Surya Jayaweera
| Surya Jayaweera | |
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| Alma mater | Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, California) |
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| Known for | Developer of PocketGenie |
Surya Jayaweera is an American entrepreneur, inventor, and angel investor. He is also the developer of PocketGenie, an embedded wireless application developed for two-way pagers.[1] He has two patents issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office for his inventions.[2][3]
Early life
Surya attended Harvey Mudd College and received his B.S. degree in Engineering in 1996. Not long after graduating college, while sitting at a park reading a Popular Science article about Motorola's new PageWriter, Jayaweera developed an idea for a breakthrough software application that would allow consumers to visit websites wirelessly, using a 2-way pager.[4] Jayaweera pitched the idea directly to Motorola during COMDEX, a computer trade show. In early 1997, while at Motorola's headquarters in Florida, a deal was made which led to the foundation of WolfeTech Development Corporation. Jayaweera's software would later be known as PocketGenie, which granted consumers access to a collection of pre-set informational services such as flight times, weather conditions, movie times, among others. PocketGenie was officially launched in 1998 and made commercially available for the Motorola PageWriter 2000 and Research In Motion (BlackBerry) devices.[5][6][7]
Career
In 2003, WolfeTech was named one of California's top three software developing companies of the year. Surya grew WolfeTech to a value of $85 million while simultaneously employing over 50 people. To grow and expand WolfeTech, Jayaweera formed partnerships with companies such as The Weather Channel, Movielink, NewsAlert, ActiveDiner, Lucent Technologies Inc., Nettech Systems, SatCon Communications Europa, WebLink Wireless, Premiere 1 Wireless, SkyTel and Motient. Surya also developed an HTML-based web browser called Pi (Pocket Internet). At that time, wireless devices used Wireless Application Protocol to access the internet as opposed to the traditional Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which computers used. Since all websites were built in Hypertext Markup Language, HTTP was the standard method to access them. The downside was that devices using WAP could only access websites that supported it, and at the time, only about 5 to 10 percent of websites did; so browsing options were limited. However, because Pi was an HTML-based browser, it did not have the same limitation. This allowed the user to browse any website, just like on a computer.[8]
Though PocketGenie was the flagship product of WolfeTech, there were others as well. These included Pi, Sigma, an enterprise application server that enabled companies to create their own secure apps for employees to use and WolfeStock, a real-time stock tracker.[9]
In 2005, Surya launched a second tech startup, GXB Interactive, which developed interactive learning games for Nintendo's handheld gaming consoles, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Surya formed a partnership with Tomy Company and together they brought the games to market. The most notable releases were two games for Nintendo's Game Boy Advance, Math Patrol – The Kleptoid Threat (2007) and Word Safari: The Friendship Totem (2007).[10] GXB's most recent project, MIDI Piano Teacher MusicMaster, was an app released for Android in 2015.[11]
In 2011 Surya worked for Research In Motion (BlackBerry) working on business development, with emphasis on negotiations in Latin America. Later, in 2012 he headed up business development for Samsung Electronics. This included developing strategic partnerships with top tier media service providers based in the Americas.
In 2013, Surya joined DTS Inc. as VP of Business Development. During his time at the company, DTS made global partners with Samsung, LG, Google, Netflix, Vudu, Starz, Comcast and others. Surya is also a member of the Southern California investment network, Tech Coast Angels, which is the largest angel investor group in the world. In 2011, Jayaweera was the youngest elected president of the network (Inland Valley) and also served as an Executive Board Member in which he oversaw a $3 million investment fund.[12]
References
- ↑ A Genie Grants Wish for Tiny Web Surfer Karen Kaplan, 8 September 1997 LA Times 23 December 2016
- ↑ Email collaboration manager- USPTO patent Google Patents 23 December 2016
- ↑ Educational Interactive Video Game and Method for Enhancing Gaming Experience Beyond a Mobile Gaming Device Platform Google Patent 23 December 2016
- ↑ Hot high-tech entrepreneurs Michelle Prathar March 1, 1999 Entrepreneur (magazine) 23 December 2013
- ↑ WolfeTech PocketGenie on Channel 7 Eyewitness news ABC News 23 December 2016
- ↑ Hermann, David. It's Your Business: Entrepreneur's epiphany engineers success. Los Angeles Times. 21 March 2001.
- ↑ Extending the Blackberry 23 December 2016
- ↑ New pagers will offer Internet access September 9, 1997 CNN 23 December 2016
- ↑ Commercial Release of WolfeTech Sigma Mobile Enterprise Solution for Motient Network 23 December 2016
- ↑ Calling All Kids to Defend the Galaxy! Math Patrol(TM): The Kleptoid Threat for Game Boy(R) Advance & Nintendo DS(TM) Available Now From GXB Interactive and TOMY 23 December 2016
- ↑ Learning System from GXB Interactive and TOMY Delivers State & National Education Standards to Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS 23 December 2016
- ↑ Tech Coast Angels aims to invest in area entrepreneurs Rebecca U. Cho 21 July 2010 The Sun 23 December 2016