Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
An app built out of Provo climbed into the top 10 on the Apple App store. And now, Scan Inc has been sold to Snapchat for $54 million.
Garrett Gee first came up with the idea when he bought his first smartphone and was downloading useful apps. One he wanted is an app that will scan and read UPC barcodes used to purchase virtually every retail product available. But he couldn't find one he liked. So he built his own.
Gee spent the next six months working to develop a more user-friendly mobile scanning application. He also recruited two classmates, Ben Turley and Kirk Ouimet, to lend their expertise to his endeavor.
About three months later, the trio had completed the app. It was made available on iTunes where it was downloaded more than once per second, knocking "Angry Birds" off the App Store top 10 chart.
Gee and his co-founders were invited to show the app on the TV show "Shark Tank," though they decided not to partner with any of the show's entrepreneurs. In December 2014, they sold Scan Inc. to Snapchat for $54 million.
Once Gee graduates from BYU, he wants to travel with his family and keep building apps.
