At the age of 58 William Agush was told by the five-year-old Boston technology start-up where he was working as a contractor that he was surplus to requirements. So, after a 30-year career in various salaried posts at various IT companies, large and small, Mr Agush decided to found his own app business, Shuttersong.
The idea, sparked by a “talking” picture frame that he found while tidying his study, was to allow smartphone users to attach sound files to their digital pictures and share them with friends over Twitter or Facebook. Although Mr Agush now wears a hearing aid in both ears, he is a big fan of the spoken word, an interest nurtured by listening to talk shows on US National Public Radio.
“It was a wonderful epiphany,” he says, noting that the notion of an app came while he was looking for a notebook that he had spent years filling with business ideas.