Slices: The Deep Dish Swift Podcast S4E9: mb bischoff
Apr 5, 2026
mb bischoff, a Brooklyn-based poet and programmer who co-founded Lickability, talks about building hit apps like Quotebook and running a studio for major publications. They discuss dropping out for app work, early product wins, shifting from engineering to management and product, sustainable services-based growth, remote team rituals, and ongoing creative projects like film photography and portraiture.
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High School Beginnings With The Original iPhone
- mb bischoff began building apps in high school after buying the original iPhone and learning via Stanford's CS193P course with her friend Brian.
- They screen-shared, learned Objective-C, shipped multiple apps and formed Lickability while still teens.
Quotebook Launched Lickability's Reputation
- The first shipped product was Quotebook, an app to collect personal quotes rather than preloaded libraries, which gained coverage and led to more opportunities.
- Quotebook’s focus on user-curated quotes got picked up by MacStories and helped the founders get noticed by larger teams.
Save App Profits To Finance A Runway
- Save profits from early product experiments to bankroll a runway for trying full-time entrepreneurship.
- mb bischoff and partners pooled app profits to fund 3–6 months of full-time work, then validated with client contracts.