Games That Make You Smarter

Start-up Diaries

The last two posts I wrote about Chile in general and my neighborhood (Lastarria). Today, let’s get into the reason that I’m actually here – Startup Chile. Getting to the point, I’ve been here less than a week and already Startup Chile is amazing! Unlike some accelerators where people are […]

Santiago Edition, Episode 4: Startup Chile is amazing!

February 8, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

building and fountain in park next door — In the last post, I wrote a little about Chile in general. On Sunday, unbelievably, I took the day off. A mentor of mine gave me some good advice. He’s in his seventies and has been quite successful in business. He said, At my age, and you are getting up […]

Startup Diaries: AnnMaria’s day off in Santiago

February 5, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

If you didn’t know, now you know. I’m in Santiago as part of Startup Chile, where I will be expanding our line of bilingual games for the Latin American market. Welcome to the Startup Diaries: Santiago Edition as I chronicle my experiences scaling up internationally. I made it to […]

Startup Diaries, Santiago Edition: I made it!

February 4, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

consulate of Chile — Santiago, Chile In six days, I’ll be on a flight to Santiago. I picked up my visa at the Consulate of Chile this week and I’m good to go. I’ll be working on a game modeled on our best-selling title, Making Camp. (Not sure if “best-selling” is the right word, […]

Disrupting Ageism (and Education) in Chile

January 28, 2018 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Maria and AnnMaria — “There’s no history of anything happening until it does. And then there is.” When we were writing “My Fight/Your Fight,” our editor asked if we wanted to start with an epigraph – or quote/sentence/saying to start the book. Ronda knew immediately what she wanted that quote to be – the […]

Making Our Own History

January 16, 2018 in Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

Before you get all up in arms, we are keeping the interns we have, but we don’t have the budget for any more at the moment. However, we have work that needs to be done, particularly in sales and marketing. I talked to a few of our investors recently and […]

The Debate: Unpaid Interns or No Interns ?

January 14, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

annmaria in snow — One of the opening lines of a game we have in prototype, Crossroads, is It’s pretty crazy around here … Unlike that story, though, things have been crazy good. Warning: This is going to sound like one of those annoying Christmas letters. You know the ones, Janey cured cancer right […]

It’s pretty crazy around here …

January 13, 2018 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Mountains in Chile — For the tl;dr crowd, this post has two lessons: Never underestimate your own influence. Never miss an opportunity to learn from anyone you meet. This whole journey that ends with me in Santiago, Chile, started with a conversation with a teacher from a small school in Missouri. I had a […]

How Listening to a Teacher from Missouri Led Me to ...

December 17, 2017 in AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries / Women in Tech by AnnMaria De Mars

When I installed the most recent Windows 10 update, I was disheartened that it broke my current installation, sending me into a panic as I tried to think about what I was going to do for grad school. After a few minutes, I remembered that I had three certifications on […]

The Office 365 Diaries, Part One

November 27, 2017 in 7GenGames / Educational Resources / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

This morning – after a 16.5 hour flight, a four-hour layover and another 4 hour flight – I touched down in Hyderabad, India, where I’m attending (and pitching at) the Global Entrepreneurship Summit. If you had told me a few months ago that I’d be going to India this year, […]

When Your Startup Takes You Places You Never Expected

November 27, 2017 in Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

You might have thought the 2017 election season was over after yesterday – you’d be wrong. Well, kind of. We at 7 Generation Games need your vote. If you’re reading this post and thinking, “Where do I go vote?” the answer is right here. (And you can go back and […]

Vote 7 Generation Games into the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Semifinals!

November 9, 2017 in 7GenGames / Start-up Diaries by Maria Burns Ortiz

Sell the sizzle, not the steak I’ve always hated that Silicon Valley cliche. I know people saying it think they are smartly pointing out that people buy for reasons other than pragmatic ones. We want products that make us feel cool, sexy and superior. That focus on marketing can also […]

Be the solution, not the problem

October 24, 2017 in AnnMaria / Educational Games / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars