"It's about doing challenges on the places you visit right from your mobile phone," said SCVNGR's chief operating officer, Michael Hagan. "It's part informational and part fun."
Hagan, a self-described "serial tech entrepreneur," who just turned 30 and graduated summa cum laude from Drexel University's Information Systems and Technology School, helped form SCVNGR two years ago.
The firm took shape at Princeton University, and in 2008, it incubated at Dream It Ventures, a start-up space at the University City Science Center. That is where Hagan met Seth Priebatsch, a Princeton dropout and SCVNGR's chief executive officer.
The company, which now employs 61, quickly caught investors' attention. In November 2008, Highland Capital Partners Inc. sunk roughly $1 million into it, and in December, Google Ventures invested an additional $4 million to enable the SCVNGR team to turn cities worldwide into live game boards for exploration.
Philadelphia is the first such city.
Up to now, Hagan said, SCVNGR was best known for tours, orientations, and team-building exercises in museums, universities, and businesses across the country.
"Philadelphia will serve as the model for how other cities will expand on SCVNGR around the country and the globe," he said.
Said Jack Ferguson, executive vice president of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau, which books the Convention Center: "Philadelphia is once again taking the lead in offering cutting-edge technology . . . to improve the visitor experience, and it will take that experience to greater heights."
Plus, there is one not-so-cutting edge that Philadelphia has over many other tourist destinations that the SCVNGR connection will help spotlight.
