Jonathan Zarra is the founder and former CEO of GoChat, a geolocation based chat app for iOS and Android popularized by Pokémon Go, having millions of users. In the months following his departure from GoChat, Zarra then launched a mobile software platform called Wiksi Apps.
Career
GoChat
Zarra was the founder of GoChat. Despite the early success of GoChat, the app saw its fair share of struggles. Within days of its original release on Google Play and Apple's App Store, GoChat had already amassed millions of active users and was having trouble keeping its servers online. After news of the app went viral, Zarra received many different investment opportunities before accepting funding from angel investorMichael Robertson. Once funded, the app continued to grow to well over 2 million users within its first 2 weeks. GoChat later was acquired and Zarra stepped down as CEO and from the board of directors to pursue other projects.
Wiksi Apps
Zarra then launched The Bulbapedia App under his new mobile software platform "Wiksi Apps". It was the only app available for Bulbapedia, the online community driven Pokémon Encyclopedia. The app was so successful that within 3 days following its release, it was acquired by and made the official app of Bulbapedia.
In an effort to combat unwanted SMStext messages, Zarra launched the short code directory. Users have the ability to report companies using short code numbers that they believe are not following industry regulation and make unwanted text messages public knowledge. Within its first 6 months, the website accrued over 600,000 short codes and thousands of users from the community submitted reports about company specific short code operations.
After the creation of the shortcode directory, Zarra began work on Amico, a Facebook Messenger Bot Platform. Its main purpose was to offer an evolved alternative to SMS Marketing by leveraging the billions of users on the Facebook Messenger app directly. In an interview with Forbes, Zarra stated "It is our firm belief that an advertisement platform as big as this deserves to be equipped with proper technology to prevent this unwanted abuse of its systems."
Switcher.gg
With the release of the Nintendo Switch and the disappointing online infrastructure, the concept of was born. In an initial Reddit post, Jonathan was quoted as saying "I love Nintendo, but between Nintendo friend code IDs, many games not offering online multiplayer, and the online multiplayer that does exist often being difficult to find new players for, there’s a real issue here that I believe could use some solving." Within just weeks of the site's release, it grew in popularity and was said to have passed over 40,000 Switch users. The Switchmatchmaking website would go on to grow in popularity, spreading throughout the Nintendo community and connecting switch players to this day.
