PROVIDENCE – Joel Evans, the founder of East Greenwich-based Cronk Software, has joined the founding team of a new Boston-based startup and will be heading a Rhode Island-based development hub.
Evans joins Mobiquity, a new mobile-development company, as the vice president of application development. Mobiquity, with Bill Seibel as the CEO and Scott Snyder as the president and chief strategy officer, announced its official launch on March 29 and said it has received $5 million in Series A funding in a round led by Longworth Venture Partners and Sigma + Partners.
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“When I became aware of the management team and the vision of the company, it just seemed like they were completely aligned to go after something that I also saw was going to be transformational,” said Evans.
“The fact that this company realized that from end-to-end you need not just the strategy but the analytics and security issues…and everything that’s involved in doing mobile the right way.”
As to the fate of Cronk Software, Evans said:
“It looks like Cronk is going to be ‘rolled in’ with Mobiquity… It’s not an official acquisition. We take our clients with us and [will] continue to service [them].”
“We’re aggressively hiring and building out a center of developers here,” Evans added, estimating the number of people he is looking to hire at 20 within the next three to six months.
Mobiquity has already started extending offers to developers and company representatives, including Evans, will be attending the Providence Geeks meetup on Wednesday, April 13, scouting local talent.
Evans is also currently looking for an office space near the train station to make it “easily accessible” for anyone coming from Boston or New York.
“I originally founded Cronk Software in Rhode Island because I know there are a tremendous amount of people leaving [the area] for jobs in Boston. Now, I finally have the opportunity to take a company that was founded in the Boston area down to Rhode Island to take full advantage of the technology professionals that are available here,” said Evans. “I’m hoping to keep them from leaving the state and pulling some in.”
Mobiquity plans to have 22 people on staff by the end of April, 35 by the end of May and 100 by the end of 2011, a spokeswoman confirmed.
