Moving a Technology Company from Israel to America: Perfecto Mobile CEO Eran Yaniv (Part 2)

Sramana: What was the premise on which you founded Perfecto Mobile?

Eran Yaniv: I have two small stories from my past that I can tell to answer that question. When I worked for Converse, we would develop instant mobile applications for mobile operators in the U.S. We developed them in Israel and then came here to deploy them. When we did that we realized that in the US the entire environment, from the firmware to the handsets, was different. We had to redevelop aspects of the application. That is when we thought of the idea of remotely accessing handsets in the target markets.

The other story comes from our CTO and co-founder, Yoram Mizrachi. He was a consultant for Openwave and on one of his trips to Ireland he saw people holding handsets and testing applications manually by pressing keys quickly so they could make time. He felt it was wrong that there was no automation in this space.

The combination of those two stories, of automation and remote access, gave birth to this company.

Sramana: Let’s talk about the ecosystem. In what year did you found the company?

Eran Yaniv: We had the idea in 2005 and founded the company in 2006.

Sramana: That app market really took off in late 2007. You were ahead of the market.

Eran Yaniv: Yes, we had a good vision. We knew the market had to evolve in this direction. When we formed the company the target was the ecosystem of developers that had formed around mobile operators. We were trying to create an offering that addressed those ecosystems.

Data was not very important to the mobile operators at that time. Developers were just toying around and did not have important applications to provide to the market. We were addressing a market that was not ready for prime time. One of the investors we spoke to told us that this market would be important once applications became important. We were encouraged by that support, and we plowed along. When the iPhone was launched it seemed clear to everyone that mobile applications would become important.

Sramana: That market moved your way in a dramatic fashion!

Eran Yaniv: People ask me how much change we had to implement in our solution to address the enterprise market that we address today. The truth is that the basic premise remained the same.

Sramana: You had a successful exit behind you before you started Perfecto Mobile. Did you make a significant amount of money off of that?

Eran Yaniv: The timing worked well for me.

Sramana: Were you able to put your own money into starting Perfecto Mobile?

Eran Yaniv: All of us co-founders put in some of our money in the beginning, but not a significant amount. Our expectation was that we were building a product for the long haul and that we would need investors from day one. The real money came from the VCs.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Moving a Technology Company from Israel to America: Perfecto Mobile CEO Eran Yaniv
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