Platogo Blog

Seedcamp organized a week in the states to meet up with interesting people from all sorts of different companies. Being among the lucky Seedcamp winners we got to join the trip and, oh boy, what a ride it's been.

It started in New York where we stayed for a couple of days before eventually heading to San Francisco. The very first thing we did after arriving in NY was buying tickets for a comedy show with free drinks on the street. As it later turned out they were way overpriced and instead of getting free drinks we had to buy a minimum amount of 2 drinks each. Well, at least the comedians were funny.

The next surprise came when we entered our hotel room which more felt like a sauna. Apparently  the heating was broken and running at full speeds. The solution suggested by the hotel manager? Turning up the air conditioning to fight the heat.

Other than that New York treated us really well. We had the time to see some of NY's amazing sights: Central Park, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Brigde ...

Seedcamp New York

On Tuesday it started at Google Chelsea Market - a refurbished office building with old wooden floor elements, relaxed atmosphere and several coffee machines + candy dispenser in the cafeteria. After each team gave a 3min pitch, we had 30min mentoring sessions. It looks like the new concept of Platogo was well received in the USA.

At Brown Bag Lunch (event organized by Beta Works) at the Apple HQ in New York we ran into Charles Forman the founder of OMGPOP and we had a great and rather nerdy discussion about the future of casual / social gaming, the limitations of multiplayer games and more...

Day two started at Union Square Ventures with with Brad, Albert and Andrew talking about the difference between startups in the US (East Coast / West Coast) and Europe, values they are looking for in startups and answering questions.

After that we met Saul Klein's uncle Jonathan Klein the CEO of GettyImages, who founded the company 15 years ago. As the market leader they acquired 100+ companies within these years and still managed to establish values among their employees.

Our flight to S.F. was delayed but once we arrived with the rental car at our wonderful Motel at 3 in the morning, everything was fine ...

Seedcamp Silicon Valley & San Francisco

The next day a little boy's dream came true by entering the Google Plex for a really great event. We bumped into people like Pascal Finette, Catalyst at Mozilla talking about the future of the most used open source browser and other well connected people like Pietro Dova, ex-Googler and now business angle at XG Ventures who introduced us to Frederic Descamps. Frederic is the founder of a company called A Bit Lucky, working on next gen Facebook games - we met him on Saturday - he is a genius and perfectly connected in the San Francisco gaming scene.

We also took part at Startup2Startup, met Mike Arington from TechCrunch and had further mentoring sessions at First Round Capital. As for the whole trip - the advice was highly relevant for us and lots of great ideas popped up every time.

Values of Seedcamp

Once again, this trip really showed the values of Seedcamp - it is not just some money, it is the chance for a small company (from a small country) to visit and talk to people you would have never met without their help in such a short period of time. The great thing about these mentors is their advice and the access to their network of companies and startups  - and they always help you to connect.

Just a few weeks ago we started experimenting with the integration of one of our games into Facebook. Quick progress was made and we already have made a few fans. Our conclusion: giving all our fellow Platogo developers the opportunity to easily publish their games on Facebook without any changes.

What does this mean for you gamers out there? It means that in the not too distant future most Platogo games will be available on Facebook too. But one step at a time: Right now we have two games online for testing purposes – Whac-A-Pal and Veggie Snake.

Below each game we have a score- and achievement board to make it easy and fun to compete with your friends. Expect more features soon.

Check out two screenshots of the current version:

Compete and play with your friends

You are instantly notified when you win an achievement

Of course we are constantly trying to improve your Platogo experience on Facebook and we would love to hear your feedback in our forums. Additionally we've started a survey to make Platogo the best place to play together online.

Go for the win!
By the way: There's a new chance to win. This time the prize is the award-winning indie game World of Goo. Check it out on our Rising Star Contest page.