PFEFFERMIND GAMES – WHO ARE THESE GUYS?
Here we have another awesome team from GameFounders Spring 2013 batch: they come from Germany and their studio is called Pfeffermind Games. Behind that name stand 5 guys who are living and breathing together (at least here in Estonia): Sebastian Zillessen taking care of app development, Jacob Beutler as the chief of finance and operations, Philipp Reinartz, specialized in communications, Daniel Finck as product manager and Tarek Hohberg who specialize in game analytics. These guys have known each other for years, some of them have been friends already since high school. Before being accepted to GameFounders accelerator programme,all guys worked in different start-ups in Germany. Now they have been living and working in Tallinn for 7 weeks already to develop their project called SPITZELJAGD, which is a geo-based social game where you can virtually control real world spots by solving tasks on your smartphone. Philipp was the first who pitched the idea for the future game: “In the beginning it was a bit different, because it was just to have it like an event. For some people at a certain time. Then we came to the idea that it would be way cooler if you could do it everywhere and whenever you want to. So it became an app.”
Pfeffermind Games can be easily called as the most united team in the programme. Not only working together but also living and spending their free time together. Tarek was the one to find them this nice HeadQuarters in Pikk street, Old Town, where they enjoy the nice view from their little roof terrace, spacious rooms and even sauna! Sometimes it is a bit difficult to find some privacy in their apartment because even though spacious, the flat is open in the sense that they have only one separate room while all the others are connected into one big space. Being on the second floor you can see and hear the guys from downstairs and vice versa. How do 5 guys manage to live like that? For example, they have worked out a schedule for the bathroom in the mornings so all of them are ready with their morning procedures and also breakfast in one hour only! Impressive, right? As a surprise even for themselves is the way how the not-so-much-privacy is handled. “It works for me, but sometimes you just want to be alone. It doesn’t mean you start fighting or something, you just have personal ways of handling it,“ says Daniel. From what others can see is that their team is just so synchronized and well-planned that these 5 guys seem to act like one when it comes to their schedule.
About their Estonian experience, Philipp mentions how friendly people are in Tallinn: “If you ask locals for something, they just really want to help you. You ask them where is the post office they’ll say it is over there – even if they have no idea and just show you a random direction, they don’t want to disappoint you.” “They are just polite and want to give you an answer,” adds Daniel, “even if it’s completely wrong.” However they say it is quite easy to live in Estonia because most of the people speak English and quite a lot of Estonians even speak some German.
All of the guys agree that it was totally worth it to come and take part of GameFounders accelerator. They are happy that they were chosen out from all the other applicants, so they do not let them be bothered by the little things like the fact that working in an open office can get crowded sometimes. For the future applicants they don’t know exactly what to advise. In their opinion, all teams are in different phases and need different kind of advice. BUT they are willing to share their experience with everybody who is interested.
Pfeffermind Games (from left): Philipp, Daniel, Sebastian, Jacob and Tarek