Jun 18, 2009 7:26 pm US/Pacific
SF-Based Startup Thriving, Hiring In Down Economy
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
The internet boom of 10 years ago burst with explosive force, leaving an industry and jobs in its wake. There's one place that still parties like its 1999, or at least the workplace is like that.
It's a San Francisco company that offers employees free lunch and dinner, allows pets, can't hire fast enough and it's the last place you'd look, especially if you're going alphabetically. It's called Zynga.
44-year-old CEO and Harvard Business School grad Mark Pincus is turning conventional wisdom on its head.
"How many jobs have you created in the last year?" CBS 5 asked. "About 330", Pincus said, as his dog Lola licked his head.
Many of those jobs pay six figure incomes and offer shares in the company. At the moment there are 90 additional openings, for flash developers, artists, engineers, to work on Zynga's stable of games for social media.
Zynga had $100 million in sales and is making a profit. It's not based solely on advertising but having people buy things in the virtual world.
Pincus said, "We started playing with ideas to let you buy virtual items in our games, and let you buy currencies and power ups and things that let you move along faster because you have no time."
People are spending money on few things these days but apparently they'll drop a couple of bucks to move up in games they play on line. A lot of people spending a little bit of money makes a lot of money.
And Zynga wants employees to work hard, so it makes life easy for them.
Chris Makarsky works on the Texas HoldEm Poker game and came to work wearing ski goggles and a bathrobe.
"Yeah", he said, "I mean you've got to be comfortable at work as long as at the end of the day we get the job done." He also enjoys the free beer.
But don't say this sounds a lot like web 1.0. They might not know what you mean.
"The vast majority of folks here are under 30, said Justin Cinicolo, who works on the Mafia Wars game, "so a lot of us where in high school when all of that was going on."
Jobs available also include non technical ones, including Human Resources, Accounting, and Quality Assurance, among others.
By the way, there is also a masseuse on campus twice a week.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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