BART DECREM: Aligning People, Passion and Purpose

*NOTE: This post was written and based on an interview I did with Bart Decrem (currently the CEO of Tapulous, the maker of one of the iPhone's most downloaded apps, Tap Tap Revenge), way back in 2007. This interview was before he founded Tapulous, but gives some great insights into Bart the person and innovator, as well as the motivations that drive him. I'll catch up with Bart and post an updated post soon. Til' then, enjoy. 

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When Bart Decrem talks about his passion for world travel, it becomes very clear that his interest lies more in the people he meets along the way than the places he visits. While he’s clearly passionate about experiencing new places and cultures, I get the sense that for Bart, it’s all about collecting the background information to help him understand people better.

 And though his interest in people is certainly global, there is no doubting Bart’s love for the Valley’s tech culture as well. Bart, who was born in Belgium and attended a French university, landed himself at Stanford Law mostly because he wanted to be in the Silicon Valley, though he knew he’d, “never be an engineer.”

 “I knew I wanted to be in the Silicon Valley, so I figured Stanford was a good place to be – if nothing else – for the sake of the proximity,” says Bart.

His first year at Stanford, he attended his first MacWorld Expo and ran across a booth for a program called Computers and You, which was a free program run out of San Francisco’s Glide Memorial Church that taught people computer skills. Someone suggested that Bart start something similar in his own area. He was living in East Palo Alto at the time, and decided to start volunteering at a local Boys and Girls Club in East Menlo Park where he taught kids how to use the Internet.

 “It was great. I got to be a geek, but still help kids that needed help,” says Bart.