Introduction
Andrew Busey (born 1971) is an American serial tech entrepreneur, author, and inventor. He is the current chairman and chief products officer of Conversable and the co-founder of the mobile gaming companies Challenge Games and Team Chaos. He holds a number of U.S. patents and, is the creator of the IChat software. In July 1997, Advertising Age named him as one of the "Digital Media Masters".
Education
He graduated with degrees in computer science and marketing from Duke University in Durham and holds an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Career
Andrew Busey began his career as a product manager for the Spyglass web browser in 1994. He left Spyglass in 1995 to start his own company, iChat, an instant messaging software which he created when he found the huge potential for instant messaging (IM) online. It was one of the first instant messaging systems. Later, the company was acquired by Apple Inc.
In 1998, he co-founded an online furniture store, living.com, which received funding of $70m, including $20m from the Starbucks coffee chain. However, the company was shut down after the Dot-com bubble burst in August 2000.
He started another software company, Pluck Corp, with co-founder Dave Panos in 2003. Pluck.com secured $1.5m as seed funding and then a second round of $8.5m. Pluck was acquired in 2008 by Demand Media Inc.
After completing his MBA in 2005 from the University of Pennsylvania, Andrew Busey founded Austin-based Challenge Games in 2007. The game development company created web-based games that combined head-to-head play with the collectibility and trading associated with collectible card games, like Magic: The Gathering. In June 2010, his gaming company, Challenge Games, was acquired by Austin-based Zynga for an undisclosed amount. After the acquisition, Busey joined Zynga as the vice president of the Austin studio.
In April 2013, Busey partnered with the mobile developer, Chaotic Moon Studios, to create a new mobile gaming startup, Team Chaos. He was CEO of Team Chaos which built a myriad of casual and card-based games, including Elements, Dragon Academy and NBA Breakaway.
Busey co-founded Conversable, an AI-powered conversational platform with Ben Lamm in 2015. It allows customers to create chatbots, which are capable of automatically interacting with customers and performing simple tasks. The company was sold to LivePerson in October 2018.
In February 2012, Busey joined as a venture partner at Austin Ventures. Andrew Busey also invested in Acebale, an online drivers ed and mobile app.
Some of the other companies that he founded or co-founded include Virtual City, Carbon Software, Oxygen Games, Legit, and Banter.
Patents
Busey is the inventor on 28 patents spanning video games, chat and messaging, chat with a customer service rep, chat automation, e-commerce, and social media.
Recognition
Advertising Age acknowledged him as a "Digital Media Master" in July 1997.