PlaySpan Takes $6.5m Series A, Founder In Grade 6

“But, Mom, I’m not playing games, I’m saving up to start a company.”

These 10 year old, 6 grader stuff is all a front to making news … rest assured the real people behind these things are adults, but just as in the case of myyearbook.com, nothing beats getting into the major news and blogs than having your 10 year kind be stated as the founder/creator.

A 6th grader, can’t even legally enter into a binding contract in any state, so obviously there are adults behind this and any other venture supposedly started by teens.

Just so you know, typo:
“According to PlaySpan, the compabny has already signed up seven MMOG partners”

Interesting article.

Nik,

Maybe you’re right, maybe not. But easy on the cynicism, man. I bet you were smarter than you remember at 10.

so you think a 10 year old was able to convince VCs to give him 6.5 million? Wake up and smell the bullshit

So you think you are smarter than a 6th grader?

Hey that is a great idea for a show. Forget this Web 2.0 stuff. I am calling Hulu.

Yeah, right! I believe that story …. you didn’t mention the Easter Bunny’s contribution to the effort.
lol
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

Who honestly believes Menlo even got to a 2nd meeting with a 6th grader. Give us all a break…. clearly he’s the team mascot and has some savvy parents/etc… (unless Arvind is his uncle). Well done nonetheless.

Hey Duncan, 1: Proof-read your posts (there was a typo in the Hulu one as well) and 2: Please bother to mention, oh, I don’t know, relevant background information for stories like this that are, on a surface level, completely unbelievable. And I mean unbelievable in the “I cannot believe that this is true given these facts” sense and not the “I can’t believe it’s not butter!” sense.

(Agreeing with John Doerr.)

Hi - well my 8 year old daughter came up with an extremely good
idea. I am doing a bit of implementation. After alpha testing, it is
likely we may go for funding. How much credit should my 8 year
old daughter get?

According to Child labor laws. He’s too young to run the company.

OMG, TC you fell for this front. Sure he must be putting deals together.

Oh by the way… Using VC money is not something you play with. This kid have to pay million dollar a year in state and IRS tax. Why? Child Labor laws.

This kid should’ve apply sole Sole proprietorship in first place. He could work half and hour and give to his dad or mom to control the company. With Sole proprietorship you pay less taxes. Oh man, this kid need business schooling.
He should’ve not this apply sole proprietorship and than LLC, and incorporated.

It’s too risky to apply VC. I feel sorry for this unexperienced kid who don’t know much about business rather than gaming stuff.

It is ALL about who you know (or who your parents know).

Hi:

If he moves to China, would the child labor laws apply?
If he does move to China, that would also increase the
valuation of the company right?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_Labor_Tax_Case

This kid have pay crazy ass taxes if apply VC. In 1921, you pay $6,312.79 taxes. Now this kid with whooping $6.5 million VC… Woooooooooooahhhhh.
He can’t afford it.

If he was child actor. It would be different.

The founder is Karl Mehta (his dad?):

“The company was founded by Karl Mehta, previously a VP at MobileAria.”
-http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-playspan-gets-65-million-funding-for-its-in-games-commerce-network/

n00b

Aaron
read their website, the details of the kid were taken from the direct linked page. As for background it’s hard to write much about a company that doesn’t have a product yet, or hardly a thing on their site.

As for the proposition that adults are running this, I think that it’s a given: HOWEVER, the company still has a 6th grader as the founder, that’s a fact from what I know, and that’s all I wrote, I didn’t say that there wouldn’t be adults involved.

Guys … probably the idea came from the kid but execution is handled by grown ups. Nothing wrong with that. And nothing wrong with giving the kid some of the credit. My 9 year old has some really good ideas, he is just more inclined to science than business.

The world belongs to the future generations. They are in the driving seat and we just exploit our experience. There is a saying in climbing that applies here:

“Technique will get you through times of no strength better than strength will take you through times of no technique”.

Technique = experience.
Youth = strength.

Wake up and smell you aging and becoming obsolete.

Now, Underage kid with $6.5 million dollar. How is he going to pay back?

If he hired bunch 6 grade friends. That would be problem. He could lose his home too. His dad and mom could lose his job too. They end up working store and living apartment.

I don’t know man… Too much risk to take. Look back old dot com days… Half of founders lost their homes too.

It figures Duncan wrote this article…

California incorporation laws REQUIRE AN ADULT FOUNDER for corporations, partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies.

This company was *founded* by the kid’s father. The kid just served as the *inspiration*.

I’d like to know what the PG rating of the games he was playing is? Was he even supposed to be playing those games?

I thought selling online games items for real money is in violation of the EULA/TOS of many MMOG/MMORPG?

I agree with Jorge.

I think it’s good idea to for VC to withdraw $6.5 million dollar funds. It does violate child labor laws. He’s too young run the company and to apply incorporation.

The government or U.S department of labor could investigate Easton Capital, Menlo Ventures, STIC and Novel TMT Ventures for violation child labor laws. They could bring million dollar lawsuit against them.

@ Kips
Banks give loans and take your house when your business fails. VC firms buy part of your company - you don’t owe them anything else (other than your toil/soul). When your business fails they just liquidate and hope something else wins.

Is this the same child that had put out a 30 second elevator pitch? I vaguely remember a young child that made an elevator pitch about a card game he had designed. He spoke very well and his pitch was pretty good. If that speaks of anything about the capabilities of this generation, I think that we should be giving this kid more credit.

And course this kid has his folks backing him up or even standing as the conduit through which he speaks. He’s still a kid! There were days I just wanted to stay home, skip school and play Crash Bandicoot.

This kid is sure as hell capable. Probably most of u are frustrated he got to the point where non of u will ever be. Well done, your cv for your stanford mba start to look very promising.

Press release quotes “Karl Mehta” - the boys father is the CEO of the company. The boy may have come up with the idea, but it was dad who got the venture capital.

Don,

You beat me to the point. I was about to say the same thing.

my kid is 3, and therefore i should get $7M.

Maaaaan… Mark Zuckerberg wannabes are younger and younger!

This kid is cool. What champion good on him!

Maybe i should tell my brother to be like that kids..haha

Um.. can you say dot bomb 2.0.

Duncan, as you can see, most people did not go to read up on background, and now the comments are filled with people trying to figure out the logistics of a child raising VC money. If the article had contained a bit more, maybe the TC comments would be filled with some actual debate, analysis of what it means to use a child as a spokesperson, who gets credit for what, why the business concept merits VC funding in the first place, etc. (Or is that too much to ask from a blog?)

Of course TC have willfully misrepresented this as it feeds into their ‘anyone can be a web 2.0 millionaire’ mantra. This is no different than an author dedicating a book to one of their children, this kid has no meaningful involvement with this company, and having read up on playspan it all seems like hotair anyway.

I have no doubt that there are 6th graders smart enough to come up with good business ideas, particular in a space like vgoods for games, where alot of the target market is, well, 6th graders. I also have no doubt that there a bunch of adults behind this and the boy is being used as a PR poster child. We’ll see how much involvement the kid is allowed when they’re arguing about Series B dilution.

Hey, maybe the kid can suck a good one.

When I was about 7, I figured out (independently) that the world was round. In retrospect, that was phenomenal and I’m really proud of it (so should all kids and Mehta himself). Of course, there was nothing there to monetize nor all the conditions that we see now. Under the circumstances, the kid might or might not have originated the idea but, either way, perhaps there is benefit to him in that he’ll grow up with a lot of confidence. (Unless there was a lot of adult-style lying and faking involved…). That said, I can’t believe I wrote this much about nothing - we’re all f*$^#@ wasting our time!!!

Yeah, right! I believe that story …. you didn’t mention the Easter Bunny’s contribution to the effort.
lol
http://fakesteveballmer.blogspot.com

I can’t believe that I scrolled past 40 comments to the one above, which me thinking: what exactly was I doing when I was in 5th & 6th grade? I couldn’t think of anything but normal stuff.

I disagree wit hall you haters and skeptical people… It’s seriously not that hard as a kid to make a living. As a 13-Year Old Internet Marketer, I’ll be up front and admit that no. I’ve not raised $6.5million in funding for a company, but I have secured deals worth tens of thousands of dollars AND (at least in the UK) entered several legally binding contracts, which my lawyers here have had no problem about - though like you say, it may be illegal in the US.

another lame duncan article - unsubscribe.

If this doesn’t give an indication of a bubble I don’t know what does.

lawl noob

in 1972 My older brother was the one who invented the term “Duh !”, and “a-Doi !”.

Matt - there’s a major difference between a bubble and VC’s throwing their money around. Since this isn’t public money - no IPO - and no employees relying on the company to pay their retirement benefits (yet), if the whole thing goes down in flames only handful of already-wealthy people lose their shirts. And they have lots of shirts in their big closet… of shirts… so they’ll be fine. Yes, that was a poor analogy.

So anyway… bubble bubble bubble, everyone wants to call it so they can be smug and say “I told you so” when the companies fail.

It’s just the Invisible Hand getting a little too frisky.

I know the idea of the Invisible Hand touching a thirteen year old boy sounds scary at first, but we don’t have all the facts in.

(Actually, I’m just kidding about that. LOL @ Invisible Hand touching people inappropriately.)

I have several programs. One of which has a >6 million dollar slocount value. Yet, I am in my thirties and can’t get a dollar in venture money.

I hate publicity stunts like this. It gives people bad ideas about how money is made.

Warren Buffet = Money from parents
Bill Gates = Money from Government through IBM
Rockefellers = buy of legistlature to steal property for railroad
This Kid = Money from publicity stunt

Oh wait that is how money is made. Never mind. Smart Thieves win. Idiot Thieves and Good people LOSE.

Give me a break. There’s no way a 6th grader can run a company let alone bring enough experience to the table. Shouldn’t he be doing homework? I have to agree that this is either a publicity stunt or this kid’s parents are exploiting him by making him the “front man” for their business startup.

I have been interacting with this team for the past 9 months or so and would like to add some clarification to some points. Playspan is not trying to be a “seller” of virtual goods but rather they are creating a platform to be a central marketplace for users to buy, sell, and trade virtual assets and will be working with many different publishers to be supported by numerous different games.

The other point that needs clarification is yes the general idea and creativity behind playspan was developed by the kid, but of course there is adults involved with the company, but he is the creative brain behind the project and you folks should respect him for his ideas and the parents for being open to listening to their kids ideas and try to make his dream into a reality. Playspan will be charting new ground in virtual asset management for video games and I look forward to seeing their continued progress.

Jeez,

That was a nice positive story until I read some of the comments here. Now I feel like throwing myself out the window .. haar haar !

Goodluck to this endeavour.

“Aaron
read their website, the details of the kid were taken from the direct linked page. As for background it’s hard to write much about a company that doesn’t have a product yet, or hardly a thing on their site.”

Yet you managed to do it anyway. Ace reporting there, Duncan.

Yeah, he is a 6th grader and that just isn’t possible and an adult just MUST be behind it all.. yadda, yadda, yadda. Either way, the little guy is smart with smart parents and they are still amazing folks. Those who are jealous of this are simply trying to compensate for their own shortcomings. Wake up and find out how these people find success and stop making excuses for where you fall short.

I have seen some posts referring to child labor laws. Please take note that in some states (Delaware being one of them) there are no age requirements to incorporate a company. Since anyone can own a company in said jurisdiction the idea of child labor laws would not come into play here as the owner of the company has the right to manage the company. He would in turn need someone to enter into the contract on his behalf as the age required by law to enter into a contract is 18 in most if not all states. In the end he could easily establish a company and then have mom and dad assist in forming contractual relationships with other individuals and companies.

Just some food for thought.

Mark Sutherland
http://www.asset-protection-international.com

Can’t believe every TC article has so many hate comments…..it’s obvious that some adults are involved, but give the kid the due respect……he won items in those conquests and he’s selling them in virtual world…..that’s a pretty good business…..now if his Dad or whoever wants to build a real business around it that’s fine…..but the idea came from the kid…..so he’s the founder….

Duncan great story man…..

Whatever the truth is, one thing is for sure… they are getting attention. And that is not a bad thing for a startup. $6.5 mil is not bad for Series A anywhere.

After seeing the story on slashdot, I forwarded it to me two kids, with a pithy comment about “when does this kid have time to study?” Yes this is surely all about “marketing”, with the grown-ups behind the scenes pulling all the strings. But, it never hurts to plant the seed that one is never too young (or old for that matter) to run with ones dreams.

Does anyone ever remember being young and having a great idea that nobody would pay any real attention too? And if the answer isn’t yes then you are probably not a true entrepreneur, or you had parents like this kid has. So you must me filthy rich by now. And if not, then you probably can’t understand how something like this is possible. Obviously the kid isn’t sitting down planning every move the company needs to make. Even if he had been 21 years old and started a company, the founder usually doesn’t do alot of the work that is involved. That is why it is called a “company”. Compromised of different individuals who all put in to do something great. I know to some it is a hard concept to grasp, but not giving this kid the appreciation and support he deserves would be wrong, and for those of you who do have that type of view, I hope you do not have children. I think this kid is great and obviously so do alot of other important people. Rock on dude!

be* (spelling correction for you overly analytical people)

http://www.clevercomm.com is PlaySpan’s PR firm. This may give you all a little insight on what’s going on here. Sure the kid found an underserved segment of the MMORPG market while playing WoW. He said daddy, daddy I have a great idea…I wish this and that were possible. Aha! Tech daddy says, “you are on to something son”…then he puts together a team of MIT and Stanford engineers and managers and it is really that simple. Don’t think too much about it…the kid is smart and will do great things in his life, but the daddy is smarter and is doing them now. Plus this concept is stellar. Over 33% of Online Videogame revenues come form “gold farming” which this company obvisouly has a business model to capture. That is equal to billions of dollars in sales ladies and gentlemen.

Salar, your numbers are wrong. 33% does not come from gold farming, and it isn’t worth billions of dollars.