Roger Dickey

2012 Young Alumni Achievement Award

Roger Dickey (BS '05) started his first company in 2006 to match tutors with students who needed tutoring. Although the company was short-lived, the experience encouraged him to continue writing innovative software.

In 2007, he launched a social gaming start-up, building a portfolio of 19 Facebook apps and games. The most popular game, Dope Wars, resulted in a large following of 300 million monthly page views and $250,000 in monthly revenue, attracting the attention of social game developer Zynga. Dickey sold his company in 2008, and he used the back end technology that he had created for Dope Wars to develop a new crime-themed game for Zynga called Mafia Wars, which reached 45 million users by 2010. In three years at Zynga, Dickey also launched FishVille and five other titles. In addition, he served as an international product team advisor for Zynga, helping the company grow its games in India, Japan, and China.

Since leaving Zynga in 2011, Dickey has started a new company in San Francisco, named Product X. He also invests in and advises startups, including companies like Facebook, Addepar, DotCloud, E La Carte, Internmatch, HiGear, Speakertext, and Wanderfly.