- ThinkFun
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ThinkFun, formerly known as Binary Arts, was founded in 1985 by Bill Ritchie and Andrea Barthello. The two started the company from the basement of their home in Virginia, with a product base that initially consisted of four games invented by a family friend William Keister (Spin-out, The Cat, The Horse and Hexadecimal Puzzle). The husband and wife team used these products as a launching pad for their company, and within six months they were able to move the company headquarters out of their basement and into a more workable space and were able to begin to expand their product line.[1]
Contents
Growth and Expansion
In 1990 the retail market transformed and the number of malls began to sky rocket. Retail-lifestyle stores, looking for specialty products, began to discover ThinkFun’s games and the company began to grow exponentially. From 1992 to 1994 ThinkFun was listed on Inc 500s fastest growing companies list (#299 in 1992, #261 in 1993 and #396 in 1994).[2][3][4] In 1996, ThinkFun released its most successful game to date: Rush Hour. Rush Hour, invented by Nob Yoshigahara, was a traffic-jam themed board game with 40 puzzles ranging in difficulty from beginner to expert. From that time, the company has continued to grow and now does business in more than 50 countries and all fifty states in the US. Thinkfun has relied on a network of the world’s premier inventors, including Yoshigahara and Scott Kim, among others, to continue to develop their product line.
ThinkFun recently released versions of its Rush Hour game as mobile apps, now available for the iPhone, iPod touch, and Android.[5]
Recently ThinkFun has focused much of their attention on early learning products geared towards the education of younger children with games such as Zingo, What’s Gnu, and Clever Castle. S'Match!, ThinkFun's newest product, continues this focus on younger children.
ThinkFun's commitment to developing innovative products that truly stretch the brain has led to more formal work into problem solving instruction and brain training. ThinkFun has recently partnered with the Bunge Cognitive Control and Development Lab at UC Berkeley, who have used brain imaging to measure the effects of game play on reasoning ability. In an initial study, Dr. Silvia Bunge and her team of researchers found that elementary students who played games including ThinkFun's Rush Hour and Chocolate Fix for a total of 20 hours over an 8 week period demonstrated an average increase of 13 points on a measure of performance IQ.[6] Energized by these initial findings, ThinkFun and the Bunge Lab are framing out a large-scale study that will use fMRI technology to measure the effects of game play on the brain.
For more on the work ThinkFun is doing in the world of education and to explore connections between game play and learning, visit SmartPlay blog[7]
Core Products
- Rush Hour
- Zingo!
- S’Match
- Chocolate Fix
- 36 Cube
- Clever Castle
- Hoppers
References
- ^ http://www.thinkfun.com/ABOUT.ASPX?PageNo=ABOUT.
- ^ http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/advanced-search.html?state=all&year=1992&name=&o=250.
- ^ http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/advanced-search.html?state=all&year=1993&name=Company+Name&o=250.
- ^ http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/advanced-search.html?state=all&year=1994&name=Company+Name&o=350.
- ^ http://www.thinkfun.com/rushhour/.
- ^ http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/nurtureshock/archive/2009/12/10.aspx.
- ^ http://www.thinkfun.com/smartplayblog.
External links
Categories:- Companies based in Alexandria, Virginia
- Toy companies of the United States
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