Ricochet Labs

A Mobile Social Game Layer Across All Knowledge

About

A Game Layer Across All Knowledge
Ricochet's mobile social location-aware platform, called Qrank, makes it easy for anyone with content to create mobile games that you want to play with people around you.

As users, we consume tons of information in bite-sized chunks throughout our day. You're at a redlight, you reach for your phone. In line for coffee? About to turn in for the night? On the toilet? You're checking your phone, right? 

That may be great for users, but it's a world of pain for any company that has content.    

A news outlet, a sports franchise, a test prep company -- they're all struggling to engage mobile users in those little pockets of time throughout our day when we reach for our phones. 

Ricochet cures that pain.  We've built a platform that takes a classic form of gameplay, the question and answer quiz, and injects it with all of the cool stuff we love about our mobile devices -- like location awareness, social sharing, badges, chatting, leaderboards.  And we've packaged it into a self-serve toolkit that lets any customer -- big or small -- create and deploy their own games.
  • Games that engage users with your content in sticky and effective ways.
  • Games that capture all sorts of valuable data about your users. 
  • And games that actually reflect where your users are in the world.

The Team

Expertise in mobile, social and scalable technologies
Management

Rodney Gibbs, Co-Founder
A two-time entrepreneur, Rodney co-founded Fizz Factor, a game studio that he sold to Amaze Entertainment.  While leading Fizz, he shipped over five million units for several of the world’s largest game brands.  With longtime technical partner Michael Baird, he founded Ricochet Labs.  Rodney lends his digital media experience to several boards, including the Austin Film Society; KUT, Austin's NPR affiliate; and KLRU, Austin's PBS affiliate.

Michael Baird, Co-Founder
As technical director of Fizz Factor, Michael oversaw development and spearheaded cross-platform tech sharing between studios.  He co-authored the company’s Nintendo DS engine, which has shipped over 70 titles.  As tech director or lead programmer, he led technical teams on 12 console and handheld titles.  Michael comes to games from a web startup background.

Advisors

Ross Fubini — Kapor Capital, Cubetree, SuccessFactors
Jason Goldman — Twitter, Google, Obvious
Higinio Maycotte — Umbel, Texas Tribune, Flightlock
Kip McClanahan — Silverton Partners, ON Networks, Tipping Point
Jason Reneau — Mindbites, FreeMarkets,
Kiva Systems

QRANK

A Daily Social Quiz Game
Our daily branded quiz game QRANK was the first use of our social mobile platform.  Check it out on iOS or Facebook.

Here's what folks say about QRANK:
  • QRANK is “the quick-hit, wildly addictive current-affairs trivia game that lets you compete against your friends all day, every day.  No better excuse to stay informed.” — Esquire
  • “QRANK brings me back to how I felt watching 
Jeopardy! in the family room.”  — The New Yorker
  • QRANK is one of “5 important new trends in location.” — Mashable
  • “One of our five favorite games of 2010,” 
along with God of War 3, Halo: Reach & Rock Band 3 — Attack of the Show
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