The Winding History of 7 Generation Games

One of our first investors told me,

“The one guarantee I can make about a startup is that the company you end up with is not going to be what you envisioned when you started out.”

Wise man, as evidenced by the fact that he invested in two of our seed rounds. He’s right, too. In fact, when I first had the idea for what became 7 Generation Games, I wanted to create online courses in remedial math for tribal colleges. I spoke to a few tribal council members and college board members and they all said the same thing, that they wanted something to intervene earlier than college, so I pivoted to the idea of educational games.

We’re not a unicorn — yet — but we’re still here

If you’re looking for that kind of startup porn where I tell you that I started with nothing except a dream, passion, a $250,000 education my parents paid for and connections to a lot of rich friends and now here I am with $400 million in revenue losing $100 million a year — well, this isn’t it.

Nothing is definite when you found a startup. Not even dates.

When people ask me when 7 Generation Games began, it’s hard to say. In August, 2011, I finally submitted a proposal to USDA for this idea I’d had for a long time about making adventure games to teach math. The games would be integrated with a historical story line, so two subjects in one. Bang for your buck. Also, we could get…