Wow.
It was an amazing journey. While I only had two nights in San Francisco, it felt like a lot longer.
Steve was the coolest travelling companion (go those Koalas!). We were the Aussie team, and it was a fantastic time.
I got to play “The PayPal Song” at the big party on Tuesday night. Very cool.
San Francisco is a great city, and I can make that claim from my all-of-2 days in it :)
I’m at Innovate09 right now.
You want to know the best thing about PayPal?
The new APIs are amazing, and are the tools to a wonderful kingdom of Scrooge McDuck Money Swimming, but that’s not it.
The direction is encouraging, and obviously well thought out, but that’s not it.
It’s not even that they gave us all a netbook yesterday (Wowza!).
The best thing about PayPal, and it’s their best secret too, because you don’t know about it until you meet them.
The best thing is that they notice you. They talk to you.
I’m sitting in the Code Pit coding away, watching a whole bunch of PayPal folk. They’re sitting with developers mulling over code, listening to a new sales pitch from another dude with a great idea, and walking about making conversation, real conversation.
That’s the best thing about PayPal. I’ve talked about it before, and it’s as true now as it was then.
PayPal Notice You.
So I’ve now landed in a completely different country for the first time in my life!
I’m currently struggling to stay awake, but should be fine. It’s 5pm now, will be having dinner soon.
Innovate 09 starts tomorrow .. CANNOT WAIT!
Not long back a decent-sized envelope arrived in the mail.
Contained within were lots of paper, including a Certificate to signify I was now a certified PayPal developer.
Sure, I look very handsome next to the Certificate. And sure, I do google myself regularly.
And alternatively “sure”, any company can send out pieces of paper.
What is quite obvious (and the below is an example) is this:
PayPal is rushing forward into battle, hearts beating to a far better and more awesome drum, wielding more than plastic swords and papier-mâché battle axes.
Last night I was invited to a very trendy place down within the ultra-chic surroundings of Darling Harbour.
Not only did I get to meet up with Scott again after the Sydney Dev Day; Not only did I meet new folk; Not only was there the company of the most handsome and friendly Australia PayPal faces (Jonathan and Spiro, you know who I’m talking about), but:
I got to sit next to and go all “I’ve got this utterly unique earth-shattering idea that of course is awesome” to This Guy. Osama is the freaking Vice President of All-Things-Awesome at PayPal. He’s so cool that he pretended to like my many and varied stories about what I digested that morning and why the world would be a better place if desktop systems came back in vogue (ahem). 
I got to swap manly football stories with This Guy. Naveed hasn’t been at PayPal long, but you wouldn’t know it. He’s one switched-on dude, and puts you at ease the moment you start talking. Also, he likes rugby. Jonathan AND Naveed. If I worked for PayPal that would be 3, count em, 3 people who were rugby nuts. Nice. It’s quite clear that the unveiling of the new Development Environment at Innovate09 is a BIG DEAL.
It’s also quite clear that what the PayPal guys will be unveiling is an even BIGGER DEAL. All of the PayPal folk tonight were excited to talk about what is coming up, even though they couldn’t tell us everything.
Nothing was let slip, except that it will be HUGE.
A lot of what they are doing is out there now, in beta. Developers have already started making some fantastic stuff, like TwitPay, and it’s just (or not even) the beginning!
What’s exciting about hanging out with the PayPal crowd that I’ve met is that their enthusiasm is infectious. It’s real, and your own imaginative synapses start to fire.
So, I’d like to pass on some THANKYOUS:
