We are QRANK
About Ricochet Labs
Founded by veterans of the video game industry, Ricochet Labs builds a suite of location-aware games and applications that entertain and connect users. Greeting the world with QRANK, a daily game of wits for the iPhone and iPod touch, Ricochet Labs is busy bringing the game to new platforms and adding features that take full advantage of smartphones’ GPS capabilities. Ricochet brews its goodies in Austin, Texas.
Rodney Gibbs, CEO
Rodney co-founded the Fizz Factor game studio and negotiated its acquisition by Amaze Entertainment. He remained with the company for eight years, during which time he led production, operations and business development. As executive producer, he shipped 17 titles for many of the world’s largest game publishers and franchises. Active in the game industry and Austin’s digital media community, Rodney frequently speaks at conferences and events on digital entertainment. He serves on the boards of the International Game Developers Association the Austin Film Society, and KUT, Austin's NPR affiliate. Follow Rodney on Twitter@rgibbs.
Michel Baird, CTO
As technical director of Fizz Factor, Michael oversaw development and spearheaded cross-platform tech sharing between studios. He co-authored the company’s
Nintendo DS engine, which has shipped over 70 titles. As tech director or lead programmer, he led technical teams on 12 console and handheld titles.Scott Laing, Chief Creative Officer
Scott Laing is a veteran programmer, producer, and designer with 12 years of game industry experience and over 6 years of mobile app and game experience. He's been involved in mobile development since he designed and programmed data collection software for the Apple Newton in 1993. Scott has co-founded two game studios before Ricochet Labs, most recently The Fizz Factor in 2002, where he was creative director of the company.
Kip McClanahan, Board Member
For nearly 20 years Kip worked in security, networking, media, communications and software industries. He served as both CEO and board member to public and private companies leading all functional areas including strategy, operations, product, sales and marketing efforts. Kip has raised well over $100m in capital for companies he has founded or co-founded, including NetSpeed, BroadJump, TippingPoint and On Networks. The majority of companies he has led have experienced a successful IPO or M&A transaction, returning nearly $800m in realized gains. In addition to Ricochet Labs, Kip currently sits on the board of uControl, SpareFoot, and Socialware.
James Crow, Technical Advisor
James is a respected technical leader and entrepreneur. Prior to Ricochet Labs, James served as the Technical Principal at NetSpeed/Cisco, BroadJump, Inc. as co-founder and CTO, Motive, Inc. as VP of Product Development, TippingPoint/3Com as VP of Systems Management and Chair of the Product Architecture Committee, and ON Networks as VP of Product Development. James holds five US Patents in the field of computer systems.
