Running a startup is like playing a game of cards. Founders keep a sharp eye on competitors, and make the best of the hand they were dealt while mixing in secrecy, guessing, and bluffing.
So it’s only fitting that some of these tech company founders make it onto a deck of cards. New York City design firm Red Bean has started a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to raise $3,500 to make the deck, “Startup Founder Playing Cards,” into reality.
The deck features iconic characters like Apple’s Steve Jobs (king of spades), the Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington (queen of diamonds), Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel (jack of clubs) and Jack Dorsey (jack of hearts) of Twitter and Square fame. But to find out the rest of the deck’s founders, you’ll have to fund the campaign.
Not surprisingly, this isn’t the first time Silicon Valley is lending itself to a game. Earlier this year, three friends created their own take on the popular board game Settlers of Catan that featured San Francisco’s startups that they funded through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Last summer, San Francisco-based blog The Bold Italic, which has since shut down, had some fun creating would-be cards for Cards Against Humanity that lampooned Silicon Valley culture. To play Cards Against Humanity, players take turns playing a black master card with an incomplete statement or question. The rest of the players then attempt to play a clever response from their own hands of white cards.
As for Red Bean’s startup founder cards, they’ll cost you $15. Shipments are expected to start in August.
See The 7 Most Important Tech CEOs You Wouldn't Recognize
Jack Ma, founder of Chinese Internet giant Alibaba, stepped down as that firm's CEO in 2013. But he's still the company's most public face, and after Alibaba's September IPO, China's single richest man.Scott Eells—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesLarry Ellison stunned the tech world in September by announcing he's stepping down as CEO of Oracle, the enterprise software company he co-founded in 1977. Since Oracle doesn't sell products to the public like Apple or Microsoft, Ellison's a little less-known outside Silicon Valley: But he's a hugely important figure, having heavily influenced Steve Jobs and a host of other tech leaders.Tomohiro Ohsumi—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesTony Hsieh, CEO of shoe-tailer Zappos.com, is a controversial figure in the world of tech chief officers. He's pouring money into Zappos' corporate home of Las Vegas, Nevada, which is welcome by some locals but spurned by others. Still, Zappos is known for being a very fun and very different place to work, thanks in part to Hsieh setting those qualities up as priorities for the company.Noah Berger—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesSatya Nadella just took over the reins at Microsoft earlier this year from now-Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, but he's already making his presence known through sizable layoffs and simultaneous acquisitions. Nadella's Microsoft has let go of nearly 15,000 employees this year — a chunk of whom were made redundant when Microsoft closed an approximately $7.2 billion deal for Nokia's device wing. Also on Microsoft's tab? $2.5 billion for the Swedish gaming company behind top-hit Minecraft.Microsoft/CorbisLinkedin CEO Jeff Weiner, formerly a longtime Yahoo employee, has grown the "Facebook For Professionals'" user base and revenue exponentially since coming becoming CEO in 2009. He's got quite the fan base, too: His workers, 100% of whom support him as CEO, according to Glassdoor.Robert Galbrath—Reuters/CorbisJohn Donahoe has been president and CEO of eBay since 2008. He's now guiding the company in a time of deep uncertainty: In early 2014, eBay settled a nasty public feud with activist investor Carl Icahn, who wants eBay to spin off payment service PayPal as an independent business — and Icahn isn't the only one who thinks that's a good idea.Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty ImagesDon Mattrick became CEO of Zynga, the social gaming company that brought us FarmVille, in 2013, coming over from Microsoft. He's been tasked with leading Zynga through a tumultuous period — the now publicly-traded company hasn't been able to replicate its FarmVille success, leaving many to wonder about the company's future.Michal Czerwonka—Getty Images
