During the past decade, the technology industry has seen a lot of Ian Ippolito. In 2001, Ippolito founded vWorker, an online platform for outsourcing jobs. As the founder and CEO of the company, he was featured in numerous business publications and major news outlets across the nation. He spent years developing the company, and a year and a half ago sold it to freelancer.com.
After the sale, Ippolito couldve retired. But that wasnt in line with his entrepreneurial dna which kicked in again after only a few months of de-compressing after the sale.
-I took six months off, but then the itch hit me again,- said Ippolito. -Im not the type of person who can just sit down; I need to keep going.-
In order to -keep going,- he started his current entrepreneurial venture: Peanut Butter and Jelly Games. Currently, the company features a game called Dollar Candy. Its an online game available as both an app and on PC, but where it stands alone from other games is its premise.
-Dollar Candy is a skill game where players have 60 seconds to match up tiles and compete against other players. But the difference is that users bet and win real money,- said Ippolito.
Most states in the U.S. have strict gambling laws. However, since its a skill game, all elements of luck have been removed. This means that its really not about gambling; its all about skill, so players can legally use the game to win money in 35 states.
Dollar Candy had a soft launch three months ago, and since then a steady growing number of users have been regularly playing the game.
-Reception has been great, and our eventual goal is for it to go viral pretty soon and keep expanding from there,- said Ippolito.
One main concern about the game was that people would use computers to cheat since money is involved. However, Ippolito planned for that contingency. Because of the way the game is designed, players have to find similarities between cartoon pictures and real pictures. For the human brain, this is a simple task, but its nearly impossible for computers. This eliminates the risk of anyone having an unfair advantage.
When first coming into the gaming industry, Ippolito had little to no experience. All his expertise is on the coding and technological side, so this was a new challenge for him. Fortunately, he used the lessons hed learned from his first entrepreneurial venture with vWorker to develop Peanut Butter and Jelly Games.
-Its been a challenging process, but Ive been able to draw on experience,- said Ippolito. -Im not making rookie mistakes anymore.-
One of those rookie mistakes includes failing to do market research and getting feedback from customers. When he was first starting out as an entrepreneur, he designed a software that he thought would be very successful. But since he didnt gather any feedback or market research, the software flopped. However, hes not making the same mistake twice.
-This time around, Ive been focusing much more on getting feedback. If the game isnt working, isnt smooth enough, or isnt fun enough, I want to know,- said Ippolito.
Currently, Ippolito is working on expansion. In its present state, Dollar Candy has one game; in the near future, hed like to add a few more. According to Ippolito, -its all about maximizing the user experience, which in turn will maximize revenue.-
For more information, or to play the game for yourself, visit dollarcandygame.com.
