Jen Folse, the former Apple TV executive who is best known to Apple followers for her on-stage presentations at Apple events, has left the company for the startup Caffeine.
Caffeine is a social broadcasting platform for gaming, entertainment, and other artistic content. Folse will take the role as new Vice President of Product, helping to company to create its product roadmap, among other things.
Folse started her career at Apple as a senior product designer back in May 2010. She played a key role in the development and release of four iterations of Apple TV. Ben Keighran, CEO of Caffeine, is another former Apple employee, having joined the company in 2012 when Apple acquired his app search startup Chomp. He left in 2016.
“I worked with Jen for years at Apple, and could not be more excited to have her on board to shepherd our product experience, roadmap, and product design teams through the development process,” Keighran said in a statement. “She is a phenomenal product design leader and executor and I look forward to working with her as we grow the Caffeine platform.”
Here in 2018, Apple TV seems somewhat at a crossroads. Despite improvements, the set-top box is still a bit player with some glaring weaknesses and a lack of developer engagement.
On the other hand, Apple is now heavily involved in creating its own original programming, and may launch its own Netflix-style subscription service — which could certainly help boost Apple TV sales.
We wish Jen Folse the best for her new job.
