Chad Mureta

Early life

Mureta attended Coastal Carolina University and graduated in 2003 with a B.A. in Business Management. After graduating, Mureta owned a newspaper company and worked as a real estate investor. In 2006, Mureta started his own real estate agency in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. During the height of the housing market crash, he often worked 18-hour days.

In January 2009, Mureta was driving home from a basketball game when he hit a deer, causing his car to flip four times. The accident crushed and nearly severed his left arm. He underwent two major operations and spent 18 months recovering, accruing nearly $100,000 in hospital bills. While in the hospital, a friend gave Mureta a newspaper article about "app millionaires." Bedridden and unwilling to return to his real estate business, Mureta began researching, designing, and outsourcing the development of apps.

Career

After he was released from the hospital, Mureta borrowed $1,800 from his stepfather to start his app business. He used the money to create his first app, "Fingerprint Security-Pro," which mimics fingerprint-scanning technology. Fingerprint Security-Pro became a bestseller in the App Store, peaking at number 27 in the App Store in 2011, and netting more than $500,000 in revenue.

After "Fingerprint Security-Pro," Mureta went on to create over 50 apps that have been downloaded more than 150 million times worldwide.

In 2012 he released the book, App Empire: Make Money, Have a Life, and Let Technology Work for You. It chronicles Mureta's transformation from real estate agent to "appreneur" and provides a non-technical guide to starting a mobile app business.

During a BBC interview in October 2015, Chad revisited his near death experience and his company, App Empire, which brings in $3m to $5m in revenue every year.

Television

In July 2012, Mureta was featured on 60 Minutes. In the interview titled "The App Revolution", Mureta said "This is just the beginning, and I think a lot of people are just getting that this is a real business. This is a real industry and really there's not a lot of barrier to entry to get into it. Anybody can. The thing is, I am just like everybody else. There's no difference. I mean yes, I've been successful, I'm not the smartest person in the world, and I've never had any tech experience."

Chad was also interviewed by Tony Robbins in a special titled, "How To Create An App Empire".

Philosophy

Mureta believes in understanding the marketplace to come up with app ideas then outsourcing the actual programming. Another one of his apps is Emoji, Mureta created this app in two weeks. Within six days of release, it was averaging $500 per day and was #1 on the App Store’s productivity category and #12 in the top free overall category.

Mureta conducts the majority of his business from his iPhone, including managing his employees, looking at his apps' daily stats and rankings, and surveying the app market. He has used the app business as a means to work less and uses the time traveling the world, learning salsa, and becoming a certified scuba diver and skydiver.

Mureta began his app business without any previous experience in the app or technology fields. He has since founded and served as CEO of Empire Apps and co-founded T3 Apps and Best Apps.