Heidi Roizen has long time ties with the Apple universe, including a stint as Apple’s VP of World Wide Developer Relations from 1996-97.
Shortly into my pitch, Steve took the contract from me and scanned down to the key term, the royalty rate. I had pitched 15%, our standard. Steve pointed at it and said, “15%? That is ridiculous. I want 50%.”
I was stunned. There was no way I could run my business giving him 50% of my product revenues. I started to defend myself, stammering about the economics of my side of the business. He tore up the contract and handed me the pieces. “Come back at 50%, or don’t come back,” he said.
This is a great story.
[Via iOS Dev Weekly]
Good story. I loved WriteNow, and I’m glad T/Maker had success with it. But I have to wonder how many potentially helpful business deals Jobs squelched over the years, simply because of imperious (to use Gruber’s word) posturing like this.