The people
What they build
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Working at A Thinking Ape
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On the TechVancouver stage
Every talk is searchable — ask the archive about A Thinking Ape ↗
About
A Thinking Ape came out of Y Combinator's Winter 2008 batch and relocated to Vancouver in 2010, where the founding team started out working from a downtown coffee shop. Its games are massively multiplayer and social — the company's own description is that it builds communities through mobile games — and the model depends on titles that keep a player base for years rather than on launch spikes. What made Arasaki a useful voice on the TechVancouver stage in May 2016 was the counter-position he took to his own YC cohort: rather than raising and spending into growth, he kept costs low and built revenue, and the talk, titled around being a startup cockroach, is a case for surviving as a strategy. The approach produced a durable independent studio in a city dominated by branch offices of foreign publishers, with roughly 75 staff. In November 2020 DECA Games, part of Sweden's Embracer Group, acquired it for approximately $105 million USD. Arasaki stepped back from the chief executive role in March 2023, when Tayber Voyer was appointed, and became chair.
Backers
Y Combinator backed the company in its Winter 2008 batch. Arasaki's public position was that the studio deliberately kept costs low and grew on revenue rather than raising heavily, which is the subject of his TechVancouver talk. It was acquired by DECA Games in 2020.
Quick answers
What does A Thinking Ape make?
Massively multiplayer mobile games designed around persistent social communities rather than single-player hits. The studio organises itself into small independent teams and describes its purpose as building communities through games.
Who founded A Thinking Ape?
Kenshi Arasaki, with Wilkins Chung and Eric Diep. The company went through Y Combinator's Winter 2008 batch and moved to Vancouver in 2010. Sources differ on the founding year, giving 2008 or 2009; the Y Combinator profile says 2009.
What happened to A Thinking Ape?
DECA Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sweden's Embracer Group, acquired it in November 2020 for approximately $105 million USD. The studio still operates in Vancouver. Tayber Voyer became chief executive in March 2023 and Arasaki moved to chair.
What was Arasaki's argument on the TechVancouver stage?
That the sustainable path is the opposite of the one his Y Combinator peers took: keep costs low, build revenue early, and treat survival as the strategy rather than the fallback. He gave the talk in May 2016, four years before the studio's exit.