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About Tapatap
Tapatap is a mobile social gaming leader - delivering mobile and web sites where users can create, enter and play user generated or sponsored games by some of today's major consumer brands. Tapatap is the first social gaming company on both the mobile and web that gives consumers the opportunity to play for fun and prizes. Harnessing the power of mobile 2.0, Tapatap combines pop culture and game show logic, to deliver the most unique consumer mobile entertainment experience. Based in San Mateo, CA Tapatap launched in June 2007 and is privately funded by Gabriel Venture Partners. Tapatap is on your mobile phone at m.tapatap.com and on the web at http://www.tapatap.com.
Tapatap was founded by two entrepreneurs: Isaac Babbs and Andy Riedel who wanted to create a mobile social community based on photo games.
Tapatap is venture backed by Gabriel Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley.
Executive Team
- Isaac Babbs, CEO & Chairman
- Andy Riedel, President & CTO
- Steve Mayhew, VP Engineering
- Jennifer Herman, VP, Business Development & Marketing
Board of Directors
Advisory Board
- Mark Donovan
- John Heffernan
- Peter Levin
- David Steinberger
Tapatap Executive Team
Isaac has spent more than 20 years as a software, media and entertainment executive successfully growing a wide range of media, gaming, and software businesses. He most recently served as VP and General Manager at InfoSpace Mobile Games. Prior, Isaac co-founded Atlas Mobile, and served as president and CEO until it was acquired by InfoSpace, Inc. (NASDAQ: INSP) in July 2004. Isaac successfully led Atlas Mobile in launching the largest and fastest growing multiplayer tournament for prize services in the world, with over 13 million tournament games played in its first year. Prior to Atlas Mobile, Isaac was President of Sorrent (now Glu Mobile, Inc.), a leading mobile game company where he was responsible for all business aspects of the company including carrier distribution, publishing, marketing, and business development He was also responsible for signing and launching basketball star Yao Ming as the first major professional athlete to make his electronic character debut in a cell phone game.
Prior to Sorrent, Isaac was a senior business development executive at Macromedia where he co-founded shockwave.com US and shockwave.com Japan, the #1 interactive entertainment sites in their countries. Isaac was also general manager and VP of Macromedia's audio/video division, which he led and then successfully sold to Apple Computers. The division's main product, Final Cut Pro, is the world leader in non-linear editing. Prior to Macromedia, Isaac was VP of Entertainment Marketing at Silicon Graphics, Inc., where he leveraged SGI's technology and brand to grow the company's share of the global entertainment content creation and production market.
Isaac also held senior management positions at Alias/Wavefront, an SGI company, and Alias Research, Inc., leading providers of 3D animation and design software for the entertainment and design industries. Isaac began his career with the Hewlett Packard Company and holds a BA in Chemistry from the University of Oregon. Isaac has been invited to speak at numerous industry conferences including MEF CTIA, E3, TWST and the Mobile Multiplayer Games Conference.
Andy most recently was VP of Social Networking at InfoSpace, driving strategy, product management, and marketing for mobile social networking. He also served as the worldwide General Manager of InfoSpace Mobile Games.
Andy co-founded Atlas Mobile, the premier provider of mobile skill-based games, which was purchased by InfoSpace in July 2004. Atlas Mobile created both original and branded mobile hits including Tetris for Prizes, Wheel of Fortune for Prizes, Frogger for Prizes, and Ms. Pac-Man for Prizes. Andy was CEO and co-founder of XadrA LLC, a multiplayer game server company, also purchased by InfoSpace.
Prior to starting his own ventures, Andy was Chief Architect at Mpath/HearMe where he created online communities for Sony, Disney, Nickelodeon, Microsoft, GTech, and Macromedia. He received his BS in Computer Systems Engineering from Stanford University.
Steve was recently the Chief Architect at Liquid Engines. Prior to that, he was VP and Chief Technology Officer for Silicon Valley based SupportContracts.com, the originator of business-to-business support management services.
Before working at SupportContracts.com, Steve founded Force 5 Software, where he managed all aspects of the product development. As the Chief Executive Officer, Mayhew developed software programs and contracted business out to several companies to implement them. Before founding Force 5 Software, Steve co-founded Munin Technologies, Inc., in which he developed the firm's principle products. He has also held various key software engineering positions at Digital Equipment Corp. during which he was part of a three-person team who developed Ethernet. During his time at Digital Equipment, he also was issued two U.S. hardware patents in the area of communications servers.
Steve's education includes a Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University and a Master's Degree in Software Engineering from the Wang Institute of Graduate Studies
Jennifer Herman
Vice President, Business Development & Marketing
Jennifer Herman brings over 15 years of entertainment and technology experience to her role as VP of Business Development and Sponsorships. She most recently served as Director Partner Relations and Sales at AirPlay, a publisher of live interactive mobile applications, where she secured distribution deals with major North America carriers and oversaw licensing relationships with key brands, including the NFL and NFLPA. Jen was a founding team member of Glu, leading their early efforts in distribution and licensing. She established key licensing partnerships including FOX Sports and PopCap.
Jen has held product development, sales, marketing, licensing and business development positions with I-Play, Glu, Electronic Arts, Hearst, Viacom and MTV. She holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Pennsylvania.
Board of Directors
Rick Bolander, Managing Director, co-founded Gabriel Venture Partners, an early-stage venture capital firm committed to building capital-efficient market leaders by actively assisting entrepreneurs. Rick sought to create a firm with a specific organizational structure and core competencies designed to achieve this goal of building the next generation of industry leaders by identifying the best entrepreneurs and working side by side with them to win. His strong venture capital record is a reflection of not only his effectiveness as a mentor, but also his ability to pick winning value propositions and market trends. Prior to co-founding Gabriel Venture Partners, Rick spent four years with Chicago-based Apex Investment Partners where he was a General Partner.
Advisory Board
At M:Metrics, Donovan is responsible for product development and marketing. He also contributes to consulting assignments and editorial matters. Before joining M:Metrics, Donovan worked for RealNetworks, where he helped define new business opportunities for mobile operators, handset manufacturers and content providers worldwide and brought mobile technologies and services to market. As director of mobile strategy and later director of mobile services, Donovan helped RealNetworks become the leading global supplier of infrastructure for the delivery of audio and video to mobile phones. He also led the team that launched North America's first commercial mobile video services.
Prior to RealNetworks, Donovan was a principal in a technology start-up and also served as director of UWired, a University of Washington program that has become an international model for effective uses of technology in higher education. Donovan also led development of the award-winning Catalyst Project, which reinvented the way that innovations in teaching and technology are cultivated, promoted and supported.
Donovan has more than a decade of experience conducting survey research, data analysis, and modeling for the academic, public, and private sectors. Throughout his career he has been a prolific author and speaker on new media and mobility.
Donovan holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Washington, a master's degree in public policy from San Diego State University and a bachelor's degree in business and entrepreneurship from Loyola Marymount University.
David Steinberger, Vice President and General Manager at Tickle Inc., has over eighteen years experience in sales and general management for leading print and online media companies. Experience includes successfully negotiating and executing strategic sales and advertising relationships in both the consumer and technology sectors with many of the world's leading brands including Gillette, Intel, Microsoft, Nestle, Nokia, Pepsi, Procter and Gamble, Visa and Volkswagen. Since assuming the role of General Manager at Tickle, David has led the product and content strategy along with the company's sales strategy and revenue generating efforts.
Before joining Tickle, David spent two years as Vice President of Sales and Commerce at Shockwave, a leading entertainment destination on the web were he built and led a 31 person sales organization. Prior to Shockwave, David held the positions of Vice President of Sales at CompareNet, the first comparison shopping site on the Internet, and Regional Sales Director for CMPnet, where he helped lead the site to be ranked 10th in the world for online advertising revenue in 1997.
David received a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Rochester, and an MBA from Rochester's William E. Simon School of Business.