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Niantic – Founded by John Hanke

By Noan on May 29, 2016

The Founder of Niantic (right) in front of a Tardis used in Ingress, an augmented reality game.

Imagine the conviction it would take to leave a prominent position at one of the largest tech companies, Google, to pursue your own ideas. Now, imagine that said tech company rewrote their rule book just to keep you on board.  This describes John Hanke, and how his newest startup Niantic opened their doors and began to explore an emerging niche.

Niantic began in 2012 with a focus on location based augmented reality. The company started with a product, Field Papers, and a value proposition that they would change how they monetized the app. Rather than add placement or in app purchases, they looked at how to market directly through the narrative of their app (think product placement for apps). Their second app was a game called Ingress, which has become something of a phenomenon, with over 7 million players globally. Niantic is soon to release their 3rd title, Pokemon GO, which will be among the first Nintendo Games created for non-Nintendo hardware.

The logo of Ingress, a game designed as a proof of concept, but ultimately successfully commercialized.

If you teach Geography, you have been touched by John Hanke’s previous products. After University, John worked in Foreign Affairs with the US Government. He established connections to the CIA, and noticed trends in spatial visualization that would go mainstream. Hanke founded Keyhole, Inc. and created the forerunner to Google Earth. After Google purchased Keyhole in 2004, Hanke went on to run Google’s Geo division (Maps, Streetview, Sketchup, Google Earth). By 2010, John was ready to move on, as he had vision for new projects which he felt would be lower priority if he stayed in Google. Rather than lose a brilliant employee, Google established an internal startup called Niantic, allowing them function essentially as a completely autonomous company. However, they were able to leverage the huge resources Google had to ensure their ambitious project would function well. The growing team of 41 employees is efficient and spends nearly all their time on product development, compared to other teams at Google which may spend up to 30% on processes.

Niantic does not focus on education specifically, but there is some really strong connections to it. Players of Ingress commonly state that the game has exposed them to the history of their area, and brought greater appreciation for where they live. Location based augmented reality fits in nicely with BYOD, crowd sourcing, game based learning, and many other emerging trends in educational technology. How amazing would it be to have students using field trips to fulfill challenges of a game, all while taking in the rich experiential opportunities field trips can provide?

Links:

Inc.com – Inside the Mind of Google’s Greatest Idea Man, John Hanke

FastCompany – Can a Startup Live Inside Google?

Making Games – Reality as a Virtual Playground

Huffington Post – Mobile Tech (and Society) on the Verge of Another Giant Leap: Ingress

The Chronicle of Higher Education – Google’s Ingress and Location Based Learning

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7 Jun Posted on Niantic – Founded by John Hanke

This was one of the best things I had read in the forum so far. I was introduced to Ingress by one of my adult students, and like Gary also intrigued by his new venture of Pokemon Go, but to know the story of where he came from was truly shocking and revealing. To have the guts to leave Google and make them bring you back, and at the same time have all this work experience and still move on to start a game venture (which can be very hit or miss nowadays with an overload of apps, especially games), was truly inspiring. I never thought of the benefits of Ingress for education, and am actually now tempted to talk about it with my older students too! I'm sure his next project will also be a success and am eager to see if there will be a fourth to come and how it will differ from his previous endeavours.

7 Jun
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onctomek @onctomek

This was one of the best things I had read in the forum so far. I was introduced to Ingress by one of my adult students, and like Gary also intrigued by his new venture of Pokemon Go, but to know the story of where he came from was truly shocking and revealing. To have the guts to leave Google and make them bring you back, and at the same time have all this work experience and still move on to start a game venture (which can be very hit or miss nowadays with an overload of apps, especially games), was truly inspiring. I never thought of the benefits of Ingress for education, and am actually now tempted to talk about it with my older students too! I'm sure his next project will also be a success and am eager to see if there will be a fourth to come and how it will differ from his previous endeavours.

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6 Jun Posted on Niantic – Founded by John Hanke

John Hanke represents the tenacity that is needed to be a good entrepreneur. As others have mention, leaving the creature comforts of Google is not easy and probably not recommended for several budding entrepreneurs. Without incubators like Ryerson's DMZ, ventures can die very quickly and never see success even on a regional or national scale. I like how John also brought back an old school advertising technique and modernized it for the masses. Being a gamer myself, I always wondered why game companies didn't do that in the first place.

6 Jun
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Gordon Chiu @gkchiu

John Hanke represents the tenacity that is needed to be a good entrepreneur. As others have mention, leaving the creature comforts of Google is not easy and probably not recommended for several budding entrepreneurs. Without incubators like Ryerson's DMZ, ventures can die very quickly and never see success even on a regional or national scale. I like how John also brought back an old school advertising technique and modernized it for the masses. Being a gamer myself, I always wondered why game companies didn't do that in the first place.

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4 Jun Posted on Niantic – Founded by John Hanke

I had first heard of Niantic when I read about the upcoming augmented reality game Pokemon Go. I thought the technology involved in the game has the potential to revolutionize gaming, and other fields to be benefited from augmented reality. It is remarkable to find the mastermind behind this revolution in John Hanke on this forum and to read about the journey he took to get to where he is now. Hanke is both a brilliant intrapreneur and entrepreneur, having the mindset to create new projects within the confines of Google, and gaining the leverage to get the support from Google to bring forth his goals. Definitely someone worth following if one were to looking for an example of a person who is not afraid to leave their comfort zone to begin new ventures.

4 Jun
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Gary Ma @garyma88

I had first heard of Niantic when I read about the upcoming augmented reality game Pokemon Go. I thought the technology involved in the game has the potential to revolutionize gaming, and other fields to be benefited from augmented reality. It is remarkable to find the mastermind behind this revolution in John Hanke on this forum and to read about the journey he took to get to where he is now. Hanke is both a brilliant intrapreneur and entrepreneur, having the mindset to create new projects within the confines of Google, and gaining the leverage to get the support from Google to bring forth his goals. Definitely someone worth following if one were to looking for an example of a person who is not afraid to leave their comfort zone to begin new ventures.

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2 Jun Posted on Niantic – Founded by John Hanke

Thanks Noan, quality posting. This is great example as John Hanke is representative of both a successful entrepreneur and also and intraprenuer. From his days working in Foreign Affairs in the US government, he noticed the trends in spatial visualization, recognizing a potential opportunity and creating his venture business to take advantage of this opportunity. At Keyhole Inc, he surrounded himself with what seems like the ideal personnel including a VP of engineering, a director of business development, director of marketing and a director of strategic marketing. Having a strong team in place allowed him to grow the business and execute and exit strategy by selling his business to google. As intrapreneur, John showed bravery and determination by initially suggesting he would leave Google to pursue his ideas, forcing google to rethink their structure and essentially develop a ‘skunkworks’ within their own company. Here again it seems John made a wise decision, choosing to leverage the vast resources of google to nurture and develop his new company (within a company).

2 Jun
1 Thumbs Up!
Chris Helsby @helsbyc

Thanks Noan, quality posting. This is great example as John Hanke is representative of both a successful entrepreneur and also and intraprenuer. From his days working in Foreign Affairs in the US government, he noticed the trends in spatial visualization, recognizing a potential opportunity and creating his venture business to take advantage of this opportunity. At Keyhole Inc, he surrounded himself with what seems like the ideal personnel including a VP of engineering, a director of business development, director of marketing and a director of strategic marketing. Having a strong team in place allowed him to grow the business and execute and exit strategy by selling his business to google. As intrapreneur, John showed bravery and determination by initially suggesting he would leave Google to pursue his ideas, forcing google to rethink their structure and essentially develop a ‘skunkworks’ within their own company. Here again it seems John made a wise decision, choosing to leverage the vast resources of google to nurture and develop his new company (within a company).

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