9 ms·

Heyzap (YC W09) launches: The forming of Heyzap and some lessons learnt

53 points by aston 18y ago

coglethorpe 18y ago
Any sites have this loaded so I can try the games out? I could do it myself, sure, but I don't think my (current) sites are exactly a fit.
- immad 18y ago
  http://www.heyzap.com/embed http://www.heyzap.com/embed goes straight to the widget. Or you can try it on this site: http://www.dhingana.com/games http://www.dhingana.com/games
- judegomila 18y ago
  You can test them out on heyzap.com in both the publisher section and on the main home page. Cheers
axod 18y ago
Whats with the 'adverts'? "You have 1 challenge request [approve] [deny] [view friends]" Then I (foolishly) believe it, and click on it, and it directs to (null) (from http://partners.tattomedia.com/sw/42/CD1/&dp=725 http://partners.tattomedia.com/sw/42/CD1/&dp=725 ) - Broken redirect... :/ Something odd going on there (Tried playing Bloons on safari/firefox). Some very addictive games there :)
- judegomila 18y ago
  Ads are currently served by mochimedia. We will complain! Thanks for the feedback.
rantfoil 18y ago
Congrats Immad and Jude -- I knew you guys were on to something when I tried it and ended up spending a few hours playing an RPG game just totally randomly.
- judegomila 18y ago
  Thanks! Was it monster's Den? That game is pretty addictive...
maxniederhofer 18y ago
congrats on launch! sounds like things are going really well!
webwright 18y ago
Out of curiosity, how did your leaving your co-founder(s?) at Clickpass effect Clickpass's acquisition? At first blush, seems like harsh timing.
- immad 18y ago
  Hi Tony, Given that I had made my decision the timing was going to be harsh whenever it was. Acquisition from start to finish can be quite time consuming, so I could have been +/- 2 months and the timing would have been equivalently good/bad. Hard to say effect, nothing is confirmed till the money is in the bank :). Me leaving definitely changed the outcome. Happy it still went through; all parties are happy and Clickpass found a good home.
- jgrahamc 18y ago
  Going to go pedantic on you, but I believe you mean 'affect' and not 'effect'. I used to always have a have time with this until my doctoral supervisor told me to remember the mnemonic RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. So 'to affect' is the verb and 'an effect' is the noun. Of course, English being what it is there's an exception or two! Effect can be a verb when used in the form 'to effect a change'. And affect is from time to time a noun when used by psychologists. But mostly RAVEN applies.
knarf 18y ago
Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same time so it was probably just choosing the better team - and this happens probably a lot of times. And of course if you believe in a thing you don't need someone like yc to approve it when you can just go out and build it on your own. Still I feel kind of bad right now. I don't want to blame anybody of misbehavour or s.th., but it would have been nice to at least get a rejection mail that says s.th. like "We already have another team for a similar product" so you don't end up like me wondering about the timing of things later. Anyway all the best of luck with this thing - I truly believe it's a great idea.
- allyt 18y ago
  OMG! I totally had this idea, too!
- mjnaus 18y ago
  I guess many people around here would agree that ideas are a dime-a-dozen and often times change during execution. However, I completely understand that you're feeling bummed, I would be too... And even though others are working on it, that doesn't mean you shouldn't! What is keeping you from going ahead as planned, even if it's without YC?
- drusenko 18y ago
  a large part of what investors invest in is the team. YC tends to do quite a few second investments, because they've already decided that they believe in the team. i would peg this investment as one of those -- that the idea was much less important in the decision than immad and jude forming the team was.
  - dhimes 18y ago
    Ouch. Then the question this hypothesis brings to mind is, why didn't they have Immad and Jude build a different product?

53 points by aston 18y ago

Any sites have this loaded so I can try the games out? I could do it myself, sure, but I don't think my (current) sites are exactly a fit.

immad 18y ago
http://www.heyzap.com/embed http://www.heyzap.com/embed goes straight to the widget. Or you can try it on this site: http://www.dhingana.com/games http://www.dhingana.com/games
judegomila 18y ago
You can test them out on heyzap.com in both the publisher section and on the main home page. Cheers

axod 18y ago

Whats with the 'adverts'? "You have 1 challenge request [approve] [deny] [view friends]" Then I (foolishly) believe it, and click on it, and it directs to (null) (from http://partners.tattomedia.com/sw/42/CD1/&dp=725 http://partners.tattomedia.com/sw/42/CD1/&dp=725 ) - Broken redirect... :/ Something odd going on there (Tried playing Bloons on safari/firefox). Some very addictive games there :)

judegomila 18y ago
Ads are currently served by mochimedia. We will complain! Thanks for the feedback.

rantfoil 18y ago

Congrats Immad and Jude -- I knew you guys were on to something when I tried it and ended up spending a few hours playing an RPG game just totally randomly.

judegomila 18y ago
Thanks! Was it monster's Den? That game is pretty addictive...

maxniederhofer 18y ago

congrats on launch! sounds like things are going really well!

webwright 18y ago

Out of curiosity, how did your leaving your co-founder(s?) at Clickpass effect Clickpass's acquisition? At first blush, seems like harsh timing.

immad 18y ago
Hi Tony, Given that I had made my decision the timing was going to be harsh whenever it was. Acquisition from start to finish can be quite time consuming, so I could have been +/- 2 months and the timing would have been equivalently good/bad. Hard to say effect, nothing is confirmed till the money is in the bank :). Me leaving definitely changed the outcome. Happy it still went through; all parties are happy and Clickpass found a good home.
jgrahamc 18y ago
Going to go pedantic on you, but I believe you mean 'affect' and not 'effect'. I used to always have a have time with this until my doctoral supervisor told me to remember the mnemonic RAVEN: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun. So 'to affect' is the verb and 'an effect' is the noun. Of course, English being what it is there's an exception or two! Effect can be a verb when used in the form 'to effect a change'. And affect is from time to time a noun when used by psychologists. But mostly RAVEN applies.

knarf 18y ago

Sorry if I am coming over as offensive, but I just need to share that it feels kind of weird when you submit a business idea like that, get rejected and than 5 months later read about how yc chose somebody else (who had already in the program before) to create a business - which is just your idea - and he had it like 3 to 4 months ago. Of course the idea for such a thing will always be born in many heads at the same time so it was probably just choosing the better team - and this happens probably a lot of times. And of course if you believe in a thing you don't need someone like yc to approve it when you can just go out and build it on your own. Still I feel kind of bad right now. I don't want to blame anybody of misbehavour or s.th., but it would have been nice to at least get a rejection mail that says s.th. like "We already have another team for a similar product" so you don't end up like me wondering about the timing of things later. Anyway all the best of luck with this thing - I truly believe it's a great idea.

allyt 18y ago
OMG! I totally had this idea, too!
mjnaus 18y ago
I guess many people around here would agree that ideas are a dime-a-dozen and often times change during execution. However, I completely understand that you're feeling bummed, I would be too... And even though others are working on it, that doesn't mean you shouldn't! What is keeping you from going ahead as planned, even if it's without YC?
drusenko 18y ago
a large part of what investors invest in is the team. YC tends to do quite a few second investments, because they've already decided that they believe in the team. i would peg this investment as one of those -- that the idea was much less important in the decision than immad and jude forming the team was.
- dhimes 18y ago
  Ouch. Then the question this hypothesis brings to mind is, why didn't they have Immad and Jude build a different product?