About David Blakeney
In a September 2023 interview with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, David Blakeney, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Smith Micro Software, discussed the company's 40-year history and its evolution from developing fax modems to providing white-label apps for major carriers such as T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon. He described the company's current product portfolio as including Safe Path, a digital family lifestyle product; Com Suite, a voice messaging platform; and Review Spot, a digital retail marketing platform. Blakeney stated that Smith Micro plans to continue focusing on value-added services for carrier customers while expanding its reach, including growing its European customer base and introducing new products.
Blakeney also commented on the Pittsburgh tech landscape, describing the city as becoming known for robotics and self-driving cars, with innovation driven by Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh. He noted that Smith Micro opened a Pittsburgh location about 12 years ago and joined the Pittsburgh Technology Council shortly after to increase awareness and connect with other companies, and that the company now values the Council's training programs and events.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from David Blakeney's recent appearances.
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Transcript (12 segments)
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Sheena Carroll0:17
This is Sheena Carroll with the Pittsburgh Technology Council, and today we're celebrating our 40th anniversary with 40 stories. And today we're celebrating the story of our member Smith Micro. Today I'm here with Dave, the Senior VP of Engineering at Smith Micro. Thank you so much for joining us today.
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David Blakeney0:32
It's a pleasure to be here.
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Sheena Carroll0:34
So can you tell me a little... Well, first of all, let me congratulate you on 40 years for the Tech Council.
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David Blakeney0:38
Smith Micro recently celebrated our 40th anniversary, which we're quite proud of. That's pretty good for a high-tech company to have stayed relevant for 40 years. But let me tell you about Smith Micro. We're a software development company. We develop apps as value-added services for our carrier customers. These are white label apps, so most people don't know us because we sell them through the carriers, but our customers are like T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon. These are all the biggest carriers in the world who sell our products. It's very trendy for a middle-aged company.
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Sheena Carroll1:22
Yes, you are celebrating 40 years as a business. Can you share a couple milestones?
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David Blakeney1:29
Well, obviously the company has evolved because we've had to stay relevant on the technology. I mean, the company started doing fax modems, and obviously we don't do that. We had a connection manager business. Right now our portfolio comprises three different products or platforms that we sell. One of them is a digital family lifestyle product known as SafePath. Another product that we have is our ComSuite product, which is a voice messaging platform. And then we have ReviewSpot product, which is a digital marketing, retail marketing platform that has engagement and analytics that our carrier customers use.
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Sheena Carroll2:09
All right. So since we are reflecting on our 40 years, and you're accepting 40 years, we also kind of like to look ahead. Where do you see the future of Smith Micro and the future of tech in Pittsburgh in the next 40 years?
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David Blakeney2:29
Well, the tech in Pittsburgh is obviously going to be very exciting with the major universities, CMU and University of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh as a whole is really making a name for itself in high tech besides the healthcare industry. We're getting known as the city of robotics, the self-driving car. So I actually see Pittsburgh continuing to evolve in that way, new technologies coming out and new companies spawning. What we're talking about 10 years from now, we're talking about companies that we probably haven't heard of today. Now for Smith Micro, I see us staying true to our roots. We're going to continue to do our value-add services to the carrier customers. We'd ideally sell even broader worldwide. Today we have European customers, we're going to continue that trend. I see us adding more services as time goes on. We'll try to add incremental things that we can do, either extending the capabilities of our existing products or introducing brand new products.
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Sheena Carroll3:36
All right, awesome. So I just have one more question for you, and that is: Why did you join the Tech Council?
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David Blakeney3:43
Well, Smith Micro decided to open up a Pittsburgh location about 12 years ago, and it was shortly after that that they decided to join the Tech Council. I'd be remiss if I didn't say that Bill Smith is actually from Butler and is a Grove City alum. So that had something to do with us moving to Pittsburgh. But we joined because at the time, we were trying to get people to know us. We wanted to meet like-minded people and educate them on who we were. As time has rolled on, we've been here for 12 years now in the city, and I think that people know us. So now it's more about the services that the Tech Council offers: the training programs, the events, the opportunity to meet other companies that are doing similar things and meeting companies that are doing things quite different than us.
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Sheena Carroll4:35
And it's companies like you that is why we do these things. So really glad to offer those services, and I was really glad to talk to you today. Thank you so much for coming in.
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David Blakeney4:46
Thank you, it's my pleasure.
