Apple picker Andy Grignon, a former member of the Apple engineering team that worked on the original iPhone project and then moved to Palm to lead the development of the not-so-successful webOS, is a man who likes to tackle big things. In some he succeeds, in others he fails.
Grignon has spent most of this year working on the new startup Quake Labs, which he hopes will fundamentally change the way content is created on iPhones, iPads, computers and even televisions.
"We're building a product that will enable a whole new kind of creative creation," Andy tells Business Insider. As he further elaborates, their goal is to create a very simple set of tools that will offer the user the ability to create rich multimedia projects on their mobile devices and PCs, without extensive design and engineering knowledge. "I want to enable someone with zero programming skills to create something incredibly cool that would be difficult even for an experienced engineering and design team these days," he adds.
Andy admits it's a very ambitious goal and also remains secretive about some of the details. On the other hand, he managed to build a formidable team of ex-Apple employees, such as Jeremy Wyld, a former software engineer, and William Bull, the man responsible for the 2007 iPod redesign.
The startup is still under strict secrecy and all the details are very scarce and rare. However, Grignon himself has decided to release a few hints of what this project has to offer. As an example, he said, Quake Labs can help a user turn a simple presentation into a stand-alone application that will be hosted in the Cloud rather than in the App Store, but will still be accessible for sharing with others.
Andy's plan is to launch an official iPad app by the end of this year, with apps for other devices to follow. The company's overall goal is to create a set of mobile and web applications that will work on tablets, smartphones, computers, and even televisions and address many uses.
Business Insider interviewed Andy Grigon and here are the most interesting answers.
What can you tell us about your project? What is the goal?
We are looking for a way to solve the situation when normal people want to create something very rich and extraordinary on their phones and tablets, which requires more than words and images but something that does not require the skills of a programmer. It just requires creative thinking. We want to help people create things that have traditionally been the domain of designers and programmers. And we don't want to limit them to just tablets and phones. It will also work fully on TVs, computers and other devices that we use.
Can you give us an example of how this will work in practice?
Let's say you want to create an infographic that reflects ever-changing data and you want to design exactly that kind of experience, but you don't know how to program it. We think that in this situation we can do a decent job for you. We can produce a separate application, not similar to the one in the AppStore, but cloud-based, which will be visible and people who want to find it, I can find it.
When can we expect something to appear?
I want to have something in the app catalog by the end of this year. After that, new materials will appear very regularly and often.
You spent most of your time working for big companies like Apple and Palm. Why did you decide to start your own company?
I wanted the experience that comes with starting my own company. I have always worked in large companies where marketing will do a lot of things for you. I wanted to know what it was like. I've always been interested in startups, and eventually I'd like to get on the other side of the table and help new startups succeed. And I don't think I could do that without having a few of them myself.
Recently, there are many start-up companies founded by ex-Googlers. This is not a very common fact for ex-Apple employees. Why do you think this is so?
Once you work for Apple, you don't get much contact with the outside world. Unless you are high up, you don't really meet people from the financial world. In general, you don't meet many people because of the need to keep and guard secrets. Whereas in other companies you meet people every moment. So I think there's a fear of the unknown. What is it like to raise money? Who am I really talking to? And if you start a risky business, they will probably look at you as one of the companies in their portfolio. It is this process of securing finances for the company that is daunting for most.
What's the biggest lesson you've learned working for Apple?
The biggest thing is to never be satisfied with yourself. This has proven to be true on several occasions. When you work with Steve Jobs, or anybody at Apple, day in and day out, you want to do something that you thought was good and somebody else looks at it and says, "That's not good enough" or "That's garbage." Not sticking to the first thing you think is right is a big lesson. Writing software is not supposed to be comfortable. It's supposed to be frustrating. It's never good enough.
Well, I don't know. Doesn't he write about something like ScalaMM and what was already on the Amiga a long time ago?
Articles written in Slovak bother me. I don't understand why they have texts written in Slovak on the Czech website for Czechs. I guess I'm far from alone. Let's look at the number of comments. So far, one, Slovak. This tells exactly how much a Czech reader will enjoy reading a Slovak text.
Dear Czech, my experience with Slovak editors has been nothing but positive so far. They keep what they promise, they are proactive. If you don't like Slovak, don't read these articles... or write your own and send them to us. If they are good, we will definitely release them.
PS: at least 10% of visitors are Slovaks.
Excuse me, I will write without diacritics.
If by chance Mr. "guild" does not mind articles written in Slovak, because he does not understand them.
I mean that I don't know the meaning of all words written in Slovak, which many younger people really can't "translate".
In my opinion, it is good to practice the language as much as possible, so why shouldn't it also be sonorous Slovak.
Look, for example, I don't read any other website about Apple, only Jablickar. The fact that it is a "Czech" website is really only a formal matter. I am 100% convinced that Slovaks also make up the visitors.
You are the type of person who, when he has nothing to write about an article, criticizes the grammar, or even the language. It doesn't matter, they have to be too. Would you mind if the article was in English? That's not even possible...
I don't know, I'm Slovak and I read Jablickar regularly, I don't care if I read Slovak or Czech and I don't even realize it. It is true that young people in the Czech Republic no longer understand some words and it is a shame. My daughter is 13 and she also doesn't care how she reads or listens, and that's good because you know how much people talk so many times. I get the impression that in 10 years, children in the Czech Republic will consider Slovak a foreign language and will not understand it at all.