Digital Agency Launches its Own Successful Mobile App Two co-workers convinced their boss to nurture a location-based app in-house.

Two years into his tenure at New York-based digital agency Squeaky Wheel Media, Scott Wells and his co-worker, Robert Boyle, had a thought: Rather than just helping clients push their products, why not create one of their own? Other so-called hybrid agencies had already tested the waters--some with screaming success, like Invoke Media, which developed the popular social media dashboard HootSuite.

After a client shot down their pitch for a custom mobile app, Wells and Boyle approached Squeaky Wheel Media founder and president Anthony Del Monte about developing the product in-house. After the trio spent two months hashing out the details, Del Monte agreed to finance the effort--named Crowdbeacon--as an internal project, with Wells and Boyle at the helm.

We talked to Wells about the service, agency collaboration and what's next.