One of the best things about this role I’ve carved for myself is that I get to meet really cool, motivated, & driven people. Parveen is no exception.
(source, Straight.com)
QUICK HISTORY:
After graduating & working in the games industry for a few years, Parveen finally decided to start his own gaming consulting & contracting company to focus on the iPhone platform, working on projects he “actually liked & really believed in”. Smartful Studios was born from his first iPhone contract. Two years later & 40 pounds leaner, Parveen feels great and has transitioned his successful consulting company into an iPhone App Development Studio.
What we love about Parveen is his awesome attitude about his work. “It’s not about the money” was used more than once in the multiple conversations we’ve had with him (that’s how much we like him!) and we can tell that he really means it.
Smartful is looking for full time iPhone Developers so give Parveen a shout if you’re interested!
Parveen’s Personal Website – http://parveenkaler.com/
Parveen’s Company – http://smartfulstudios.com/
Parveen’s LinkedIn – http://ca.linkedin.com/in/parveenkaler
VIDEO INTERVIEW:
Unfortunately, the video interview was so poor we couldn’t include most of it. But here’s his #1 advice for student & young startups:
FULL INTERVIEW:
Why are you considered the “iPhone Developer Guy” in Vancouver?
People say that? I don’t consider myself the iPhone developer guy in Vancouver. I’ve been doing it for two years. I would say it’s all about longevity. It’s early days in mobile & i’ve been focusing on that.
What does your company do?
Consulting & contracting – so if you have development that needs to be done. Mobile Strategy as well: setting up the sales pipeline, customer acquisition, marketing.
It is hard work?
I don’t consider it work. I love doing it.
How do you get to this place? Getting paid for doing what you love.
It’s not about the pay, right? I was doing fairly well for myself in the video game industry but that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to go out & work on my own, projects I believed in, on my own time.
“It’s about waking up every morning and believing in what you’re doing & having the freedom to do what you want to do”
How did you start?
CS degree @ SFU 2002. Computer graphics, then games industry Relic Entertainment, spent a couple years at Slide Six Games, did ps3, sony ps2, xbox 360, pc development. But when W was working on the sony psp & saw the iphone i was like “this is the futre, this is the past”. Jumped on it pretty quick.
#1 advice for students, in doing what you love & still making a living?
Make it simple. It’s simple. Stop complicating the issue. Just wake up every day and do that one thing that you have to do that day to get to the next step. It’s alwasy about the next step. “What do i have to do right now?” Get that done, re-evaluate. What do i have to do?
You make it sound so simple, Parveen.
You know what, if you make it complicated you just lose your mind.
What’s your 4 step process to making an iPhone app?
1. take your big idea, and bring it down to one sentence: your mom should be able to understand it.
2. figure out how you’re going to make your first dollar.
3. figure out how you’re going to scale from 1 dollar to more.
4. figure out how your’e going to get your first prototype
It’s the momentum. Focus on the execution & everything will work out.
Comments, suggestions? Stay tuned for the next interview with Lyal Avery!
Jon Chui 