Updated Nov 4 – 1:15 PM
Stefan, Freddie, and I sat outside the Starbucks at De Anza and Stevens Creek sipping our coffees and trying to convince ourselves that this wasn’t a dream. In about 30 minutes we’d drive the few blocks to Infinite Loop for our first meeting with Steve Jobs; the topic of the meeting: Apple acquiring Astarte.
Freddie, Me, and Stefan
Our lives were about to change in a big way.
We reviewed our ‘talking points’ for the hundreth time…why our technology was so valuable, how innovative our applications were, how brilliant our engineeering team was, the great skill of our marketing guy (that would be me), and so on. All the points looked so good when I wrote up the proposals, and all sounded completely lame when we thought about them in the context of the upcoming meeting.
At this moment, I was very unhappy that I had seen the movie ‘Pirates of Silicon Valley’. I had no idea if the movie was accurate or not, but it kept coming into my head. I couldn’t help wondering if Steve was really like that, and if we were about to be devoured by sharks.
We gathered our notes and our courage and headed to Apple. We were met in the lobby by Tim S., who ran the QuickTime engineering group. He had been my primary point of contact during the ‘mating dance’ which led up to this meeting. He took us to the elevator and up to the fourth floor of building 1 to the board room.
Was it just me? or was the air different up here? I looked around the room. Windows along the far wall looked out over the entry area in front of the building. There was a conference table large enough for about 15 comfortable chairs. In the table top in front of each chair were power and network connections concealed under a trap door. At one end of the room was the usual podium, projection screen and television that you’d see in any nice conference room. But at the opposite end was something you would definitely see only here: five fruit colored iMacs displayed on a long built-in credenza. Each one fairly glowed in the light of a recessed spotlight directly above. It was exciting to be there, but I had only a second to take it in.
Phil and Avie were already in the room waiting. We had a bit of nervous chit chat while we waited for Steve to arrive. It didn’t take long. He introduced himself, we all shook hands and sat down ( I had heard somewhere that he didn’t like to shake hands, but that turned out to be bunk, like some many of the things you hear about him.)
A minute later a women came in to the room with a cup of tea and set it in front of Steve. She left, and we got down to business…
stuff to add: the discussions, Germany and Minnesota, the aftermath, zipping our lips, questions about our financial involvement, timing, relocation questions.
I really enjoy your writing (though it does not really cover my opinion) – go please – I cannot wait to read about “Germany and Minnesota”.
MIKE, CAN YOU PLEASE TELL US WHAT JONATHAN IVE IS LIKE IN PERSON? =D
I was in the software side of things, so didn’t have much chance to interact with Jonathan.
So, just for clarification here, you were in the Mac business since ‘87 but you worked for Astarte and sold the company to Apple around the start of the imac era? I’d just like to know, what did you guys do exactly with Macs at Astarte?
Are you still with Apple at all? If not, when and why did that end? (I only ask because I was unabe to find the answer in your posts)
Anyway, your writing is very fun to read and I encourage you to keep working ont his book (which looks like it’s coming long well). And I can personally guarantee that I will be buying a copy.
And Pirates of Silicon valley was a good movie, but I can see what it would do to your head at a moment like that. I wonder how your story will contrast with it.
Hi Andrew. The answers to all these questions and more are coming in future installments. Here’s a glimpse: Astarte was a small software company in Germany; I ran their US operation. Astarte created the program called Toast for burning CDs, which we ultimately sold to Adaptec; we then created DVDirector, which was what Apple wanted.
I met Ive back in 1997, he was soft spoken, very gentleman-like, and talks about his design with a passion you rarely see.
Most product designers of consumer electronics are not like that.
Enjoyed your stories, Mike, Keep It Up!
I can’t wait to read more of this… I used to be a German reseller of the DVDirector software right from 1999 and I happened to be at the 2000 NAB where the great news was announced first. There was a reseller meeting in one cool Argentinian Restaurant in Las Vegas that I remember. Well. Now ist’s fun to find the people I knew in a book, especially after the German news about Freddie last week.
Keep on going, I’d love to hear more.
“…German news about Freddie last week.”??? C’mon, Alexandra, don’t keep us all in suspense! Wha hoppen?
Alexandra, that restaurant was called Yolie’s; I love that place. Thanks for your note.
Roger, Freddie was named head of Apple Germany last week (something I could have predicted years ago.) Mike
I’ve known Freddie for about 10 years, and about 8 years ago he told me that he would one day run Apple Germany. Knowing Freddie, it should be no surprise that he got the job.
Hello Mike,
or DVDelight…
great to read all this storys ! Thank You . I#m from Germany and also know Toast & DVDDirector from the beginning….now i’m teaching FCP & DVDSP etc…as a freelancer…well can you also tell us more about Astarte and the Engineer Team….? What happend to the brilliant Engineering Team …Stefan etc. And well if you meet them once plz tell them much much Respect & many thx for all these great Astarte & later Apple Apps their working on because that make my live easyer like CD-Copy
cheer
Stefan
Stefan – wie gehts
There’s much more to come about Freddie, Stefan, and the other guys from Astarte.
I love the addition to the story. I’m 17 and there is a kids show on PBS called Between the Lions. I was flipping through channels and came across this and there was a little cartoon called Cliff Hanger. His “theme song” is: “Cliff Hanger, hanging from a cliff! And that’s why he’s called Cliff Hanger!” All of your entries that end with “…†and bullet points make me think of that and I laugh. Keep up the stellar work, and I can’t wait to see what magnificent things are ahead.
Mike, the background from the picture of you, freddie and stefan, that must be the city of Karlsruhe/Germany, right?
I live in Karlsruhe, and ASTARTE is originally from there, so that’s why I’m aksing.