The Evolution of Cloud Communication

PINGER

By Mary Matlack | Photographer by Daniel Garcia

The grey, chunky building in downtown San Jose on the corner of San Fernando and South 2nd was quite something in 1908. Home of the first furniture store to open west of Denver and with five floors of furniture, 97 S. Second Street was the largest showroom in San Jose. L. Lion and Sons had a 109 year run in San Jose, providing the growing community with the latest fashions for the home. Today, passersby seeing a small black sign reading, “The Lion Building”, might think that the building was named after the ceramic lions that grace the front entrance. They might not notice that up on the second story where the floor to ceiling windows are a clue to the building’s former glory, another business is poised for a significant run some 40 years after the Lion family closed up shop.

Original Douglas-fir floors, exposed brick and modern workstations now grace the historic furniture showroom where uber-modern Pinger is fast at work on a free app that allows you to text and talk free from an iPhone, iPad, iTouch, Android or the web. Pinger uses phone numbers and wifi which proves to be a nifty way to use text messaging and voice with devices such as an iTouch and a desktop computer. Even though my phone already has texting and voice capability, Pinger gives me the option to use voice and text without paying the phone company. Can you hear me now?

In 2005, Greg Woock and Joe Sipher, started Pinger. With past careers at Palm, Handspring and Virgin Electronics, Woock and Sipher had worked together and decided that they were a good team. “I tell people that in high school, I was the kid in a band and Joe was the Eagle Scout,” says Woock. Sipher smiles and shakes his head no, he wasn’t an Eagle Scout, but the point is well taken. “We had had a good experience there, at Virgin Electronics, and I decided I wanted to try to take a run at creating my own culture and company,” says Woock, Pinger CEO. As for Sipher, officially titled Chief Product and Marketing Guy, “I wanted to touch millions of people with a product.” For the first few years, they puttered around with a texting product that was pre-smartphone. In 2007, “Apple came out with the iPhone and that changed everything,” remembers Woock. “The iPhone accelerated the adoption of smartphones and the app economy that used to be controlled by the carriers. Prior to the iPhone, AT&T decided what apps you got to use. Well, AT&T didn’t decide anymore, Steve Jobs decided or, at least, Steve Jobs decided that AT&T wasn’t going to decide.”

That pivotal moment in the evolution of Smartphones was a catalyst for Pinger’s success. “Once that [iPhone release] happened, we knew our first app was done. We realized that we could go back to the early Palm days. We knew what an open application layer on a mobile device would do. Lots of people would make compelling applications. We knew texting and we knew advertising.” So, two years later, in March 2009, Pinger launched its “Text Free” application, and they became profitable. “Prior to that we were trying,” remembers Woock. “After launching Text Free, we were literally sitting there watching the chart go up and up and up. That was the first feel good moment for everyone here.”

Using WiFi is new and cool, but phone numbers seem old-school and clunky. Woock gives a nod to Skype, “A client goes through the internet to another client and that certainly works. We also think that there is value in having a phone number. If I need to call a cab in Prague, I don’t know the guy’s Skype ID! You gotta have a phone number. To do business, you have to have a phone number, and I think you always will. We’re bridging the traditional telephony infrastructure and this new application infrastructure. Both are going to be important, and both are going to be widely adopted for different reasons. We’re not going to bet on either, we’re going to bet on both.” Sipher boils it down, “Essentially, this is voice and texting in the cloud.”

And of course free is never really free; for Pinger advertising pays the bills. After their first year on the market, “We had enough data to say that we think this makes more money with free,” says Woock. “It’s true, immediately we were right,” adds Sipher. “We can actually make money with advertising. We’re sending billions of messages a month and have billions of ad impressions a month.”

Pinger’s Facebook page, with 370,000 active users, is carefully managed and certainly no one seems bothered by advertising. Users are thrilled about free and about having text and voice capabilities on the previously un-text/un-voice friendly iTouch. “70 percent of our users are on the iTouch,” says Sipher, “our median age is 14.” If you wondered who the heck uses Pinger, just take a look at their robust text and ring tone options. You can find just about any sound you can imagine and many that you never thought to imagine; sophomoric humor abounds with cutesy-edgy backgrounds and custom emoticons. For users who aren’t interested in emoticons and wacky ring-tones, Pinger’s wifi-telephony system means your computer or iPad can have a phone number. Essentially, if I know my husband is working on his computer and might not have access to his phone, I can text directly to his computer and vice versa.

It’s pretty obvious from Pinger’s social media voice and from meeting Woock and Sipher at their beautiful and peppy (with ventilation shafts painted ‘Pinger Periwinkle’) San Jose office, they work hard and strive for a fun work environment. When asked about their take on the dreaded startup work-life balance, Sipher is clear, “It comes down from the top. We both have very balanced lives. We have families, and we have obligations outside of work. I think compared to most startups, this is a very balanced place to work.” Woock agrees, “We’re older. I’ve done that, and I don’t want to do that. I just don’t think it’s healthy. It comes down to the direction from the top. Setting expectations that you work to live, you don’t live to work.”

Their downtown San Jose location is ideal and according to Woock, it was initially a financial decision. “We’ll save well over a million dollars this year versus being in Palo Alto. That’s purely a function of rent.” With a light-rail stop outside their door and Diridon Station a mile away, their location is convenient. “Unless you’re on University Avenue in Palo Alto, you’re going to be stuck in some office park with a deli or cafeteria. It’s depressing,” says Sipher. “Here we have dozens of restaurants within 5 blocks. It really encourages people to get out for lunch.”

Pinger’s free app may seem like a cute toy for 14 year olds, but the vision of the founders is big. According to Gartner, Inc., smartphone sales have increased 57 percent in the past year. “I really believe when I say that everyone is going to have a smartphone and communication is going to be free. This is a multibillion dollar opportunity,” says Woock. “It may be a number of people in a variety of different ways but somebody is going to be the Hertz of the market, the McDonalds of the market.”

In the meantime, while Woock and Sipher plan for world domination, their base continues to grow. With 50 million downloads, Pinger estimates that 10 million people use their apps every month. They’ve moved around 20 billion text messages and anticipate approximately 1 billion voice minutes this year. They began service in Germany in 2011 and recently announced that their Headquarters for all service outside of North America will be in Dublin, Ireland. Pinger is on a mission and it is hard to argue with their inspiration. With passion in his voice, Woock makes it clear, “On your mobile phone, there’s nothing that you are going to do more than talking and texting...not even Angry Birds. Somebody’s going to figure out how to make that free. I want that to be us.”

Pinger 97 South 2nd Street San Jose, CA 95113 www.pinger.com