Startup Labs: The Interview Series with Playfull
- Could you provide a brief introduction to your startup?
PlayFull is an app where you play games and win food from local restaurants like Chick-fil-A, Denny’s, Coffee Bean, and more.
2. How did you come across the ideas for your startup? What gap in the market were you attempting to fill?
As lifelong gamers, we were tired of spending large amounts of time on gaming and not gaining anything in return. We chose food because we wanted our mobile game to be a social experience, and going out to eat is quintessentially social.
3. Were there any particular experiences you had at UCLA that inspired or helped you to pursue your goal?
I tried many different clubs at UCLA, deliberately picking ones that are unrelated to my major. The wealth of different experiences allowed me to examine my personal strengths and weaknesses from many different angles, which set me up to improve myself and improve the company as a result.
4. How did you meet your fellow startup leaders?
Patrick and Zhu met as acquaintances in 2009 at UCLA Unicamp. 3 years later, Zhu posted about building games on Facebook, and Patrick, who was also building games, reached out to work together.
5. What were the initial difficulties you faced when building your startup?
When we started, we were barely college graduates with no real experience, and startup culture at UCLA was not nearly as strong. We were able to produce work, but with little direction and thought, and ended up wasting a lot of time. We also struggled with team member motivation and culture, as we were simply working with whoever had any passing interest.
6. How did you overcome these problems?
Once the co-founders came up with the idea of PlayFull, we knew that we had an idea worth fighting for. No matter how hard the work gets, we were willing to work through it. We also understood that we were wrong about a lot of things and learned from trial and error. Willingness to persevere and adapt to problems was the only prerequisite, and the rest we figured out along the way.
7. Where do you see both yourself and your company in the future?
PlayFull’s mission is to create a world where play has purpose. We want to create games that build relationships between players, restaurants, and each other. We want to combine the experience that Pokemon Go gave to the world and reward people with food, and we want to be the ones building the experience that we’ve always wanted but never had.
8. How did Startup Labs (formerly bVentures) help you with your endeavors?
As an app made by alumni for students, Startup Labs helped us tremendously in engaging the student population. They help us gather student feedback, inform us of events we partner with, and are generally great people to work with in relation to campus activity.
9. What words of advice could you give to others looking to create their own startup?
1/ Just start. There will be a billion problems with your startup from the beginning and they will stay with your startup, but the biggest problem of them all will be you being afraid of a billion problems.
2/ After you manage to start, don’t be embarrassed to stop either. If you really have something, you will find yourself obsessed with solving the problem you’re building your startup to do. But if you don’t, it’s okay to stop and try something else. The work is painful and grueling, and it’s not worth doing it for something you can’t dedicate your life to.
10. What skills have helped you the most?
Being a CS major who’s dabbled in projects all his life helped me prepare for whatever making an app entails. However, no skills really matter as much as the motivation to keep going. I’ve been obsessed with creating things of my own all my life, and I leveraged that towards building the company.
11. Anything else you would like to share (tips and tricks? words of wisdom? favorite app?)
1/ Companies are an extension of co-founders. Your ideas don’t matter as much as your qualities as an upstanding, hard-working person who isn’t afraid to take their idea to fruition, no matter how hard. 2/ Nobody can do everything nor should do everything. I firmly believe in starting with co-founders or at least someone you trust and can put in a lot of work with you. 3/ Everybody has different motivations and has different work habits. Hold them accountable to what they should contribute, but respect those differences. 4/ Number one reason why startups fail is because they run out of money. For pre-money startups, the number one reason why startups fail is because of co-founder infighting. Address resentment immediately. Align motivation and morale constantly. Make sure everybody that is working on the startup are happy working on the startup. Including yourself. 5/ Set expectations in stone and plan workload accordingly. This can be done using sprints, deadlines, etc. Just do not rely on words or memory or things will go wrong 100% of the time.
Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us! Check out Playfull here: beplayfull.com/ and don’t hesitate to email zhu@beplayfull.com for any questions or tips.
Startup Labs is a program that helps to foster students’ startup ideas. We work with students to create an environment that provides innovative students feedback and guidance for their pursuit of specific entrepreneurial endeavors.
Each quarter, we welcome a new collborate cohort into the program and guide them to success through workshops, close mentorship, and social events.
Startup Labs is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurial spirit and engagement at UCLA, and with our resources and network of successful entrepreneurs and investors, Startup Labs aims to grow ideas into reality. Find out more here: http://startuplabs.bruinentrepreneurs.org and like us on facebook @uclastartuplabs
