GamearraY and me...

Today I have ended my involvement with GamearraY, the start-up company I founded 2.5 years ago. I cannot go into too much detail about the circumstances that led to this right now, but suffices to say that this was definitely the right move both for me and the company.

I am now developing a new idea and also seeking new opportunities, but I thought this might be a good time to summerize my time at GamearraY.

Starting a company from scratch was a real experience, and not as easy as it looks... It all started with an idea back in the end of 2003, that unlike other ideas that pop out from time to time, this one didn't fade and all my searches in the internet didn't show that anyone does it (unlike most ideas which are already in market by the time you think of them...)

The original idea was to develop a generic mobile game engine that can run proprietary game files. So in 2004 I sat down and started my own "garage company" in my house (BTW - I have no garage...) and started working on the engine. I wrote it in J2ME, since I was very familiar with Java (Didn't take any market considerations into account, but luckily for me J2ME turned out to be the de-facto standard in Europe and also very dominant in other regions).

After writing the engine, I needed some files to test it with. It became very elaborate and generic so simple "dummy" files didn't do it anymore. So I went out and wrote a very basic editor for the files, first for my personal use, but very soon I realized that this can be the framework in which game developers that want to work with the engine use.

The engine grew and the editor grew. and I always tried to find a way to make my editing work easier, so it took the form of an interface, not very user friendly, but geek friendly... I then realized that since I am not using any code to build the game files, but rather upload images, sounds and defining rules from combo boxes or free text fields, not only developers can use it, but the end users themselves. I wasn't really aware of the user generated content trend that was brewing up, but this made the most sense to me.

Aside from the R&D progress, I made a connection with one of Israel's biggest operators. The people who first saw the product (which was very basic at the time) were excited, but gave me a few things they would have liked to see (mainly interface issues...). I returned with the changes and started meeting after meeting. I thought everything was going fine, until I reached the actual decision maker - who didn't seem to like it...

So there I was with what I thought was a great product and no clients... Up until this point I was working as a one-man bootstrap company, funding myself through freelance projects, but at this point I decided I should get an investment. I went out and searched for a business partner so we can go as a team to investors. I found a partner (that later on when we got the investment didn't join from personal reasons) and we started "raiding" VCs. I don't think there's a VC in Israel we didn't try to get into...

The response rate from VCs was quite good and we had a lot of first meetings and sometimes second ones, but Israeli VCs unfortunetaly for us, were not that into the games/entertainment thing, most looked for a server-side platform, and this was not a surprise since VCs here are more focused on the traditional areas Israel is known for: secturity, enterprise software etc. (Things have change since, but not that much in my opinion).

At the end there were a few VCs that held extensive due-diligence with us, and the first one to take it to a term sheet was JVP Studio, an incubator that gets its funding from the Chief Scientist of Israel and JVP one of the biggest funds in Israel.

Getting funded by JVP was a major breakthrough of course, and it happened about 1.5 years after I started working on the idea, but then I realized that I am just getting started....

I started recruiting engineers and team leaders, it was not easy finding the right people but once I did I knew I had the "good guys". We started working day and night to release a demo version, which was surprisingly enough done in just 2 months, and looked 10 times better than the interface I worked with... After the demo came the alpha and after the alpha came the beta.... Now all of those fit in one sentence but it was long months of burning the midnight oil and sometimes working at weekends....

Eventually we signed an agreement with Orange Israel, another big Israeli operator. We were also given international recognition at the Orange group innovation contest at Cadiz when we became one of the top-5 finalists (out of around 80 companies), and then were also featured on the java.com site.

We went live with Orange in March 2007, more than 3 years after the original concept was thought of, and I must say you know when you start, but you don't know how it'll end up - the product was a very new and improved version of the original prototype, and the hard work that was invested on it by all team members could have been seen.

We were all very encouraged to see on the first month that a lot of users are using it - and I mean a lot. Every minute a new game was created, and downloads were also done in great numbers (I remember the development team sitting and clicking on a virtual bell saying "another satisfied customer"... the phrase from the known Seinfeld episode...)

In addition we saw several competitors rise Other companies started offering user generated games (mobile and online), but all were behind us in terms of features and market (Most were beta services, while we had a commercial deployment - granted it was in Israel which is a tiny market, but still better than nothing).

Anyway, it was a hell of a run. Currently the company is working on a different product (but still connected to the mobile and gaming spaces), and I wish them luck in the coming deployments. I had my reasons for parting ways (which I can't detail here...), and it was all done and coordinated with the investors, shareholders and management so everything was done in good terms and I believe all parties are happy with the agreement we reached (I know I am...). And so it became that last Thursday I have parted with the great team I've enjoyed working with, and left the company.

So, what now? Well, first I will continue to lead Mobile Monday Tel Aviv which I recently founded. I believe it is a great platform which is currently missing in Israel's mobile scene, and as one of the industry players I felt I should pick that glove up and make it happen.

In addition I intend to spend some time in consulting projects in the fields I am most known for, and eventually bring another venture to life (I already started drafting some stuff on the drawing board a day after I left...), and of course still posting from time to time in this blog...