Sony Ericsson Interviews Paul

Sony Ericsson Developer World talked with Paul Poutanen, Mob4Hire's President and Founder: click here to read full article.

...and a little snippit from Paul ... "Where did the idea come from and what is the story behind Mob4Hire?"

"The idea for Mob4Hire began in 2005 when I was launching the first location-based game in North America. While the software development was going fine, I could not believe the hassle and the expense of testing the application on various networks and handsets. I had to fly to the US with a small team of developers and purchase handsets so they could test their application on a US network.

Initially we couldn't even buy the handsets and subscribe to the mobile service because we didn’t have a US address. Eventually the tests were completed successfully, but I realized testing was the most difficult and onerous component in the whole development process.

We were all exhausted, sitting in the airport waiting to board a flight home, when I saw a guy chatting on his cell phone. He was using a handset identical to one we had just purchased and tested on. It dawned on me that if I knew him I could have just sent him our application and have him quickly run the test for us. I'd be happy to pay him for his trouble and it would save me a load of time and money.

That was the light bulb moment. That's when Mob4hire was born.

I had experience with a crowd-sourcing company in Calgary that had a mandate to nurture business ideas using the power of the Internet "crowd". That's exactly what Mob4Hire does."