Girls In Tech

Today, SGN launched its new title “Skies of Glory.” Some of the new features of this free, WWII aerial combat game include:

• 3D graphics
• Multiplayer game play (up to seven opponents around the world via 3G, WiFi or Bluetooth connection)
• Jukebox support
• Virtual goods to extend the customized experience of the game, &
  
• Access to planes and additional missions via in-app purchase

Also being launched into the App Store today are updated versions of iBowl Deluxe and i(fluff) Friends, their popular virtual pet offering. Among the updates made to these titles include:

• Cross-platform integration via Facebook Connect
• Ability to create custom avatars
• Twitter integration

So check out these new titles; and see how the intersection of these new title and versions &  your Facebook and Twitter can open up new ways to interact while playing your favorite games. (photos courtesy SGN: http://www.sgn.com/index.php)

Tags: (fluff) Friends, App Store, Games, iBowl Deluxe, iphone, SGN, Skies of Glory
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SGN’s Global Communications/Marketing Intern will assist with media relations, blogging, media research, preparing presentations, and producingreports/analytics/audits. All tasks will be managed by our Director of Global communication with the objective of producing a positive public image of SGN products and industry presence. Qualified candidates possess strong writing skills, enthusiasm for the tech industry, and a natural journalistic curiosity. Ultimately, the Intern may be empowered to take action on behalf of SGN as deemed appropriate by his or her mentor.

All candidates must submit the following to HR@SGN.com: 
Letter of inquiry
 Resume/CV
. Please use the subject line “PR Intern”.
 Applicants who fail to use the correct subject heading or provide the required materials will not be considered for the position.

Tags: gaming, girls in tech, jobs, SGN, Silicon Valley, Social Gaming Network, women in tech
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Warmly written by her Dad, Shervin Pishevar, CEO and founder of SGN in 2006

Where are all the female Venture Capital Partners?

I have been on a major recruiting drive for Freewebs recently searching incredibly hard for a top Vice President of Advertising Sales. I have been having meetings all over from New York, California and here in Washington, D.C. In the last week I have had 3 trips where I left at 5am and came back home at 1am. I have met some amazing candidates so it has been worth the loss of sleep.

Last week in one of these cities I had an early 8am meeting with a top candidate who happened to be female- real stellar human being. We got to talking about her kids and my kids (we each have a young daughter) and we honed in on the lack of opportunities for women in the venture capital space. She was a top MBA, multiple VP level leadership positions and in charge of tens of millions in sales at each position. She has been in the market recently and had a few meetings with Venture firms in her city and was shocked at the dearth of females at the firms.

Less than 10%
I told her that in the 8 years since I started my first company and in my countless meetings with venture firms I had had only 2 meetings with female partners. One was with Ann Winbald at Hummer Winblad in 1999 and the other was with Heidi Roizen at Softbank in 2000 (now Mobius Capital). If I had to pin down the number of venture firms I had met with I would have to guess between 30 and 40 venture firms all over the country geographically dispersed from California, Colorado, the Northeast, Midwest and the South. Statistically that comes out to about 5 to 6.66% of the firms I met with having a female partner that I actually met with.

It turns out that a study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2004 (www.emkf.org) confirmed my more unscientific assumption. The study, “Gatekeepers of Venture Growth: The Role and Participation of Women in the Venture Capital Industry,” found that women hold about 10 percent of management positions at venture capital firms and that only about a quarter of all venture firms have a woman at the decision-making level. This makes my 5-6% being partners sound pretty accurate.

That simply is UNACCEPTABLE. When I looked at that VP of Sales candidate I saw a glimpse of the future potential of my own daughter. I saw a woman who is capable of pretty much everything she set out to achieve who was incredibly intelligent, insightful and full of integrity and hard to find character. Any Venture Firm should kill to hire her (if they can beat me to her of course!- and, no, I will not tell you who she is if you email me!). She should have no barriers to becoming a partner at a top Venture Firm if she wanted to. However, those barriers are very much alive and well in the venture community.

Let’s Do It For Darya
I told her how I was raising my own 5 year old daughter, Darya, to be fearless and supremely confident in her abilities- without any of the insecurities that society might slowly try to induce in her. So far, I have succeeded all too well as Darya has essentially become the CEO of the household and now tells ME what to do. Her confidence has become invincible because everyday I try to instill in her that she has my absolute and utter faith in her mind and soul- that her voice will be heard by me at any time and anywhere and that her voice counts. I overexert my self to plant these seeds of confidence because I know that all too soon, when I am not there to be with her as she grows, this investment of faith will serve as her reservoirs of inner strength-these seeds will be her future roots keeping her steady in any storms. I can visualize her in high school and college and in her future career when the pangs of doubt might seize her and make her second guess her own judgement and I know with every ounce of my being that if I fail her now I will fail her then and she in turn will fail to raise her voice and be counted.

Too may elements of our culture and society demoralize and discount the utterly important and vital voice of women. At the end of the day raising a fearless daughter is not enough- all men and women must band to together and help make sure the doors of true meritocracy are not left closed to her and other women’s talents in the future.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Darya, Darya Pishevar, SGN, Shervin Pishevar, SocialGamingNetwork, venture capital, women in business, women in tech
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The night started off with a humming buzz – the sound of 70+ attendees energetically chatting and networking over wine, beer and nosh.  The ngmoco:) office setting of old brick walls and beautiful exposed beams served as the background for our sold-out, industry-heavy event.  The attendees included Electronic Arts, Sony, Playfirst, Lightspeed Ventures, Namco Networks, Mochi Media, Zynga, SGN, RockYou, Serious Business, Inside Facebook… I could go on!

The evening started with a sobering discussion about why there are so few women in games.  The panelists went deep and the discussion touched on the lack of female computer science majors, the lack of female venture capitalists, and the fact that men’s attitudes towards giving other men a hand is much more open and beneficial to men than women’s attitudes and behaviors when it comes to helping other women in business.  Yikes.  It’s a hard thing to hear, but it’s valid, and it’s important to tackle the hard stuff in order to have a meaningful discussion about the things that are hindering women’s advancement in technology and business in general.

As we moved onto gaming specifics, the panelists agreed that the recession has had a positive impact on games as people shift their spending to entertainment and small ticket items.  Another factor that has been beneficial to games is the openness of platforms — Shervin from SGN estimated that a one billion dollar market has developed over the last two years as a result of gaming opportunities arising from open platforms. Due to the new revenue opportunity, the space has become increasingly crowded, though there are still untapped areas of opportunity.  One area of opportunity that was called out is social learning games for kids.  When Joel Brodie of Gamezebo asked the panelists what one word summed up the opportunity in games, they provided the following:  virality, iPhone, distribution and entrepreneurship. 

The night ended as it began, with the humming buzz of networking and business being done.   A big thanks to our panelists and attendees for bringing such great energy to the discussion about the opportunity in games today!

Game tip:  Several of our panelists are currently addicted to Restaurant City on Facebook

If you missed the event, or had such a blast that you want to experience it again, you can view the video here.

Big thanks to Shirley Lin for providing the photos in this blog, and to Lucia Giacomantonio for providing the video.

Tags: Casual Games, Games, Gamezebo, ngmoco, SGN, Shervin, Social Games, Tina Tran
Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco | No Comments »

During this down economy, one of the few industries that have continued to grow is casual online games. Women are a dominant force in this industry, making up 75% of the population that pays to play. It’s no wonder that casual games have become so popular – they’re easy to play, provide a quick hit of fun, and are highly social and viral in nature.

Have you ever wanted to know how to get involved in the super-hot gaming space? Are you curious as to what the job opportunities are in games? Do you want to get a sense of who the big players are and how they make money? Or maybe you’re just asking yourself, what is the big deal with games – and why is everyone playing them and talking about them?! If any of these questions apply to you then Girls in Tech has the perfect forum for you.

Girls in Tech Presents: The World of Casual Games
An online casual games panel featuring
Zynga, Mochi Media, SGN, and Super Rewards

Event Details:
Thursday, May 28, 2009
6:30pm Networking & wine
7:00pm Panel start
Location: ngmoco:) Office — 118 King St. 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA

Tags: Ada Chen, Gamezebo, Inside Social Games, Joel Brodie, Mochi Media, SGN, Sharym Efimoff, Shervin Pishevar, Super Rewards, The World of Casual Games, Tina Tran, Wally Nguyen, Zynga
Posted in Events, San Francisco | 3 Comments »