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Minnesotan To Meet: Astropad's Matt Ronge

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- It seems there's an app for pretty much everything these days. As new ones hit the market every day, app developers and investors are always hoping your next download is the next billion-dollar idea.

Striking it big in Silicon Valley is pretty much a coder's dream. That was the dream of Minnetonka's Matt Ronge, who started out as an Apple intern in California, but took that startup dream back home to Minnesota and came up with Astropad, an app to make everyone an artist.

Coding and computers caught Ronge's curiosity at a very young age.

"I was just fascinated by the ability to make a computer do anything," Ronge said.

He also had an eye for running things his way.

"In high school, I got involved with a software company and that kind of gave me a taste of entrepreneurship," he said.

It wasn't long after college graduation that his desire to design and develop turned into a full time job. While an intern at Apple in San Francisco, he met his future business partner Giovanni Donelli.

"We had dabbled in digital art and we had always wanted something like this," Ronge said. "It took us over a year and half."

The idea seemed simple, drawing on the iPad just like any artist does on a sketch pad. However, the product development was far from simple. Ronge and Donelli worked tirelessly to make sure the app updated just as quickly as if you were writing on a piece of paper.

"You need that instantaneous response. You need to see that line right away," Ronge said.

At the time the gold standard on the market for artists was a $3,000 piece of equipment.

"We had to build LIQUID; that's our engine that makes Astropad possible," said Ronge. "Now a student who's in high school can have access to the same quality of digital drawing tools as a Disney or Pixar."

Once it launched in February 2015, at just under $30, Astropad became an affordable tool for all artists. It wasn't long after that, the doodling app delivered big returns. Astropad was named the 2015 Minnesota Cup winner, the largest state-run startup competition in the country.

"On that same day Apple also released a stylus, so it was a huge day for us," Ronge said.

That addition paid dividends for app sales. Now Astropad is scheduling meetings in Japan, Italy and the United Kingdom.
Ronge's goal is to turn his tablet tool into the Picasso of today and tomorrow for years to come.

"We're only scratching the surface. I would love to see Astropad as the go-to drawing tablet, as the number one drawing tablet on the market. I'd love to see it used on art projects, (by) photographers, all across the board," Ronge said.

The company employs a total of five people in Minnesota and California, so it's still very much a small startup.
The Astropad website says the logo is a "play on the Dogcow and a testament to the idea of the computer as a 'bicycle for your mind.'"

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