Games That Make You Smarter

Start-up Diaries

3 daughters — My lovely children, especially the three younger ones, often tell me that email is for old people. While I do use email a lot for work, I am now wondering whether it is outliving its usefulness. I was at the BOOST conference for 3 days last week and then spent […]

Is email for old people?

April 23, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Woman on rocks in the river — There is only one reason any company stays in business, and that is that they have money in the bank. No matter what you do or make, no matter how good or important it is, you run out of money and that’s the end. Some days, I feel pretty good […]

The Vicious Circle of Start-ups and How We’ve Beaten It ...

April 14, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

road in North Dakota — Since I have been working non-stop lately, I decided to take a page from my earlier years of blogging and on the weekends just write about whatever was on my mind today, which was … Did you ever read a science fiction book or watch a movie where there is […]

My Alternate Universes

April 9, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Learn all about the 7 Generation Games founders and staff as we discuss (not) punching babies, diagonal crosswalks, living on Mars, the zombie apocalypse and more! If we’re this cool, just imagine how cool our games are. Get them now!

Meet the Team Behind 7 Generation Games!

March 31, 2017 in 7GenGames / Reality Show / Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

Ronda and Tom — We’ve never had a formal investor meeting at 7 Generation Games, but we got lucky today with two of our investors dropping in at the same time to give us advice. Tom was in town from the Midwest to enlighten Maria and me on the new Sales Statistics and Marketing […]

Sales, Marketing and Mini-Investor Meeting: Hire a clone

March 23, 2017 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

mother says that was the wrong number — Another one of my ‘picture-says-1,000-words’ posts. Just another sneak peek at the improvements we’re making. Old page when you brought back too many herbs: New page when they miss the herb question SPIRIT LAKE: THE GAME – Runs on Mac and Windows computers. You can get it now […]

Spirit Lake Update: Picture-Perfect

March 1, 2017 in 7GenGames / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Ronda on Facetime — Much of my time is spent in hotel rooms, as I travel from state to state providing teacher in-services, presenting at conferences and generally promoting 7 Generation Games as a great educational tool and a way for kids to learn and have fun(adults ,too – we won’t judge you – […]

My Life as a Reality TV Star

February 28, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Squirrel — At least a hundred times, I’ve wanted to find whoever coined that phrase, “Fake it until you make it” and scream in their face “Look at the idiocy I have to put up with! See what you started!” Then, I calm down and realize that I have used that exact […]

Your Guide to Faking It Until You Make It

February 26, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech by AnnMaria De Mars

It’s early in the morning when my coworker Diana and I met up at her house to discuss our strategy. Why are we meeting early in the morning to discuss a strategy? Well, it’s going to be my first time stepping into a classroom where I won’t be a student! […]

Developer Diary: Back To School

February 23, 2017 in 7GenGames / Code Talk / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Start-up Diaries tagged 7 Generation Games / Educational Games by Jose Sotelo

fire — The only ones who like firing people are psychotic nut jobs. (I had other words but Maria has an average number of swear words per post for this blog and I am saving up for when I really need them.) Someone was complaining to me today about employees that needed […]

You’re Fired! When you have to fire an employee

February 22, 2017 in Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Here’s one of the things that separate successful startups from people who have good ideas: Execution. In other words, it’s easy to be a “big picture” visionary, it’s doing the million little details that is the hard part. We met on our AzTech Games series earlier this week. Going over […]

Startup Success: Why Little Details Matter As Much As Big ...

February 17, 2017 in 7GenGames / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech by Maria Burns Ortiz

Eventually, you have to say something. At 7 Generation Games, we’ve decided today is that day. We – like so many others in education – watched the news with great disappointment as someone with no experience in public education was selected by the thinnest of margins to lead the Department […]

For Kids Who Don’t Have a Choice and Kids Who ...

February 9, 2017 in 7GenGames / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech by Maria Burns Ortiz