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

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: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.

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:His future plans

[CRCulver (715279)]

*whoosh*

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

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.

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: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.

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?

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.

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.

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: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!