Is your job about to get a lot more addictive Maybe &8212' Sizhao Yang, one of the original team members behind insanely popular Facebook game FarmVille, is working on a new startup called BetterWorks that wants to create &''rewarding work environments.&''
Yang was co-founder and chief executive of virtual environment startup MyMiniLife, whose team worked with Zynga to develop FarmVille. In August 2009, shortly after FarmVille started to take off, Zynga acquired MyMiniLife, and the companya4‚¬a4„s founders joined the Zynga team. And FarmVille has continued to grow, becoming Zyngaa4‚¬a4„s flagship title and also one of the main targets for critics who say Zynga is little more than a copycat. (CityVille finally unseated FarmVille this week as Zyngaa4‚¬a4„s biggest game.)
According to Yanga4‚¬a4„s LinkedIn page, he left Zynga in November 2010 to join BetterWorks, where is he&'s serving as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer. The company is still in stealth mode, so both Yang and co-founder/CEO Paige Craig said ita4‚¬a4„s too early to talk about the product. On its web site, the company says ita4‚¬a4„s working on a product that a4‚¬Aallows business owners to create rewarding work environments quickly, easily and affordably.&''
Yang and Craig are both angel investors, while George Ishii, the third co-founder, was the a co-founder of Geni, the startup that eventually became micro-blogging service Yammer. The company is based in Santa Monica, Calif.
[image of Yang via the BetterWorks blog]
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Companies: BetterWorks, MyMiniLife, Zynga
People: George Ishii, Paige Craig, Sizhao Yang
Companies: BetterWorks, MyMiniLife, Zynga
People: George Ishii, Paige Craig, Sizhao Yang
Anthony is a senior editor at VentureBeat, as well as its reporter on media, advertising, and social networks. Before joining the site in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. (All story pitches should also be sent to tips@venturebeat.com) You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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