Randy Horn, has been asking people ridiculous questions, similar to those used in Zobmondo!! "Would You Rather" products, since his college days. Back then the most frequently used question was "How much money, in cash, would it take to get you to eat a live, kicking, 2 inch cockroach?" Hours of fun were had discussing this one crazy question and its derivatives.

 

Upon arriving to the Anderson School at UCLA, this exact question came up in casual conversation. It prompted others to offer ridiculous questions that they had heard and another entertaining and ridiculous conversation erupted. One such question which came out of this socializing was "Would you rather bite the curb and get kicked in the back of the head -OR- get a paper cut on your eyeball?"

 

The revelation that this type of content would make a great board game came in the latter part of Randy's first year of business school while on a blind date. He accompanied her on an evening which would include dinner and dancing with two other couples including Randy's roommate Jeff Fowler. The understandable pressure to keep conversation going and an unfortunate bout with drowsiness (Randy had been burning the candle at both ends), prompted him to break out the ridiculous questions. Magic happened again!! The conversation came alive ... everyone was laughing and groaning. The food servers joined in and Randy was astounded at the consistent transformation that occurred on this night and virtually every other time these questions were posed. As he and Jeff walked out of the restaurant, it came to him, and he told Jeff, "This needs to become a board game."

 

Over the next year the play pattern for the game was conceived. A business plan course at UCLA proved to be the last step to true viability for the game. Randy, with the help of another student, wrote a business plan. He fought through the reluctance to discuss such a crazy idea in the company of aspiring entrepreneurs with ideas for new medical treatments, ergonomic computer equipment, and various other serious business ideas. Generally, viewed as somewhat delusional by his classmates and professor, Randy forged on with the attitude that at least he would learn how to write a business plan. No one could have predicted the response he would get at the class' final presentation and as a required participant in the school's business plan competition. As part of the class, all business plans were required to be entered in a competition judged by venture capitalists, angel investors, and various other business men and woman. Zobmondo!! was a hit at these events. Students came to the competition and laughed, the judges rushed to schedule appointments with Randy to discuss terms of investing, and his crazy idea placed third out of 16 entrants in the contest. Zobmondo!!, the business, was born.

 

Details:

• Randy decided to pursue Zobmondo!! full time after the business plan competition. Zobmondo!! quickly became somewhat of a Cinderella story at the Anderson Business School. It even became the lead feature in an article done by the Wall Street Journal.

• Using the money won in the business plan contest, Randy organized pizza parties for his classmates where everyone would socialize and invent new "Would You Rather" questions. Over 800 questions were generated from these parties.

• The balance of the questions were written by a group of 70+ freelance comedy writers in LA, specifically sought out and hired by Randy for this purpose.

• Each of the 20,000 or so questions submitted was read and critiqued by Randy. About 9,000 of the better ones were discussed by a team of actors hired by Randy to dissect each question for quality. The 3000 questions in the two Zobmondo games were chosen in a group effort by this group of comic editors and Randy himself.

• Over 15 graphic designers were interviewed to work with Randy on the packaging and game components. Finally, a young artist and a veteran graphic designer were hired.

 

Since these early days Zobmondo!! has grown into a global entertainment property. Randy continues to run the company and continues to grow Zobmondo!! into a strong world wide entertainment brand. Zobmondo!! games including all the Would You Rather games are currently distributed in house by Zobmondo Entertainment LLC in the USA and by Re:creation Group PLC in the United Kingdom.