Tech

BOOMING IN BUENOS AIRES: Take A Grand Tour Of $300 Million Social Gaming Startup, Vostu

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scooter late
Coder heading to a meeting 

Vostu is a social gaming company that's flooding South America.  It has been played by more than half of the Brazil population and it's the fourth-largest social games developer in the world. 

Founded by Thrive Capital's Josh Kushner, Daniel Kafie and Mario Schlosser, the company now has 580 employees in Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and New York.

Vostu has raised nearly $46 million in venture capital and the startup is now valued at about $300 million.

These are Vostu's three cofounders, Josh Kushner, Mario Schlosser and Daniel Kafie. This was taken in the New York office.

vostu founder josh kushner, mario schlosser, daniel kafie
Photo credit: Pascal Perich

There is also a Vostu office in Brazil, but the company's headquarters is located in this building in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

vostu office

It has a killer view. You can see the presidential palace on the left.

vostu office

And a gorgeous terrace where Vostu employees can get some fresh air.

vostu office

Vostu receptionists greet you when you walk in.

vostu office

There's a ton going on. These post-it notes are plans for a component of one of Vostu's games.

vostu office

This board is plotting a whole new game.

vostu office

These guys are checking out Vostu game analytics.

vostu office

This board keeps track of more analytics.

Analytics board Vostu
Analytics on a board

And here's most of the analytics team in a meeting. We're not sure why there's a lady painted on the wall, but it looks cool.

vostu office

Pedestrians need to watch out for office scooters. This coder is flying to a meeting.

scooter late

Two other coders are busy developing new features.

vostu office

This is Vostu's game team.

vostu office

They're coding tons of new stuff all the time. This is the GolMania tech lead. GolMania is a new game Vostu launched this year.

vostu office

Here's where the art department sits.

vostu office

Some artwork for a new game is being designed over here.

vostu office

Sketches from the art team line the walls.

vostu office

This is CTO Andres Bernasconi's office.

vostu office

All these people work on content for the games.

vostu office

There's an entire group dedicated to payment development too.

vostu office

Customer Support leaders meet in the room with the funky mural.

vostu office

The team is growing rapidly so management training is important. That's what's going on in this meeting.

vostu office

The architecture group for games is huge. This is one of its meetings.

vostu office

Vostu has its own cafeteria so employees don't have to venture far for lunch.

vostu office
Cafeteria

The lunch tables and trays remind us of middle school.

vostu office

Naturally, there's a video game room, where employees can play all the old classic games (you know, the ones not on Facebook).

vostu office

Daniel Kafie is Vostu's co-founder and CEO. He frequently reps a Vostu t-shirt.

Daniel Kafie, co-founder and CEO

A bunch of people are working on another big Vostu game, Megacity. Chief Scientist Mario Schlosser is one of Vostu's co-founders (on right). He's pictured here with Megacity product managers Carlos de Marco and Ines Freytes, CTO Andres Bernasconi and Megacity general manager Leonardo Rubinstein.

vostu office

Megacity product manager Ines Freytes is chatting with CTO Andres Bernasconi.

vostu office

Matias Recchia is the one in the white shirt. He's Vostu's COO. Martin de los Santos is CFO; he's standing with Chief Creative Officer Miguel Marino (red shirt). Andres is peeking over on the right.

vostu office

This was taken at one of the final walkthrough demos for an upcoming fantasy game. Walter Taborda is one of the most senior art people in the company. COO Miguel Marino and Mario Schlosser were there with product manager Guillermo Gomez and several art and tech guys.

vostu office

Here's a wall projection of the game.

vostu office

Earlier this year, Vostu launched GolMania. It threw a party on the terrace for all the employees.

vostu office

Here's everyone hanging out in the cleared cafeteria space.

vostu office

The view might be even better at night when everything is lit up.

vostu office

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Alyson is the Editor-in-Chief and CCO at Fortune.  She was previously a co Editor-in-Chief overseeing Business Insider's tech and business coverage.She joined Business Insider in July 2008 as the company's sixth employee. She started as a sales planner before joining the editorial team in 2010, where she became a startup reporter and was first to cover some of today's largest tech companies, including Pinterest, Tinder, Instagram, Uber and Snap. Alyson rose to become a senior correspondent, then Executive Editor.She was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider in 2016, at which point she became the youngest and only woman to run a global business publication. Under her leadership, the business division has grown to hundreds of  millions of monthly readers.Alyson was a host of  Insider's conferences and launched a podcast, "Success! How I Did It," where she interviewed influencers ranging from Sheryl Sandberg to Steve Ballmer about their career paths (subscribe on iTunes here).She has appeared on ABC, Good Morning America, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and CBC, and she has interviewed media personalities such as Megyn Kelly, technology leaders like Fred Wilson, political leaders like John Brennan, and sports star LeBron James. She is a judge for the prestigious Gerald Loeb Awards in business journalism, and has been named one of Min's Rising Stars in Media, as well as Folio's 2017 Top Women in Media.She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she majored in psychology and advertising.You can read some of her investigative articles here:— Leaked videos reveal the true founding story of Snapchat— The founder who dumped Jared Kushner: Inside the phone call that left the White House star in a fit of rage— The downfall of billion-dollar startup, Fab— How a startup that raised the largest seed round in Silicon Valley history blew itself up before it even launched— The dark side of Facebook, where people lie, cheat, and make millions— A profile of Uber's controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick— The mystery of Jody Sherman, a founder who was driven to suicide and left behind a shocking business disasterDisclosure: Alyson owns bitcoin and Snap. She is also an investor in The Spun, a sports-media startup founded by her husband.