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

The call from Steve Jobs

19 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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Anecdotal recounting by a speaker (Lenny Rachitsky uploader) about a young developer, Sebastian, who received a blocked-number phone call from "Steve from Apple" (Steve Jobs) informing him his app — which intentionally drained phone batteries — would not be allowed on the App Store due to a newly added rule. The speaker confirms the call and situates it in youthful context (about age 16), noting later press and executive outreach to developers.

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.