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    Heyzap’s Amazing 404 Page, Created In A Day

    Anthony Ha

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    Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and random startups. Previously, he worked as a staff tech writer at Adweek, a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and a local government reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... → Learn More

    Monday, March 5th, 2012
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    heyzap 404

    Gaming startup Heyzap has found a way to take some of the pain out of stumbling on a 404 error message on its website.

    Now, Heyzap’s 404 page comes with a little bonus — a simple spaceship combat game, where you move your mouse to shoot off a flood of enemies. Co-founder Jude Gomila says this was actually built by an engineer named Micah during one of the company’s monthly hack days.

    Gomila says the game is designed to resemble Heyzap’s new web pages, but there’s no direct tie to any of the other products. For now, the 404 page works best on a non-mobile browser. That’s a bit strange, since the startup, whose investors include Union Square Ventures and incubator Y Combinator, is now focused on adding social discovery features to mobile games. Gomila says Heyzap will be launching a mobile version soon.

    However, if you’re looking to the game as an easy way to relieve stress, you may want to think twice — I, at least, keep getting killed. Asked why the game is so difficult, Gomila (who should probably just blame it on my crappy hand-eye coordination) quotes the page’s creator Micah: “Because 404 should be a frustrating experience.”


    Crunchbase

    Company: Heyzap
    Website: heyzap.com
    Launch Date: 2009
    Funding: $7.97M

    Heyzap is a social discovery platform for mobile and the largest social network for Android/iPhone mobile gamers. Heyzap is based on San Francisco and was founded in 2009 by Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund. Heyzap provides users with a way to check-in to their favorite games, discover games and join a massive community of mobile gamers. Heyzap allows users to let other gamers know what they are playing, leave or browse tips for their favorite games, and earn badges. For mobile...

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    Person: Jude Gomila
    Companies: Heyzap, Mashape

    Jude Gomila is currently co founder of Heyzap (Union Square Ventures and Y Combinator funded in 2009). Jude Gomila was born in London, UK and attended the UK’s Cambridge University. He graduated with Honors in Engineering and Management. During his final year of University he started Sugar Global, a digital photo frame brand, making sales to UK stores including Harrods, Selfridges, Amazon and Firebox.com. Sugar products were featured in the What Hi-Fi Magazine’s Expo 2007. After Sugar Global, Jude...

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