Renee Yaseen, '22 | FriendOver (Gaming/SaaS)

Renee Yaseen, FriendOver

Describe your company:  FriendOver creates game software that connects children with their family and friends in active play. Using computer vision, we can make computer games that respond to motion, without the need for a new console or remote!

Target Industry: Gaming/SaaS

What is your role in the company, and please list team members' names and their current role in the company:   I play the CEO role at FriendOver. Chris Hunt and Rob Reutiman are two of our developers, and Corbyn Carlson and Jordan Helmkamp are animators! Maggie Clancey helps us out with psychology-informed game design and Ryan Moore helps with general operations.

Why did you apply to Race To Revenue? What are you hoping to get out of this experience?  We want to accelerate our product development and learn how to grow our team and user base. Really hoping to learn something new each day and have lots of fun!

Has there been someone who has helped you with your venture so far?  We've been blessed with amazing mentors. Brian Cho is the perfect person to talk to when it comes to making achievable goals and strategizing next steps. He's believed in the mission and believed in me, and I am really grateful for that. Mary Ellen Woods is incredible at helping us keep organized through our milestones. She is always there to offer candid feedback and has helped me grow into a much more strategic planner. I don't know where we'd be without her.

What do you want to learn more about, relating to business development in general or your own company/venture specifically? The game industry is super exciting, big, and diverse. Exploring it is great for us as founders trying to create and sell a product, and it's also just really fun to see what exciting developments FriendOver is a part of within the industry. Personal goal, but I'd love to get practice at hitting my venture milestones faster (there's a learning curve when it's your first time).

Entrepreneurial fun fact: When I was about 6 or 7 years old, I would draw up business plans and logo designs for a hybrid book store/soup restaurant called "Renee's Cafe." My dad has a filmed pitch somewhere, maybe I can find it, for laughs!

Favorite place to get tacos and what kind? Super Mercado Rosales in South Bend holds some amazing memories for me. Any kind of taco is great but make sure to put lots of green salsa and cilantro on it!!