Steve Ballmer Was Personally Pitching Silicon Valley Companies On Making Windows 8 Apps

APSteve BallmerWhen Steve Ballmer leaves Microsoft, the company is going to lose its most passionate pitchman.

Flipboard CEO Mike McCue told us over lunch that his company built an app for Windows 8. We were a little surprised since Windows 8 is not the platform that most popular applications are putting huge resources towards.

McCue says part of the reason Flipboard decided to build for Windows 8 is that Ballmer came to the Flipboard offices with his team, and new Surface tablets before they were released to pitch the company on building for Windows 8.

Ballmer was "truly impressive," said McCue, and he found his "evangelism for the product" to be inspiring.

Flipboard wasn't the only company Ballmer visited. He was going around to other companies in Silicon Valley talking up Windows 8.

Ballmer has taken a lot of shots through the years from the tech world, some fair, some unfair. There's one thing that's simply undeniable about him, though: He loves Microsoft, and is a true blue believer in the company.

There's just no way that the person who takes over as CEO will have the same sort of passion for Microsoft and its products.