An intimate breakfast with David Hauser @dh, Founder of Grasshopper

A note from Giang: David Hauser, founder of Grasshopper, was in town, and I did what I always try to do with out-of-town guests: organize a little intimate welcome/get-together with them for a small group of LA startup entrepreneurs. This time, it was a breakfast at the W hotel in Westwood last Friday.  Below is a write-up from Cassie Rice. Cassie Rice is the founder of Social Blaze and a strong advocate for the LA startup community. You should say hi to her on Twitter at @cassie_rice.
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David Hauser, the Founder of Grasshopper, was in town for a very short period of time to speak at the Entrepreneur’s Organization event held at UCLA. Giang was nice enough to arrange a breakfast with him for 9 Los Angeles startup entrepreneurs the morning of his departure.

We had a lively discussion with David about all kinds of things ranging from the way he runs his business, to his new startup, Spreadable, to location-based applications such as Foursquare and Gowalla. It was especially interesting to talk to David since he bootstrapped Grasshopper; it’s so rare to hear about successful companies in the tech industry who bootstrapped.

During our discussion, David talked about the culture of Grasshopper. For example, everyone of his employees speak to customers on the phone at least 5 times a week to stay in touch with Grasshopper’s customers and their needs. This is definitely something all entrepreneurs should consider doing to keep everyone on board with the product.

From this breakfast chat, I got such a great impression of David Hauser. He is a genuine entrepreneur who really wants to empower other entrepreneurs. The companies he started clearly represent that.

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If you haven’t seen them, David and his team are the people behind these amazing viral videos: