[Saygus V²] pnsdhrn:
Just met with the CEO of Saygus, thought I'd share self.Android

Submitted 4 hours ago by ex-mo-fo-sho

So, I knew that Saygus was in Utah. They are the makers of the soon-to-be-released V2. I am in need of a new phone, and thought I'd give theirs a try.

Well, I looked them up on Google Maps, and they were only a few blocks from where I work. So, I headed over there after work, hoping they would have a showroom or some such. The receptionist had already left, and I knocked on a side door. A lady came out and asked what I wanted ... I told her I was an Android phone enthusiast who wanted to check out their company. She told me to sit tight, and 5 minutes later, the CEO Chad came out and met with me (!).

We went into a conference room where we were joined by Chris (VP Development) and I got to pick their brains on their phone.

I had the chance to ask them the million dollar question: I am a geek, and get that your phone appeals to our crowd. So what is your strategy to break into the mainstream market? Their answer was pretty much that. They realize their initial target market will be tinkerers/hackers and are preparing to hire 100+ people this year to write software to enhance their platform. I cringed at that a little and told them "So long as it is not bloatware that we cannot uninstall ..."

Anyways, I talked with them at length about Tasker, Geo-Fencing, AutoVoice, hooking into home automation, better parental controls, etc. They loved all of it and want to know anything and everything that I can share with them.

They brought out the V2 and let me play with it. They demo'd the WiFi HD casting, and it was smoooth. They loaded an avengers movie at 1080p resolution to the TV in the conference room, and jumping around the video was instantaneous. Very cool stuff.

Since I am a software engineer, the CEO practically offered me a job on the spot and offered to give me stock options. (What?!) He wants to know more about any and all ideas I have and have tentative plans to go to lunch with them next week.

A short-list of what they shared with me:

Their chief engineer previously worked for another company (they wouldn't tell me the name, but I am guessing LG) and has experience building some of the best phones in the world. According to them, that company just wasn't very good at marketing their hardware. I mentioned the older Snapdragon 801 chip they are using, and they acknowledged it, and said that the 810 has effectively been pulled off the market and that with future generations, they would happily upgrade.

They are announcing something (also couldn't tell me what) around June 15th that will be an option for the V2 with about a $50 increase in price. (Over the current ~$600 price). They said that if I buy the V2 and like the new option, I can walk in and swap it out.

Software. They are actively targeting the top charts on Google Play, and will actively work on making those apps run better against their hardware. Their plan is to reach out to developers and offer patches to make their software run better. Kinda cool, but not sure how far they will get with this, as a lot of apps are built with off-the-shelf IDEs that, if a performance enhancement is identified, the dev may not be able to do much about.

Anyhoo, it was an amazing experience, and I am still a little in disbelief that I had this opportunity. Very cool company. They want to hear any and all ideas and want their phone to be the best it can be.