Behind the Curtain: Why We Selected Turkish Startup Spyke Games

Rina Onur, co-founder and CEO of Spyke Games, isn’t your typical entrepreneur. She’s not even a typical Endeavor Entrepreneur. 

Before founding Spyke Games, she had already co-founded Peak Games (also an Endeavor company), which was acquired by Zynga in June 2020 for $1.8B. Rina launched 500 İstanbul, an early-stage VC fund, and invested in companies like Insider, Paraşüt, BillionToOne, and Firefly. With this level of success and experience behind her, she’s also highly connected within her industry and the entrepreneurial scene at large, both in Türkiye and globally. 

“On the gaming side of things, there is almost no founder that Rina doesn’t already know,” said Güzey Şıkman from Endeavor Türkiye’s team. “She’s already well-equipped in terms of connections and network.”

Despite already having access to most of the things we offer, Rina was determined to be an Endeavor Entrepreneur because she understood the power of relationships.

“There are only a few people who understand what you’ve experienced and what you might be about to experience. Being part of a network where you’re surrounded by mentors and peers is extremely valuable. That’s why [when founding a company] a second or third time around, I still want to be part of the Endeavor network and benefit from that ecosystem.”

Repeating success

Peak Games had, in Güzey’s words, “a magnificent exit”, and left Rina and her co-founders to take their expertise to Spyke. 

At Peak, Rina was co-founder and Chief Sales Officer. Her brother Remi, who is a co-founder and COO of Spyke Games, was one of the first 10 employees. Among her other co-founders, CPO Barkin Basran was a product lead and CTO Fuat Coskun was a senior software engineer. Spyke Games’ fifth co-founder, CMO Mithat Madra, was at Riot Games. While Rina may be the de facto team leader, all the founders work closely, bringing their specialized focus to the company as a whole.

Spyke launched its first game, Tile Busters, in 2023, a free-to-play puzzle game with tile matching, sudoku and mahjong elements. They followed with Blitz Busters, a 3D update on the puzzle game, and aim to continue to build with “forever franchises”: games that draw customers back again and again.

But when Spyke’s first game didn’t meet its monetization targets despite strong customer retention, the team realized the importance of shortening game development cycles. They developed a tool that reduced the development process from a year to just 3-4 months, enabling rapid iteration and testing with minimal resources. Using this new tool, they successfully launched and optimized two games, accelerating their growth.

Revenue soared accordingly as Spyke Games reported an 1800% annual growth from 2021 to 2023 and are projecting to continue growing aggressively towards the end of 2027. 

With the founders’ track record at Peak Games and already existent close connections with Endeavor Türkiye, the selection process was a little different. 

“We sort of condensed and fast-tracked the selection process,” remembers Güzey. “Everyone was saying that it was way past time that Rina stepped into the spotlight and got into Endeavor. And everyone we introduced her to saw her as an incredibly valuable asset for the Endeavor network, not just for Endeavor Entrepreneurs but also for our global pipeline. Rina really boosts the Endeavor Multiplier Effect™,” he says, which measures entrepreneurial success not just on the individual success of a single company or founder, but across their whole local ecosystem. 

“In terms of experience and expertise in this space, we’re excited,” says Herman Bosman, a founding partner at the VC firm Atelier Partners and Endeavor Board Member. “The market opportunity is big and they’re already successful. The focus needs to be on sustainability.”

“I love them,” agrees Veronica Allende Serra, founder of Innova Capital and a Global Board Member at Endeavor. “Rina is a rockstar. She’s an inspirational role model not just for Türkiye, but for women around the world.”

How Spyke Games is Redefining Rapid Scale

But repeating success is one thing; sustaining it is another. 

Spyke has boosted their customer retention by giving every player their own tailored experiences, leveraging AI to predict player behavior and dynamically adjust the gaming experience. The company also shows players fewer ads than in other casual games, leaning more on in-game purchases. This strategy is paying off for Spyke: already, the company sees three times higher retention over seven days than the top 25% of casual games.

However, some of the Endeavor International Selection Panel were concerned about the revenue model. The majority of the company’s revenue comes from in-app purchases, which are made by a fraction of its users, and Spyke’s top “whale” spent a five-figure sum on a game in 2023. Paired with Spyke’s portfolio strategy to create four to five “forever franchises”, which requires ensuring that each consecutive game reaches the successes of their first two games, we saw room for Spyke to focus on healthy gaming.

Veronica stressed the importance of investing in research around the psychology and neurology of customers, as well as installing safeguards like a measurement system for players to monitor their use. Utilizing evidence-based psychological tools which could stimulate players’ brains to increase game efficiency and positive externalities, Spyke Games could build a successful and supportive environment for their users.

“Rina took that to heart.” Güzey reports. “Even though the team has previously  considered this, Rina revisited the topic and was re-encouraged to discuss this with  both her team and other entrepreneurs in the sector.”

It’s the mark of a great entrepreneur and an exciting company: even at the top, there’s always more to learn. Flagging Rina’s leadership and sustainability in the same breath led the panel to one of their key recommendations for Spyke Games: secure a succession plan. With a juggernaut like Rina at the helm, Spyke Games needs to ensure that their success can continue even if – or when – Rina moves on. (Maybe “to run for office,” jokes Diego Piacentini, founder of View Different and an Endeavor Board Member.)

Endeavor will work with Rina and her co-founders to ensure that Spyke Games is successful with or without its visionary CEO, particularly by continuing to foster and develop talent locally. “A significant portion of the local talent leave Türkiye due to political and economic circumstances,” Güzey explains. “The high-impact entrepreneurs of the gaming industry are trying to make the country a hub that attracts foreign talent as well as retaining local talent. Endeavor can help [Spyke] build a robust company culture where talent inside won’t be affected as much by circumstantial factors in Türkiye.”

“At Peak Games, everything we benefited from Endeavor and everything we learned from the network, we wanted to bring to Spyke Games, too,” Rina says. “So that the company and the entire leadership structure could benefit from Endeavor as well.”