Last week I spoke with Rajat Paharia, CEO and founder of Social gaming company Bunchball, and board member Gene Mauro. Gene is a long time video game exec., started and operated several high profile game ventures including Capital Entertainment Group (with the founders of the Xbox) and Myelin Media (with billionaire Carl Icahn).
Bunchball has announced it has raised $2 million in first round funding. The Bay Area-based company raised the funds from Granite Ventures and Adobe Ventures, having previously received an angel round. The company aims to share revenue with the host sites, and also plans to launch a women’s TV network.
Via Mashable.
The company previously riased a small angel round. CEO Rajat Paharia is the former co-director of the Software Experiences Practice at IDEO- via PaidContent.
Gene and Rajat walked me through several integrations, some more impressive than others. At first I was hung up on the fact that the games looked a little Windows 3.1 for my liking. But the pair quickly showed me that they have much bigger plans than simple Flash gaming widgets for blogs and social networks.
Yes Virginia, collaborative games are coming to online dating, finally. It may not be like sitting across from each other at a candle-lit table, but it’s a huge improvement over browsing static profiles.
I won’t say much more at the moment except that gaming and collaborative 20-question style features would be a welcome addition to social networks and dating sites.
Pete at Mashable complains that only 200 people have installed the Bunchball widget on Myspace. Pete is missing the point. Bunchball is not a pure Myspace play and there is a lot more to the company’s business model than just a presence on Myspace and other social networks. That’s what happens when you just look at stats but Pete is a busy guy and often skimps on the depth of focus he can put into site reviews, which I am prone to do when there is such a torrent of information fighting for my attention.
Clear value propositions, focused, experienced management teams and easy-to-grok revenue models get me all hot under the collar. The question is, will widgetizing their games on social networks bunchballdrive enough advertising revenue to make the company viable or will partnerships and more difficult dating site integrations be the real cash cow?
