Lenny RachitskyHost of Lenny's Podcast | Author of Lenny's Newsletter

The call from Steve Jobs

19 Jun 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:51

A short anecdote in which Sebastian recounts receiving a phone call from Steve Jobs (calling as 'Steve from Apple') when he was about 16 about an app he built that intentionally drained a phone's battery. Steve informed him the app would be removed from the App Store and that Apple had just added a new rule prohibiting such apps. Sebastian later confirmed press reports that Apple executives were calling developers about the change.

Questions this video answers

June 19, 2025.

About 16.

Steve Jobs (referred to as 'Steve from Apple').

It helped drain the phone's battery (intentionally accelerated battery drain).

Steve said the app would not be allowed on the App Store and that Apple had just added a new rule.

Chapters

One day I'm walking in the street and I get a phone and a blocked number. I was super young, by the way, at the time. I think I was like, 16. Pick up. Hi, Sebastian, this is Steve from Apple. I need to talk to you about your app. We're not going to be able to have it on the App Store. The app was a bit strange. There was an app that literally helped you drain your phone's battery. Actually pushed back a little bit. I told him I read all the rules of the App Store and there's no rule against draining the battery. He told me, check again, because we just added a new rule. I actually didn't realize I had sp spoken to Steve Jobs until, like, a couple of minutes later. I was like, well, yeah, someone called Steve from Apple. There's probably a lot of Steve's. I was like, well, you know, that voice sounded extremely familiar. And then articles started popping up of Steve and the rest of the executive team calling developers to let them know that this was happening. So I was happy to confirm that I had a short phone conversation with Steve. Quite the legend.