Twenty-somethings Ben Sperry and Max Lynch have taken on their biggest project yet. It’s called Codiqa, a software tool that makes creating a mobile app or mobile website easy through drag-and-drop elements.

The initial idea spawned in the summer of 2011 while Sperry was working as an interactive designer at a Madison-based design agency. He confided in Lynch that he was frustrated with the wireframing tools he was using to mock up mobile user experiences.

As it turns out, Lynch had similar feelings toward those tools, and the idea of Codiqa (pronounced CO-deh-ka and almost called “Snorqel”) was born.

But before they went into business for themselves, Sperry and Lynch began working at Madison mobile game developer PerBlue, which grew from 10 employees to 35 by the time they left.

“(It was) hard to trade a great job with security, benefits and more for the risky life of a startup,” Sperry said. “We’re … extremely lucky to have been a part of that team. The lessons we learned there are invaluable.”

So far, things have been going well at Codiqa. The two founders have been pleasantly surprised by the wide audience of users, including a group they call “aspiring developers.” They also hired recently their first employee.

At the end of the day, though, Sperry and Lynch are just happy to have passion for Codiqa. According to Sperry, “as long as we can continue to work on something we love, we’re a success.”