Mike Coppola '02
Mike Coppola '02 has always had a knack for connecting with people. He's always had a penchant for making use of cutting-edge technology. And he's always had a hankering for a career in advertising and marketing. Lucky for him, there's an app for that - all of it.
"It's all come together for me - I'm working in marketing and using technology to connect people to the things they want," says Coppola, who started his career as an assistant to an entrepreneur, flying around the country with bigwigs from companies like Coca-Cola, MTV and Gillette. "It was a lot of fun, but the big thing was that I was connecting with people that I otherwise would have never met."
And the fact that it's all about who you know was something that Coppola understood instinctively.
"I kept in touch with some of my contacts after I left that job, and many of them reached out to me for guidance in establishing a presence on social networks like Facebook," recalls the communication major, who minored in business. "I'm really into social networking and stuff, but I'd never been interested in or focused on the more technological side of how to use those components to connect. But, for some reason, I started thinking about pursuing the world of technology. It was weird."
By October 2008, however, he'd gotten over the "weirdness," and was determined to do something different.
"I wanted to start my own thing, pursue my passion," he says. "That's when it kind of hit me: I'm obsessed with helping companies connect to consumers. The No. 1 thing I'm passionate about is helping brands connect with people in the easiest, best way possible."
And so, the then-28-year-old Coppola sat down and wrote a business model and theory - on a paper napkin, no less.
"What I came up with was what I call the App Ecosystem," he says. "It's just a vision I had for connecting these three different key people - the advertiser, the developer and the consumer - in the most efficient way possible. It makes a triangle that creates this kind of marketing mecca. It's the most harmonious thing ever."
It wasn't long before Coppola's "marketing mecca" caught the eye of the young entrepreneurs at Vdopia, who shared his vision and hired him last January to launch a mobile app network that connects people, software developers and advertisers. As a member of the founding team of iVdopia (an offshoot of Vdopia), Coppola discovered a way to combine all of his innate talents and interests - and to make money doing so.
"Essentially, we've found a way to profit from something that was already there," says Coppola, explaining that iVdopia partners with advertisers and with developers who make free mobile applications for the iPhone. iVdopia's technology allows ads to appear when the consumer opens an app.
From there, the possibilities are endless.
"As a marketing vehicle, the mobile device holds more potential than the Internet ever did," says Coppola, explaining that, in addition to giving consumers one-click access to advertisers' locations and phone numbers, mobile devices have the advantage of being, well, mobile.
"We're physically leading people to the products with these ads. We're giving them what they want as efficiently as possible - all from their back pocket."
It's a win-win-win situation.
"At the end of the day, we're helping consumers get what they want, we're helping companies get what they want and we're helping developers get what they want," he says, adding that, because developers are competing in a largely free marketplace, they have a hard time making money with apps. "By giving them a cut of the advertising revenue, we're encouraging them to continue to offer their apps for free - we're encouraging everyone to be an entrepreneur."
And that includes Coppola.
"Right now our focus is on getting people on this network, but we're always working on new things," he says, adding that developing "the next big thing for mobile technology has been powerful. It's opened a lot of doors."
And, although his job at iVdopia was literally made for him, his entrepreneurial spirit won't let him rest.
"I always have something up my sleeve," says Coppola, refusing to elaborate. "Let's just say I'll be pushing the lines of the future."
And, certainly, there's an app for that. 
You can follow Mike Coppola on Twitter at www.twitter.com/mikecoppola.