JiveHealth: Games that Teach Kids to Eat Healthy
By Nicole Marie Richardson
Former video game (and junk food) addict Dennis
Ai of Northwestern created a game that teaches kids
about nutrition. Michele
Obama is a big fan.
JiveHealth's founder Dennis
Ai (right) at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy with co-founders Hailey Schmidt and Nathan Wangler (left).
Growing up in Edison, New Jersey, Dennis Ai
scarfed down potato skins and beef jerky by the bagful. The junk diet packed on
the pounds, and with the weight came all the social anxiety, ridicule, and
isolation of growing up heavy. “The kids at my school made fun of me,” recalls
Ai. “And once when I asked a girl out, she said she didn’t want a fat
boyfriend.”
Ai eventually conquered his weight problem with
exercise and healthy eating, but the painful memories of those years never left
him. Out of them grew the idea for a business that could help other kids avoid
what he had suffered. Why not, he wondered, create a video game that encouraged
healthy eating habits?
The idea was still rattling around when he left
for Northwestern University in September 2009 and met fellow student and
software engineer Chris Yenko, 19, and Tribeca Flashpoint Academy students
Hailey Schmidt, 20, a game artist, Nathan Wangler, 21, a game designer, and
serial entrepreneur Tom Denison, 49.
The company’s first mobile game, Jungo takes 6
to 11 year olds through a series of levels and challenges to retrieve a sacred
tome of culinary secrets from the evil Mertle the Turtle. Along the way, they
need to gather healthy foods and create recipes to earn upgrades for their
characters, which include an apple-loving bear named Hugo and Aki, a monkey who
is addicted to almonds. Some of the ingredients exist in the game world, while others
only exist in the real world. Consequently, in order to complete the recipe,
players need to collect an apple (or some other healthy treat) in their own
home or at the supermarket, photograph it, and upload the photo into the game
as a virtual apple. Players can download the game for free; Ai's business model
assumes that they'll eventually want to unlock additional characters and other
props for a fee.
“It’s really difficult to preach to kids about
eating a nutritious diet, but through this role-playing game, finding and
eating healthy food becomes fun,” says Ai. “Plus, the game will encourage
parents to have these foods around where their children can find it.”
Even though it is still in prototpe, the game is
already getting noticed. Just recently JiveHealth took first place in a
competition hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama and the Partnership for a
Healthier America End Childhood Obesity Innovation Challenge. The win
garnered Ai a $10,000 cash prize, along with expert mentoring from senior
executives at Edelman, McKinsey & Company, and Startup Health. The company
is also a Top 15 team in Microsoft's Imagine Cup Accelerator.
Matthew Corrin, founder and CEO of healthy food
chain Freshii, sits on the JiveHealth board and thinks the company has the
right strategy at the right time for the fight against childhood obesity.
“I think it’s timely--especially with Michelle
Obama promoting her Let’s Move! campaign--because the government is behind the
initiative,” says Corrin. “I think it will come down to how engaging the games
are. If they aren’t fun then it won’t work. But if they are, JiveHealth has a
great shot at reaching its goals to educate kids about nutrition and combat
this epidemic.“
The next phase: Ai has been testing the
prototype on children in a neighborhood church. “The first step is to make sure
we have a game that kids love playing,” says Ai. The next testing phase will
aim to determine whether the game can actually trigger better behavior. “That
will be more difficult,” admits Ai.
JiveHealth plans to put the game on the market
this summer, starting on the iPhone, with Android and Windows versions to
follow. Ai, whose initial capital totalled a less than lofty $1,000, also hopes
to attract some investors by then. He has temporarily dropped out of school to
get the business up and running, but believes he will have enough credits to
graduate in June 2013.
“I love the challenge of going after this
epidemic,” says Ai. “I wake up at 7 a.m. and go to sleep at midnight, and I
don’t do anything else in between but this.”
Nicole Marie Richardson is the executive editor for special projects at Inc.com. She
manages the website's largest projects, including the Inc. 5000, an annual list
of the fastest-growing, privately-held companies in America. @nicole_marie79
