12 Year Old Gets $6.5M for Gaming Company

Bayscribe writes "A Silicon Valley company co-founded by a 12-year-old has just raised $6.5 million in venture capital. PlaySpan, based in Santa Clara, Calif. says it offers game publishers a technology that lets users make payments and shop for other items. It calls itself the first "publisher-sponsored in-game commerce network." Arjun Mehta, a 6th grader, says on his Web site that he is passionate about software that can make the game experience more "rewarding," and that he started the company last year in his garage. He paid for it from earnings made from selling online game items he won."

bubble 2.0

[wwmedia (950346)]

i smell another dot com bubble bursting

Re:bubble 2.0

[Opportunist (166417)]

*sniff* Oh, ok. I already thought someone had something reeeeally bad for lunch.

Incorrect linkage

[asliarun (636603)]

The linkage in the article is incorrect. The linked article talks about a startup (Elementeo) founded by a 13 year old kid named Anshul Samar, and NOT about PlaySpan, supposedly founded by 12 year old named Arjun Mehta.

Sloppy.

Re:Incorrect linkage

[ThirdPrize (938147)]

If the editors don't even RTFAs before posting them, why shoud we? ;)

Re:Incorrect linkage

[jettawu (1030820)]

a quick search for PlaySpan turned up a few links: techcrunch.com [techcrunch.com] and Yahoo Biz [yahoo.com]

Re:bubble 2.0

[discord5 (798235)]

i smell another dot com bubble bursting

Nope, those are the diapers these babies are still wearing.

Who invests money in 12 year olds? Who is so insane to do such a thing? Sure, 12 year olds can be bright, talented and even gifted, but I wouldn't trust a 12 year old with 6.5M $, nor his 11 year old vice-president of sales sister for that matter, to make correct business decisions.

I think it's time I try to sell this kid my 6.5M matchbox car. It's a classic collectors item, worth meeeeellions on ebay.

Re:

[iamhassi (659463)]

"Who invests money in 12 year olds? ... I wouldn't trust a 12 year old with 6.5M $"

Maybe someone that wants to lose 6.5M?

I love the end of the article "No word on when PlaySpan will be launching."

His entire company is a website describing a great idea and that's all it is. The software will never launch. Why would it? He has 6.5 million, technically owned by his parents because children don't really control anything unless they're emancipated, he can't even sign a contract.

If I was his parent

Re:

[jcr (53032)]

Project much?

-jcr

Re:bubble 2.0

[mwvdlee (775178)]

From the summary it reads like he created an in-game way to buy items.
I'm pretty sure I've seen this before (i.e. Second Life) and no company worth it's salt would have any trouble implementing this themselves.

Re:bubble 2.0

[Seumas (6865)]

I smell someone with a dad in the industry who gave him access to all the necessary advantages.

These wonder-kids never spring up out of trailer parks where mom and dad flip burgers and the most advanced high-tech device they own is a VCR.

Re:

[lawpoop (604919)]

You know what? I think you're right. This totally makes sense. Dad has high-powered connections -- doctors, lawyers, bankers -- none of whom understand technology. Like every parent, he keeps telling them over and over again how his son is a genius on the computer. Finally they witness some small demonstration of his supposed genius -- the ability to pay for items in a game -- and either they think it's cute, until they hear his pie-in-the-sky dreams of how he could take over the internet, OR they immediate

Re:bubble 2.0

[Otter (3800)]

Nonsense! The OLPC people have explained very clearly how software they don't have time to implement themselves will be written for them by kids who have never seen a light bulb before.

Re:

[soliptic (665417)]

You jest, but actually there is good reason to suspect kids in developing countries with no real techno-experience and no training provided will happily get to grips with computers [greenstar.org]. It's anecdotal I know, but it's a very interesting article, I'd recommend reading it.

His future plans

[CRCulver (715279)]

From the article:

Mehta said that he now intended to drop out of the sixth grade. "School is great, but now that I've got a multi-million dollar company, I need to concentrate on that. After all, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs did it. Sixth grade will still be there waiting for me in a few years. Now excuse me while I ask my mom to drive me in my new Ferrari to the mall."

Re:His future plans

[FinchWorld (845331)]

Now excuse me while I ask my mom to drive me in my new Ferrari to the mall.

Finally! A Slashdot story we can all relate to!

Re:His future plans

[value_added (719364)]

Finally! A Slashdot story we can all relate to!

Even better ...

he started the company last year in his garage. He paid for it from earnings made from selling online game items he won."

Dunno about you, but I've always dreamed of moving out of the basement and buying my own garage.

Aren't dangling participles fun? ;-)

Re:

[Cheerio Boy (82178)]

I could only dream of a basement, I lived in the corridor! You had it lucky!

Corridor!? You had it lucky! I used to live in the tape spool of a PDP-7! Half the day going 'round one way then half the day going 'round the other way....was enough to make me sick to my stomach all the time! And I _still_ had to do my sysadmin work!

Re:His future plans

[CRCulver (715279)]

*whoosh*

dupe

[the_unknown_soldier (675161)]

Not only is this story almost certainly a dupe, it's also over 4 months old.

Re:dupe

[Opportunist (166417)]

Not only is this story almost certainly a dupe, it's also over 4 months old.

In other words, could someone check whether that company still exists?

Re:

[troc (3606)]

I remember when this was all fields..... :)

Re:dupe

[Puff of Logic (895805)]

Fields? Huh. I remember when this was all molten rock and hadn't even finished cooling yet! Now you kids get off of my lawn!

Molten rock? Luxury! We used to have to bring our own interstellar dust in a bucket and hope that we could pile up enough to have it hold together under its own gravity!

riight.

[apodyopsis (1048476)]

dupe or not - that kid has just got to be an insufferable, annoying little snot.

a bit like "doogie howser MD" only real, remember that?

Re:riight.

[jcr (53032)]

Until and unless you meet the kid, your assumptions about his character are nothing but projections of your jealousy.

I say, good for him.

Now the VC, on the other hand, is probably out of his mind.

-jcr

Re:

[cowboy76Spain (815442)]

Until and unless you meet the kid, your assumptions about his character are nothing but projections of your jealousy. ... Now the VC, on the other hand, is probably out of his mind.

Have you met the venture capitalists?

Re:

[jcr (53032)]

Have you met the venture capitalists?

Not this particular bunch, but I've met enough VCs to hold them in low regard in general.

-jcr

Re:

[GeckoX (259575)]

And I've met enough 12 year olds to know this is not something ANY 12 year old I've ever met could handle.

Yet you flog one person for suggesting that, but flip when the discussion turns to the VC's...why the hypocrisy? Your original point was a good one, having not met the kid, lets not judge him...but you'd best carry that through or you start coming off as an ass.

Confused

[clarkkent09 (1104833)]

Is it just me or the summary bears no relation to the article it links to. The article talks about this kid inventing a board game, not "a technology that lets users make payments and shop for other items".

misleading title

[rpillala (583965)]

I thought the kid had sold his company for $6.5m

It's not really the kid running the company.

[by Anonymous Coward]

The actual article is here [venturebeat.com].

Apparently the kid isn't an actual co-founder, nor the CEO. It's his father running everything, the kid is just a sensationalist marketing tool.

Really, I highly doubt these kids even know a tiny fraction about the technical aspects of what they're selling or how it's done. They'll get lots of money for sure, and also learn a whole lot along the way, but they're definitely not the brains or management behind the operation at the moment.

Kids today grow up so fast

[Nymz (905908)]

This one turned 13 before I got to the article.

I wonder...

[farkus888 (1103903)]

I wonder if this is what my mom thought I could have been doing with my time when she kept yelling at me for wasting all my time touching myself when I was 12?

I'll have to ask her sometime.

Re:

[EllF (205050)]

Jealousy isn't quite so rational. (zing!)

Re:

[jollyreaper (513215)]

I wonder if this is what my mom thought I could have been doing with my time when she kept yelling at me for wasting all my time touching myself when I was 12?

I'll have to ask her sometime.

All I have to say is "thank God there weren't webcams back then." Ah, yes, that creepy line between capitalism and child abuse.

The correct link..

[slashmojo (818930)]

Makes slightly more sense with the correct link..

http://venturebeat.com/2007/09/19/playspan-run-12-year-old-ceo-gets-65m-in-venture-capital/ [venturebeat.com]

Which is not to say that investing $6.5M in a company run by a 12yo makes much sense but stranger things have happened at sea.. or so they say.

Re:

[drspliff (652992)]

I've yet to meet a 12 year old that was able to manage anything real-world, like a company involving millions of dollars of VC.

I was around the same age during (first) the .com bubble and came up with a few good ideas (some very web 2.0 ideas, like automatic bookmark uploading, sharing & sorting to keep your bookmarks online and share them with your friends or subscribe to other people's bookmarks or topics). However I never got any of them off the ground because 1) I didn't have any sense of business 2

Re:The correct link..

[Nazlfrag (1035012)]

You missed the point thanks to the Worst. Summary. EVER. If you had the dad this kid had, none of your other points would matter. The fact that his parents are exploiting their children for marketing hype seems to have been missed by everyone, all too happy to project their fantasies onto the hype.

What really doesn't make sense

[Sycraft-fu (314770)]

Is investing in a US based company that is based around selling items in video games. To the best of my knowledge, all MMORPGs fall in to one of two categories relating to online sales of in game stuff:

1) They support it fully, and thus facilitate it themselves like, say, Linden Labs. As such there's very little market for a secondary company, the operators already take care of things and they can offer things nobody else can, like security of transactions.

2) They hate it and it is a banable offence. Blizza

Re:What really doesn't make sense

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

The company seems to be aiming to sell their product / service to people who run MMORGs. I a few MMORGs start using it, then you could have interesting situations where people are trading objects in one world for ones in another. This could lead to inflation and exchange rate fluctuations between the two worlds much as you currently get between countries. I wonder what their plan is to counter this.

Micropayments?

[Rik Sweeney (471717)]

Isn't this just micropayments? Seriously, this is why gaming is dying. Developers will send out a half finished game and then charge people to download the extra content (i.e. the stuff they couldn't fit in before the deadline).

Let's face it, in a couple of years you'll get a game, say, Tekken where the character only has one costume. You'll then have to download the additional 5 different costumes at $2 a go. They'll do the same with maps and you'll only be able to play online with people who have also bought that map...

Re:

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

You paint a fairly bleak picture of the future. This could also be a means for returning some of the control of the industry to small-time developers. From your homepage and sig, I'll assume you are connected in some way to the Blob Wars series[1]. I enjoyed Metal Blob Solid, but most modern games are written by huge teams of people and a small project can't really compete with them. A few people, however, could write (and sell) a few levels and characters in an online game.

Remember Quake? The game

After reading the real article

[faloi (738831)]

It sounds like there's some speculation that the kid doesn't really have that much to do with the company at all. Except for being an effective way to generate press. Nobody pays much attention if some random guy gets a few million dollars for a gaming idea. But a 12-year old...that's news!

The harsh reality

[morpheus83 (708114)]

A comment says The story about 12 year old co-founder is a big oversell...I know because I broke the story on funding two days ago. The CEO Karl Mehta and Arjun's dad is the real guy behind it...arjun just came up with part of the idea for it, and is not really involved with the business per se. Arjun's mention on the site is a gimmick which will be rectified soon...the release doesn't mention him and for good reason. Venture beat is investigating it, turns out the it is a hoax. Father using his son to make millions.

Hmm. Isn't this already patented?

[someone1234 (830754)]

The chinese gold farmers do this since years, isn't there already a patent for this business method?

That's NOTHING

[Ancient_Hacker (751168)]

Some of you may recall a little bit of crazyness a few years back, where almost a MILLION times as much money as was handed to the 12 year old went down the drain. IIRC the final tab for that orgy was about nine *trillion* dollars.

We humans seem to very quickly forget the not too distant past.

Where's the perpective?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Has anyone drilled down to find out more info on the kid's background?
I have done a little, and no, it's not the kid in a vacuum making these
accomplishments. He's 12 years old and smart, not a super genius born with 142
man years of VC experience. That's not built into the genetic code or injected
in the pop tarts he eats. But his support network does have this VC experience.
You could have achieved similar things as a child, if:
- You lived in Silicon Valley
- Had a support network with VC pitching experience
- Had family with connections to above said group
- Had family that planned for your achievements

I've read gushing stories of young entrepreneurs that seem outlandish or super human
in accomplishment for their age. But, when I dive down into the details, more often than not, I find cases of ready made systems that will not let the child fail.
Stories of a young furniture magnate with 2 warehouses and a booming business, only to find that his father owns 12 warehouses as is accomplished in the furniture business. The media loves portraying these kids in a light of pure achievement with no mention of their contacts, support and guiding but that is dishonest reporting.

I guess it makes for a less interesting story when you see the looming shadow of a father pulling strings for the child like a puppet behind the curtain.
The child seems happy enough with the attention though.

Ooh, ditto!

[kiwioddBall (646813)]

and in other news, someone has decided that pets.com is a good idea

Wrong title, fixed title below

[192939495969798999 (58312)]

Should read: "12-year old takes credit for his father's entrepreneurship and garners headlines for his father's company, father rewards extra publicity with new ferrari which kid will subsequently wreck during driver's ed"

Submitting your own articles to Slashdot?

[superdude72 (322167)]

I couldn't help but notice that Bayscribe's (the submitter) e-mail handle is VentureBeat. So I'm assuming he wrote the article that the writeup links to? If so, that needs to be more clear in the writeup. It's not enough that the e-mail address is a tell. He isn't submitting this article as a disinterested third party who finds it interesting; he most likely wants to drive traffic to his site.

Kind of explains a lot, actually.

How very Web 2.0 Bubble...

Well, there goes 5 minutes I'll never get back.

Founder is his Father - Karl Mehta - a Hack

[by Anonymous Coward]

I know his father Karl Mehta. He hails from Bombay/India and is a known 'hack' in Silicon Valley devising all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes with his VC brother Miten Mehta (go google). This appears to be one of his yet-another pipedreams. His previous idea was Tradeits.com (www.tradeits.com) which didnt reach anywhere. More here: http://center.spoke.com/info/p2iETB/KarlMehta [spoke.com]

Please don't waste a min of your time on this crap. Arjun, his son, has no clue about what's going on - his father is using him for the dramatic effect.