Apple's praise elevates an app

Ex-Capital Region resident's invention is trendy, instructive

By Larry Rulison Published 8:17 pm, Friday, January 16, 2015

The Capital Region may yearn for success to put it on a par with Silicon Valley. But in 2014, one of the best mobile device app developers in the world was one of us.

Jesse Pickard, who grew up in East Greenbush and attended the Robert C. Parker School and Columbia High School, founded a San Francisco company called Elevate Labs that Apple says made the best free iPhone app in 2014.