

In-Game Ad Startup Kiip Raises $4 Million From Hummer Winblad, Others - thankuz
http://techcrunch.com/2011/04/05/in-game-ad-startup-kiip-raises-4-million-from-hummer-winblad-others/

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nickpinkston
I got to meet Brian recently on a trip out to SF, and he's a great guy - very
straight forward and self-aware. He's already done this cross-country speaking
tour and been quite involved in the scene. I'll be interested to see them
progress.

I feel like the only thing keeping other kids from doing this earlier is
knowing that they actually can. This shit should be on MTV or Nick Network by
now... ;-)

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pstack
So what is this guy's story? I always have to question young success stories
like this, because so often they seem to be the result not so much of some kid
in high school striking out on his own as a kid with the benefit and resources
of either a wealthy family footing the initial bill to get things rolling or a
connected family. The problem with some "show" about this stuff is that it
would probably overlook the fact that a lot of the success stories you've
heard of came not from single parent families where mom is a fry-cook and you
live in a tiny apartment in the ghetto, but where mom is a successful business
woman and dad works at some big technology firm that gives you all the advice
and assistance you need and offers plenty of resources and connections to use
for your project and get it off the ground.

I would find a story about a kid who did it all on his own against plenty of
odds fascinating. A story of a kid who had an idea and went to his dad who
said "let me call Jim at the office and he'll walk you through the VC process
and get you off the ground"...? Not so much.

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nickpinkston
I just sat down with him once, so I've got lots of facts but no chronology:

\- I think he had some personal projects that had some success \- Then he was
"discovered" somehow and then went on to speaking and TV \- He's from
Vancouver and moved to SF to work with Digg in Business Development and then
got caught in their lay-offs \- He then decided to raise money and start this
company.

I think he comes from an upper middle class family of Hong Kong / Taiwan
origin. Even if he was from a wealthy family - he's not thrown away these
advantages like so many of them have. All of these stories are perfect-storms
anyway - even the poorest of them use their luck, it's just harder. This
ability to use luck and hustle, the mental game, is the essence of success
IMHO. We need to teach our kids these things and give them access to the
people that will show them the way.

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extension
_Game mechanics are what makes games, and there has not been an ad network so
far that leverages those mechanics to engage users at the same time_

Sure, worked great for education.

Why are we trying to advertise to people at the worst possible times? Yeah,
they are "engaged", but _not with you_. What's next, ads during sex? Ads in
exams?

Seems to me that advertising is most effective when people are _bored stiff_.
Elevators, waiting rooms, blackouts.. this is when their attention is cheap.
They're never bored on the internet.

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pstack
It's kind of a vague description, too. I'd be curious to know what is so
unique about kiip. It sounds like just another advertising service that is
essentially taking the mechanics of Farmville (which are all about advertising
Farmville to your friends and leveraging them into playing the game with you)
and using that to advertise an entire ad-network worth of content, rather than
just gather more Farmville players.

I hope that people are becoming more sensitive to being advertised to, though.
I block ads online, so I never see them. Haven't for a decade. I don't watch
live television, so I haven't seen ads there for a decade, either. I don't get
print magazines, so I don't get ads there. I don't listen to terrestrial
radio, so I don't get ads there, either. The only ads I come in contact with
other than out in the physical world outside my home are the one or two ads in
every hour of certain podcasts that I consume.

As a result, I am kind of taken back by almost any ad that makes it through
and gets time in front of my eyes. That's not necessarily a good thing,
though, because any ad that I'm confronted with tends to irritate me rather
than pique my interest.

I know that the Facebook crowd that is going to play the games in question
here is very different, but it's only a matter of time before the shine of the
internet wears off and they become sophisticated enough to start questioning
things like privacy or advertising.

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martinshen
It's great to see a Canadian start to make it big in the Valley.

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danielbru
Congrats, Brian and the kiip team!

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ashishg
Great story from Vancouver!

