The Benefits Of Running Your Mobile Startup In Silicon Valley - Epilogue

Around New Year's, I wrote about our decision to move our HQ to Silicon Valley. That post caused quite a bit of commotion among some of my friends in Israel, e.g. @eyalreshef and was referred to by some other bloggers, e.g. Martin Collings.

Last week, we had a very concrete example. WorldMate for Android is generally ready for release - we're currently running a closed Beta.  So @ianberman and I decided to do a little roadshow amongst companies who can seriously affect it's distribution. So one fine Thursday morning, Ian flies over here from LA. Here's what our schedule for that day looked like:

1 PM:  Lunch

2 PM: Google / Mtg. with Strategic Partner Manager

3 PM: Key Android Licensee (device manufacturer): Mtg. with Partner Manager / Internet Technologies

4 PM: Key Android carrier: Mtg with VP Strategy

5 PM: Key Android competitor (device manufacturer / platform owner): Meeting w/ Platform Director

... All meetings were in person and included a hands-on demo of the product (described by the people we meet as "great product...", "much more complete and polished then what we generally see on Android"). They also invoked some important product feedback, and most importantly commitments to promote it.

Over the course of my career I have launched dozens of mobile products on 8 mobile platforms. Business development efforts usually spanned a combination of multi-city / multi-country hops (with relatively effective meetings) and conference calls (generally less so). Achieving what we have in one afternoon is phenomenal - and unique to Silicon Valley.

Comments

[Amir]

This place is indeed impressive. But not less the ability to line them up like this. After 10 years you're right on the top of the industry, device based apps were just ahead of their times. Good luck and keep the momentum.

[Evering2010]

Thak you for sharing them with us , I think it's worth reading