Written by Irina Belsky
Background
IRL Gaming is a tech start-up focused on building engaging location based, social games for mobile and web enabled devices. It is part of the first wave of tech start-ups funded by Startmate seed fund which launched in Sydney early this year.
The first location based game to come out of IRL Gaming is called Zombie Hood, which is fusion of Mafia Wars and Foursquare. The location based battle game allows players to scavenge venues for loot, fight zombies and form teams with other players to help them reclaim their neighbourhood.
iPitch caught up with Henry Cho, one of the four founders of IRL Gaming, to hear about the progress the startup has made from its inception twelve months ago to where it is now.
The idea
Henry says that it was foursquare fatigue that lead the four founders to begin working on their idea. “Basically we were all foursquare users and we were getting pretty bored with that. We didn’t really feel that it was going anywhere.”As a result they decided to use the concept of foursquare to provide users with a more interactive and engaging experience.
Startmate
The founders went through Startmate program while they were sketching out their idea. Henry comments that traveling to the Silicon Valley as part of the program provided them with the most opportunity. “When you go to the Valley there’s a whole different world there, there is a lot of investment going on.” he says. The trip gave the team exposure to “a lot of interested people” and allowed them to pitch their idea to angel investors in the area as well as to startup accelerator 500 startups .
Early challenges
Like many startups, keeping the momentum of the project going amongst other work commitments was difficult, but Henry comments adamantly, “You just have to deal with it, you just have to decide that you want to keep going”.
Looking back at their Silicon Valley experience he reflects “when we went to the Valley the first time we didn’t really have any traction. It was our first proof of concept and I think people were a bit hesitant at that stage”.
During the time, IRL Gaming was in its pre-beta stage and there was no traction to demonstrate to the investors; however the startup is in a very different position now.
Current stage
The first game to come out of IRL Gaming is Zombie Hood - a location based game that allows players to fight zombies in their neighbourhood. The founders have been working on improving the game and are about to release a new version.
“We just passed the 10 000 user mark and we’re just about to release the new release, so we’ll expect a much higher retention of users and much higher rate of recommendation based growth” the co-founder explains.
Business model
The business model used by IRL Gaming has also undergone a transformation. There are in fact several revenue streams which include internet purchases, promotions and digitalisation.
Internet purchases: Players are able to purchase items to allow them to continue playing the game. “You can purchase additional weapons and additional stamina”, says Henry. “The research we did on gaming showed that the whole gaming market is moving now, so this is one way to avoid piracy and you can still convert players to paying customers.”
Promotions through virtual branded goods: In addition to internet purchases users will be able to buy virtual goods associated with a brand, such as branded energy drinks.
Digitalisation: Users will be able to buy real goods like drinks, scan them into the game and use them. “We’ve taken the concept of branded goods further and said that not only can you place a branded good into the game, you can take a real good and put it into the game for a benefit.”
At the moment the game is “getting a steady revenue from internet purchases” while the promotions won’t be rolled out until there is a bigger user base.
Marketing
The marketing strategy of the startup depends on finding the right product market fit, according to Henry. “At this stage we’re really in the product market fit stage. That means making sure that the users that we do have are using the game the way we want them to use it. When we know we’ve got the right thing, then we can pour fuel on the fire in terms of marketing and advertising spend.”
User experience
In order to make sure users are using the game in the right way, the founders have been analysing the way people interact with it. Henry’s background is rooted in user experience and he explains that the effectiveness of the process relies on “being able to research people’s needs and intentions and interpret them”.
The founders look at “how long people use it for, what actions they are doing in the game, what actions they take before buying something” to establish gaming patterns and habits. Alternatively they also look for problematic areas to make functionalities more clear. “We keep going around that loop.”
Goals
The founders aim to get the next release out before Christmas and to bump up their user base to 50 000 users by their next trip to the Silicon Valley in March of next year. Now that the game has user traction the entrepreneurs plan to pitch it to investors in the US again. “So the idea is to launch and refine and keep on doing that pattern” concludes Henry.
Entrepreneur Learnings
The pitch
The startup’s pitch in the US received an overwhelmingly positive feedback from 500 startups and we asked Henry to explain how it was structured.
Henry: “We did the pitch using prezi motion and graphics presentation tool. We also had all four of us on stage presenting, so it was quite dynamic, quite theatrical and pretty quickly paced. We really took them on our journey and the basis of our pitch was to show everyone that we have pace and momentum and to get them caught up in the idea.
If you’d like to see the pitch you can find the video here.
Advice for entrepreneurs
“You’ve really got to believe in your idea and assemble a team that really believes in it because you’re going to go through tough times and your team is crucial. And you’ll hear a lot of the mentors say that what helps investors pick is looking at the idea, the size of the market and the team, how well do they get on”.
Signing off
IRL Gaming has come a long way, proving that passion and people are what drives your idea forward.
We will certainly be watching out for future developments with anticipation.
