David Heinemeier Hansson (DHH)

Well, it wasn't a mobile phone.

It was a mobile computer.

And even more than that, it was the most important computer or it would become the most important computer for most people around the world, which meant that if you like to make software and wanted to sell it to people, you had to go through that computer.

And if going through that computer meant going through Apple's toll booth,

And not just having to ask them permission, which in and of itself was just an indignity when you're used to the internet, where you don't have to ask anyone permission about anything.

You buy a domain and you launch a business and if customers show up, boom, you're a success.

And if they don't, well, you're a failure.

Now suddenly, before you could even launch, you'd have to ask Apple for permission?

That always sat wrong with me.

But it wasn't until we launched Hey!

In 2001, that I saw the full extent of the rot that has snug into Apple's Apple.

Yes, I like to pitch it as what Gmail would have been with 20 years of lessons applied in a way where they could actually ship.

Gmail was incredible when it launched in 2004.

And it still is a great product, but it's also trapped in its initial success.

You can't redesign Gmail today.

It just has way too many users.

So if you want fresh thinking on email, I wanted fresh thinking on email.

I needed to build my own email system.

And not just my own email client.

That's what a lot of people have done over the years.