A Fun Route to Social Connection with Ravel Labs

Gary Schofield, CEO and founder of Ravel Labs, has over 20 years of experience in sales, marketing, operational and executive management in the enterprise and consumer markets of Silicon Valley. With expertise in the online and mobile industries, Gary Schofield has had great success in several startups in the course of his career.

Ravel Labs offers a unique app that combines social media with online gaming. Ravel is a social discovery tool that allows users to get to know acquaintances better and create meaningful conversations through the fun of a personal trivia game. The game is casual and entertaining, yet provides depth through a series of “levels.”

Users can create a level by answering a question of their choice and uploading a photo of themselves. Up to 30 levels can be created, each with a different answer and photo. When finished creating levels, players can browse people or play with friends they already know.

Users “unravel” friends by clicking photos of other users and guessing the answers they gave. Each correct response will reveal a new photo and increases the player’s score and rank with their friend. An in-app chat dialog opens when players mutually “unravel” each other, so that friends can use the “unraveling” questions as an icebreaker that ultimately leads to a deeper connection.

Startup Finance 101 - Series A

Gary Schofield is the founder and CEO of the mobile social app developer Ravel Labs. Over the course of his career as an entrepreneur, Gary Schofield has managed a number of successful startups in Silicon Valley.

After securing seed funding to develop a product or service, startup companies typically begin a round of funding known as Series A. The primary goal of Series A funding is to develop a viable business model and identify a true product, which can then be marketed to consumers or enterprises. Once a startup has identified its target user base, it can use Series A funding to reach more users and maximize its user base. Series A funding also enables startup companies to scale their businesses across verticals or geographic regions.

Although there is no set amount for a Series A funding round, the average figure has recently risen to somewhere between $7 million and $15 million. Once a startup has implemented a business model with Series A funding, it can apply for Series B funding to scale the business as a whole.