Storyboard – refer to ViewController in AppDelegate

Have a look at the documentation for -[UIStoryboard instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier:]. This allows you to instantiate a view controller from your storyboard using the identifier that you set in the IB Attributes Inspector:

EDITED to add example code:

UIStoryboard *mainStoryboard = [UIStoryboard storyboardWithName:@"MainStoryboard"
                                                         bundle: nil];

MyViewController *controller = (MyViewController*)[mainStoryboard 
                    instantiateViewControllerWithIdentifier: @"<Controller ID>"];