Hiroshi Lockheimer loves seeing his work in the hands of strangers.

That simple fact is what he credits with his decision to take a job at Google a decade ago — and maybe, just maybe, give himself the chance to have his software show up on phones around the world.

It was a dream that seemed both distant and wild at the time.

“We were a tiny, tiny part of Google,” Lockheimer remembers, thinking back to his early days with the company — when Android was still a closely guarded top-secret project. “We were kind of an outpost of an outpost of an outpost type of thing.”

Lockheimer and his team spent months meeting with manufacturers and getting them on board with their vision. It’s hard to even fathom this now, but convincing the companies that their humble-looking effort had the power to upend the mobile market — well, let’s just say it wasn’t easy.

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