Canadian Startup Social Stak Gets Ready to Gamify Professional Networking

By: Jeff Stewart  |   November 7th, 2012   |   Business, Games, News, O Canada

James Karg is one of the few extraordinary entrepreneurs in the world of IT today, whose remarkable vision has completely disrupted people’s approach towards professional networking. You see Karg, the talented entrepreneur, has turned professional networking into a game.

 

The name of this ambitious startup is Social Stak and Karg has designed it with the help of a fellow graduate of Vancouver Film School (VFS).

 

According to Karg the idea of this venture came to him when, “I took a trip with some friends down to Casual Connect, and by the end of the night up in our hotel room, we did the business card comparison game, all pulling out our stacks. I got three times the cards. And I figured there had to be some way to get everyone networking this well.”

 

Through this game people can trade business cards of their required contacts. The real fun follows, as in order to unbolt the functionality of the cards in Social Stak a one to one face to face meeting is obligatory. This function promotes networking and allows people to use the service as a contact rolodex or as a gaming platform, as it works in both ways.

 

At this point in time, Karg and his team have designed two games. One of these games is similar to Magic: The Gathering, a battle style game in which users have to undertake a personality and proficiency quiz so that the cards collected will play out according to their personality and skill set. Priority will be given to the most efficient players within this game, whereas users with clout might also get higher potency. Users will have input within the game to ensure that everything remains on a level playing field.

 

On the other hand, the second game is designed along the lines of a trivia game that stirs people to learn about one another having already met and gotten to know them at face valjue, thereby allowing them to build relationship with others in real life.

 

Karg says, “We want you to improve your lead generation, follow-up, and understanding of your connections. We think that by playing with them, they’ll be in front of mind. A lot of life is digital, and of course as developers and game makers and players we love that. But we also are hoping to get (users) taking digital life offline. We all live in a crazy digital bubble right now, and we need to puncture that to remind people that their offline life is as important as your digital life.”

 

Karg and his co-developer are aiming to launch their app in March of next year. Users would be able to subscribe Social Stak free of cost, but to add more features in the magic style game they have to pay a monthly subscription fee.

 

Source: Tech Vibes