Sure the latest initiatives from the Teslas, Apples and Googles of the industry tend to dominate the tech news space — and with good reason. Still, the tech titans aren’t the only ones bringing innovation to the sector.
In an effort to highlight up-and-coming startups, Built In launched The Future 5 across 11 major U.S. tech hubs. Each quarter, we will feature five tech startups, nonprofits or entrepreneurs in each of these hubs who just might be working on the next big thing. Read our round-up of Seattle’s rising startups from last quarter here.
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Seattle has a bit of a reputation as a gaming city. Since the early 1980s, the city has attracted and helped foster game developers and companies focused on software for the gaming community. The region is already home to game developers such as Bungie and Electronic Arts (EA) as well as software developer Accelbyte; however, one local startup providing a social platform for gamers is making waves.
Built by gamers for games, Game Jolt is a social media platform. It allows users to join game-specific groups to talk about game achievements and missions, share art or simply just meet people with similar interests.
Prior to officially launching, the platform had been installed over 100,000 times. After launching in 2020, it experienced 2x growth and was later available for download on iOS and Android devices. By 2022, Game Jolt had grown to over 4 million monthly users.
“People flocked to Game Jolt because we don’t care about what you had for breakfast, we want to know what game you’re playing. Our goal is to support everything gamers are creating while giving them a dedicated space to share it with their friends and followers,” Yaprak DeCarmine, co-founder and CEO of Game Jolt, told Built In over email.
DeCarmine said video games were a large part of her upbringing. She grew up in Turkey and after moving to the U.S. she used video games as a way to learn English. Through gaming, she also met her now-husband and Game Jolt co-founder David DeCarmine.
Most platforms focus on being a generalist in order to cater to the masses; Game Jolt’s focus is gamers and gaming adjacent sects. Discoverability and searchability of highly visual content gamers create is what sets us apart.”
After creating an account on Game Jolt, users can join and post on community groups that focus on game-specific content for games like Minecraft, Pokémon, Fortnite and Super Mario, among others. Users can also search communities by game genres. Game Jolt also features a store page where it advertises popular games across various platforms.
“Game Jolt is the social media for gamers. We support all types of content gamers create. It could be videos of their gameplay, streams with friends, fanart of their favorite characters and even games,” Yaprak DeCarmine said. “Most platforms focus on being a generalist in order to cater to the masses; Game Jolt’s focus is gamers and gaming adjacent sects. Discoverability and searchability of highly visual content gamers create is what sets us apart.”
Prior to launching Game Jolt, Yaprak DeCarmine worked at another Seattle startup but in 2014 decided to pursue her social media idea. She said Seattle’s gaming culture and community have had a positive impact on Game Jolt.
“Since Seattle is a tech hub with gaming giants such as Nintendo, Valve Software, Rec Room and, of course, Amazon’s Twitch, the ease of meeting people passionate about gaming brought us amazing opportunities — even funding,” Yaprak DeCarmine said.
Game Jolt closed a pre-seed round back in 2020 followed by a $2.6 million seed round last year. With that capital, it was able to grow its headcount. After that, the success kept rolling in, according to Yaprak DeCarmine.
“I’d have to give credit to our product and support teams for this. The speed at which we iterate and launch features our users ask for has a lot to do with [our success],” Yaprak DeCarmine said. “Up until last September, we were just six people working full time. We’ve more than doubled in size since then and are able to take on bigger technical challenges that companies with more resources are dragging their feet on.”
