A year after he launched his own app and made headlines , Leo Grand is still homeless . On the night he launched his first app , a homeless man predicted that his life was going to change . ' I can work at Google , I can work at SpaceX , ' Leo Grand gleefully stated minutes after his carpooling app Trees for Cars went live . 'This will change my life in a magnificent way . ' It 's been a year and a half since that moment led to Grand and his mentor , Patrick McConlogue , becoming media sensations . But Trees for Cars is no longer available , and Grand is still homeless , Mashable reported . In August 2013 McConlogue offered Grand , the homeless man he saw every day on his walk to work in New York City , a deal : He would either give him $ 100 , or he would teach him how to code . Grand realized he could go through ' $ 100 in a few days ' and instead jumped at the opportunity to learn something new that he could then 'turn into something more , ' he told Business Insider in 2013 . McConlogue provided Grand with daily lessons , as well as a laptop , wireless hot spot , coding books , a solar charger and office space at the start-up where he worked once it got too cold to type outside . Grand , who once said he was n't 'the average homeless person ' and that he considered himself 'eco-friendly ' , came up with an app designed to get more cars off the road . 'When I first launched my app it was good , ' Grand told Mashable this week . ' I was excited , the press was excited , it was just a great moment . ' Grand and McConlogue appeared on TV shows , and he says people loved him everywhere and gave him free coffee at restaurants . Being on NBC , he said , was the highlight of his year . 'We got to stay in a nice hotel at Rockefeller Plaza . A nice , swanky hotel . We got the red carpet rolled out in front of us ! ' he said . But Grand is still living on the streets , and he said the number one question people ask him is why he 's still homeless . Grand created Trees and Cars after Patrick McConlogue offered him a deal : $ 100 in cash on the spot or daily coding lessons . Grand picked the latter , and was also provided a laptop , office space and coding books . But Grand is still living on the streets . He said the number one question people ask him is why he 's still homeless . Trees for Cars only made Grand between $ 10,000 to 15,000 dollars , he said . And McConlogue has since taken a job in San Francisco , although he still meets up with Grand every time he 's back in New York . The app is no longer in online stores because Grand does not want to pay for its server space . Grand instead uses the money he made from the app to pay for his storage space . He also keeps some possessions in a shopping cart . He insists that he likes living outdoors , although he said he plans to move into an apartment after he makes his second app . Grand said if he could do it all over again , he would have made a different app the first time around . ' I would 've probably come up with a better idea for a mobile application that can generate a ton of revenue , ' he told Mashable . For now , Grand said he does not code everyday anymore . He said 'life ' is the reason for that . ' I 've got the books , I 've got the laptop , I 've got the office space . I just have n't been able to get over there recently . ' Grand , who gets by with welding jobs and worked for MetLife until he lost his job in 2011 , once said the most hurtful thing someone could say to him was that he was dumb or not intelligent . 'Homelessness is not a feature of someone or a condition , ' McConlogue said . 'It is something that people put a lot of people - in a lot of different situations - into one giant box . ' Grand said if he could do it all over again , he would have 'come up with a better ideal ' that would have generated more revenue . He said he only made around $ 10-15,000 with Trees for Cars .
Leo Grand was offered a deal : either $ 100 or lessons in coding from Patrick McConlogue , who passed him on the street every day . After daily coding lessons Grand launched carpooling app Trees for Cars . Grand said he made $ 15,000 from the app , which is no longer in stores because he does not want to pay for the server space . He said he has n't found the time to code every day anymore . Grand insists he likes living outdoors , but said he should have come up with an idea that made more money .