asking.”
The private messaging app is currently for two people to correspond. With Rekwest, the user can tap a button to ask for a picture or a message.
Schillinger said this could help keep in contact with people who are often separated from loved ones due to work or other reasons. He said this way, people can avoid disconnect by asking for certain content they’re missing out on, like a graduation or a family visit.
The main feature of the application is its simple approach to social media, he said.
“We went back thousands of years to the roots of human discussions,” Schillinger said. “... If asking exists in everyday conversations, we were a little bit surprised it doesn’t exist in online.”
Instead of the content disappearing, like Snapchat and Facebook’s Slingshot, the users will share messages and photos in a private timeline to review.
“We’ll hopefully open it up in the future to videos, songs and other things,” Schillinger said.
Rekwest is available for free in the App Store and compatible with iPhones, iPads and iPod touches running iOS 7 or later. The app requires the user to sign up with an email address, without accessing a contact list or phone number, and needs 3G or a Wi-Fi connection to share messages.
Alan Hovorka contributed to this article.
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