Year-end roundup: 6 Delaware apps that launched in 2019

Do you app local? For most things, probably not. But Delaware (and Delaware-connected) startups do create apps that can make your day easier, safer or more social — and we try to cover as many of them as we can.

This is not a comprehensive list — if you have or know of a Delaware-connected app that isn’t listed here, let us know! — but here are six local apps we wrote about in 2019, in chronological order:

1. Take a social media break by diving into this Delaware-made app (January)

Delaware game developer Matt Sharp, founder of Momiji Studios, created the Sojourn app as a user-friendly journal app that acts like a social media platform, with one major difference: It’s private, so you can save personal memories (and vent your heart out) without sharing them with the world.

2. This Newark-born app aims to bring eyes to potentially dangerous situations (February)

Green Line Business Group launched the Eye Need A Witness app as a tool for community members to look out for each other, and serve as witnesses in cases of public harassment or violence, particularly incidents targeting ethnic minorities and members of the LGBTQ community and sexual harassment. Users can send out a call to other users within the geographic area or campus, who are given GPS directions to the incident and can record video, audio and text.

3. This Newark ‘organic social media’ iOS app has dropped (June)

Style company jiraffeThreads, founded by James Fencil of Newark, launched its branded social app in June, where users can interact with other users and brands, complete challenges, post new challenges and upload photos to earn tokens that can be used to earn free products from participating companies.

4. How the ‘Blockchain Czarina’ became a networking app founder (August)

The Connector Street app was created by Delaware influencer Andrea Tinianow and her young adult children as a tool to streamline networking. Instead of exchanging cards and having to remember to send out promised connection emails later, the app allows users to connect two people with a few clicks.

5. How Delaware tech firms helped develop UD’s opioid addiction app (September)

The HeNN (Help Near and Now) app provides resources for people seeking help for opioid addiction, including a listing of services and clinics in the area, with a map feature to show users where the resources are and how to get there. Funded by a Center for Advanced Technology grant from the Delaware Biotechnology Institute awarded to the University of Delaware, and was created with philanthropic dev support from  CompassRed and Greenline Business Group.

6. This fintech app serves Gen Z on their own terms (December)

The FinX Hub app, created by a group of (mostly) Virginia Wesleyan University student athletes, uses a social media format to deliver in-house made financial literacy content, including videos and quizzes — an alternative to dry financial literacy courses, intended to appeal more to people ages 17 to 25. One of the founders, 20-year-old Douglas Avery, is from Bridgeville, Delaware.