'Chief Ninja' founds thriving SCVNGR

SCVNGR uses cell phone SMS — text messaging — to guide participants through elaborate interactive games capable of spanning an entire city. The service has found a broad client base, ranging from city tourism agencies that use the platform to host interactive tours to corporations such as Microsoft, which use the service for teambuilding purposes. Many universities, including Princeton, take advantage of SCVNGR during orientation programs for incoming students.

Priebatsch’s company, which he pitched to friends during his freshman year at Princeton, has been a financial success. In the last week alone, the company brought in $100,000 and is set to gross $1 million by the end of this fiscal year. “Three to five years from now,” in a “conservative” estimate, the company will have grossed $50 million or ideally $110 million, Priebatsch said.

SCVNGR has attracted numerous prestigious awards for startup businesses. In 2008, the team won the $5,000 first-place prize for Princeton TigerLaunch, which is awarded for the best student business plan. This year, the company won an MITX Technology Award and was named a finalist in Business Week’s “America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs.” The latter, Priebatsch said, has greatly increased public awareness of SCVNGR. “As a startup, it is really hard to get going. Business Week has had the largest effect on advertising our company,” he explained. The team will be notified of the results of that competition next month.

Valeri Karpov ’11, who works for Priebatsch’s company, said that at first he didn’t expect SCVNGR to be successful. “I thought [SCVNGR] might very well be the worst idea [I’d] ever heard in my life, but Seth eventually convinced me that it might work,” Karpov said, recalling the discussion in the Whitman dining hall when Priebatsch first mentioned the idea.

One of the SCVNGR projects, the Diamond Dash, has become popular as an advertising strategy, Priebatsch said. Participants must play an interactive game on their cell phones to find a buried $25,000 diamond ring. Whoever finds the diamond keeps the prize. Jewelry storeowners, Priebatsch explained, are willing to sponsor the events — providing the rings for free — with the assurance that their stores will achieve citywide name recognition. Priebatsch added that Diamond Dashes, which usually feature between 350 and 600 couples, have so far “catalyzed 14 marriages.”

Priebatsch left Princeton last year to focus on building his company. “I love Princeton, and I’ll argue it’s the best institution in the world,” he said. But the entrepreneur hasn’t made plans to return just yet. “Princeton has been around for 400 years … It will likely be around when I decide to come back,” he explained.