Brad Feld RSS Feed: Wanna Play Zynga Games With Me?

[David Sandusky]

My RSS Feed is a Thinker and Has Just Posted the Following:

We recently made another Foundry Group investment in the Zynga Game Network.  Brad Stone wrote a great article about Zynga in the NYTimes about it titled More Than Games, a Net to Snare Social Networkers.
One of my co-investors - Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures - wrote a nice overview of how he came to make this investment.  I vividly remember seeing my long time friend Mark Pincus' name pop up as the author of Texas Hold'em on Facebook one day over the summer and thinking "hmmm - what's Mark up to?" 
In six months Mark has put together a remarkable company.  In our first conversation about Zynga, Mark explained his vision of social gaming to me.  I've been a long time on and off gamer - I like puzzle and interactive games, but not first person shooters or MMOGs - so the idea of the intersection of casual games and Facebook immediately appealed to me. 
I've become a complete Scramble addict (remember Boggle?), although my partner Ryan's wife Katherine continues to cream me regularly.  The Zynga games are coming fast and furiously - the current catalog includes Poker, Attack, Blackjack, Battleship, Scramble, Diveman, Triumph, Social Chat, Stickerz, Dopewars, and a bunch of others you'll be seeing soon.
Zynga isn't limited to Facebook - the games have now launched on Bebo and Friendster and are coming to other social networks near you in the next few weeks.
Mark is an 100% on the go, non-stop, take no prisoners entrepreneur.  In six months, he's created a game network of over 10 million users and over 700,000 unique players each day.  I love working with guys like Mark.  And I love that he's named his company after his dog.




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