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12 Year Old Gets $6.5M for Gaming Company
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Sep 20, 2007 04:39 AM
from the that's-a-lot-of-candy dept.
from the that's-a-lot-of-candy dept.
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."
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12 Year Old Gets $6.5M for Gaming Company
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bubble 2.0 (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.footballfans.tv/)
Re:bubble 2.0 (Score:4, Funny)
Incorrect linkage (Score:5, Informative)
(http://kaa.blogspot.com/)
Sloppy.
Re:Incorrect linkage (Score:5, Funny)
(http://thirdprize.blogspot.com/index.html)
Re:Incorrect linkage (Score:5, Informative)
Re:bubble 2.0 (Score:5, Interesting)
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:bubble 2.0 (Score:5, Insightful)
(http://www.vanderlee.com/)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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:bubble 2.0 (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Thursday November 08, @06:00PM)
His future plans (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.christopherculver.com/)
From the article:
Re:His future plans (Score:5, Funny)
(http://finchworld.hopto.org/)
Finally! A Slashdot story we can all relate to!
Re:His future plans (Score:5, Funny)
Even better
Aren't dangling participles fun?
Re:His future plans (Score:5, Funny)
(http://www.christopherculver.com/)
dupe (Score:2)
Re:dupe (Score:5, Funny)
In other words, could someone check whether that company still exists?
Re:dupe (Score:5, Funny)
riight. (Score:5, Funny)
a bit like "doogie howser MD" only real, remember that?
Re:riight. (Score:5, Insightful)
(Last Journal: Sunday November 05 2006, @05:31AM)
I say, good for him.
Now the VC, on the other hand, is probably out of his mind.
-jcr
Confused (Score:2, Informative)
misleading title (Score:2)
I thought the kid had sold his company for $6.5m
It's not really the kid running the company. (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Funny)
(Last Journal: Friday October 19, @12:23PM)
Lame (Score:1)
I wonder... (Score:5, Funny)
I'll have to ask her sometime.
The correct link.. (Score:5, Informative)
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:The correct link.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What really doesn't make sense (Score:4, Interesting)
(http://theravensnest.org/ | Last Journal: Sunday October 07, @07:05AM)
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.
Hmm yase (Score:1)
Micropayments? (Score:3, Insightful)
(http://www.parallelrealities.co.uk/)
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...
After reading the real article (Score:4, Insightful)
The harsh reality (Score:5, Informative)
Hmm. Isn't this already patented? (Score:5, Funny)
That's NOTHING (Score:2)
We humans seem to very quickly forget the not too distant past.
Where's the perpective? (Score:5, Insightful)
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! (Score:2)
(http://www.petesmith.co.nz/)
Wrong title, fixed title below (Score:4, Informative)
(http://www.devinmoore.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday May 24, @06:16AM)
Eh the link in the article links to wrong story (Score:1)
(http://www.jenom.com/)
Submitting your own articles to Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Informative)
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.
So he's a goddamned gold farmer ? (Score:1)
(http://fnarg.com/)
So he's just one of those thousands of annoying twits who spam the MMOs with "fast, cheap gold" and other game-spoiling ventures. I'm sure he's passionate, alright... but not passionate about the games, it's the money he's after.
Man, that's really young to be so corrupt!
If only it IPO'd (Score:2)
I wish ... (Score:2, Funny)
(http://www.jenom.com/)
Games Company Wannabes (Score:2, Interesting)
They tell us how they have a great "idea" for a game. They want programmers to work for them; we ask what they will contribute, and it's "ideas". We tell them that it's like someone with no experience in car design saying they have a great idea for a car, and expecting a company to make it. Typically they want to make a complex game, and most popular of all, it's MMORPGs - so not only do you have the complexities of making a game, but also all the troubles of running a server.
Misleading articles such as this make me sad - promoting that ideas are important, and an idea is all it takes to get funding, and get into the business. No doubt this will encourage more people to post "I have great idea for a game, I wanna make a MMORPG".
I'm sure most of us had money-making ideas when we were 12. Some of us pulled it off when we were older, some of us didn't. But there's nothing special about ideas.
Is it even legal for a 12 year old to be in busine (Score:1)
Great... (Score:1)
(http://blog.humanmodem.com/)
Pay for sex? (Score:1)
Gold Farmer makes it big... (Score:1)
What online game was this? Unless it was Second Life, that would more than likely be a violation of the game's terms of service. So, how long before thay start demanding a piece of the action?
Models, and Now Engineers? (Score:1)
When I was 12 I programmed a lemonade store where I could sell fictional lemonade to my brothers and sister. I made about $.45 off that puppy. I think I wrote it in BASIC and it ran on a Commodore 64. Somehow, even with a modern computer, I know I wouldn't have been much more capable in present day computing to sell my lemonade stand for anything more than a dollar - and that prob would've come from my mother. Sigh.
Back to work, a little sadder that I'm 33 and all washed up.
Lame (Score:1)
not run by kid (Score:2)
(Last Journal: Monday February 03 2003, @08:59PM)