From little things, large things grow. So it is with MoFuse, David Berube’s mobile-application company.
On vacation several years ago and unable to keep up with his favorite bloggers on his Blackberry, Berube came home and cranked out the code that allowed him to do just that. Then he decided to share.
That was in 2007. The product was such a simple and smashing success that Berube had a number of the blogosphere’s largest players, including GigaOM, Political Wire, Mashable and Read/Write Web, using MoFuse almost immediately. But as Berube said in his 40 Under Forty application, it was still a hobby at that point.
Enter MoFuse CEO Annette Tonti. She helped Berube see the market opportunity, which resulted in the April 2009 launch of MoFuse Premium, its business product. Much like with the original product, Berube has seen MoFuse Premium grow within a year to being the underpinnings of the mobile presence of more than 40,000 businesses and organizations around the world, included the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of State, the Atlanta Falcons and Seattle Seahawks, and Harvard Business School.
What faces Berube and MoFuse now are the inevitable growing pains that come with fast success, but that doesn’t seem to bother the 27-year-old. In fact, since MoFuse is generating real revenue through its premium product, Berube has been able to hire people to do some of the work he once had to do by himself, leaving him and Tonti the time to set vision and strategy for the company.
His success also allows him to contribute to the community, which he does by serving on the board of a nonprofit that has raised more than $100,000 to fight juvenile arthritis. In addition, he sits on the Scituate Democratic Town Committee and consults pro bono for various political campaigns. •
