Sun Tzu Interviews: 9/10 – Mobile Gaming Startup: Spyra Games targetting the Underserved Male Midcore Market.

Roxanne Gibert, CEO & Founder of Sprya Mobile Gaming Company with David Robinson, Head of Product Development

As Sun Tzu said in his seminal military strategy book, The Art of War,  written over 2,400 years ago: “Discipline means organization, chain of command, and logistics.” One panelist at the Summer Solstice Event on June 21, 2012 asked: “Does the male male midcore market need another social strategy mobile gaming company?”  Really? The answer is the same as: “Do women need more shoes?” Both questions are answered with a resounding “Yes!”

Mobile gaming is new Eldorado.

Summer Solstice as well as JumpStartDays are events created by the Keiretsu Forum, the largest angel network in the world. Roxanne Gibert, CEO and Founder of Spyra Games mobile gaming company, pitched at both of those events. I know, I was there. Spyra is a mobile gaming studio that creates social strategy games for mobile devices; iPhone, iPad, and Android.

It’s the Jockey not the Horse. The adult male mid-core mobile gaming market is bottomless, like the adult female mid-core shoe market. Adult midcore males are glued to their ubiquitous mobile devices seemingly 24/7 and I hate to be the one to tell you, they are usually not doing work. Roxanne Gibert is the mobile game monetization jockey.

Her Previous Mounts.  Zynga, Playdom, Playfirst and Outspark. Roxanne specializes in figuring out new monetization models and how to make the games viral. She has worked on Mafia Wars iPhone, Sorority Life, Mobsters 2, and Diner Dash for Facebook.

Stable Hands? They are five (5)– all avid, hardcore gamers: a prodigy software engineer, a film maker/tv producer, a marketing/PR person and David, Head of Product Development.

Hobbies? In her spare time she consults  with Bay Area companies on analytics, monetization, and gamification features. Some of the  larger clients have included Zynga, Outspark, and Glu mobile.

What the Plan? The plan is to role out new 6-8 titles a year. Their first game is Global Attack. For you mobile gamers in the audience, Global Attack is similar to Risk.

Cost per Game? $80k

Current Users? 40k

Takeaway: Following Sun Tzu advice, Roxanne knows the meaning of discipline: organization, chain of command and logistics. She has identified an underserved market and has devised a plan (6-8 social mobile strategy games per year) to ride this market profitably.

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