Dominic Crapuchettes has been an avid board game player since the age of 4 when his overly ambitious father started entering him into chess competitions. By 7th grade, he was the Pasadena elementary chess champion and had taken 2nd place in a youth tournament drawing from most of southern California. It must have been this meteoric rise to dorkdom that gave him the confidence to design his own board games. By 8th grade, his 3rd significant design (called "Kabloogi") became so popular with friends that it was banned from his middle school because people were playing during class.
During high school, Dominic quickly learned to hide his dorky nature behind his
natural athletic prowess, an affinity for breaking rules, and a delight in
organizing any type of ruckus. Even so, his senior economics paper was a business
plan for a game company that he wanted to start. By college, he justified his
dorky nature to his bar-hopping jock friends by winning $15,000 on the professional
international circuit of a new-fandangled card game.
Dominic put himself through St. John's College in Annapolis by captaining his parents' commercial salmon fishing boat in Alaska. 12 seasons later, the wild salmon industry crashed and Dominic was forced to figure out what he really wanted to do with his life. He always knew that he would someday start a company, so working at an internet start-up made a lot of sense. During his spare time, he found himself programming silly arcade games and playing a great new type of board game that was starting to get imported in mass from Europe. It quickly became a highly anticipated tradition to play board games with his girlfriend and her sister every Sunday morning. By the time the internet bubble crashed, he knew that his game company would soon become a reality.
Dominic got his MBA from the Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland where he met his future business partner Satish Pillalamarri.
How did this self-proclaimed dork dress for halloween this year? This and more pictures will be added here for your amusement...
Satish Pillalamarri was born in New York with a penchant for playing foolish games. His first game revolved around trying to get his little sister to say the word "doodoo" as frequently as possible in front of his parents. From there, Satish graduated to more traditional party, strategy, and card games.
After graduating college at the University of Pennsylvania, Satish worked as an investment analyst for a global securities firm. However, he soon became dissatisfied with the bureaucracy and "cog in the wheel" mentality of working for the man. One day, while playing a competitive tennis match, Satish was bitten by the entrepreneurial bug. He decided to pursue his MBA at the University of Maryland in the hope of transitioning to a smaller firm where he could take on greater responsibility.
It was at Maryland that Satish met Dominic Crapuchettes. Intrigued by the idea of working for a start-up board game company, Satish joined Dominic during the summer of 2003. After having such a great experience working with North Star Games during school, Satish decided to turn down the glamorous world of corporate consulting for the North Star Games mission of bringing friends and family together for exciting and memorable experiences.
Imagine Satish's glee when North Star decided their second project would be the social trivia game Wits & Wagers. A former Jeopardy! contestant, Satish began his first work in game design helping to make Wits & Wagers the next blockbuster party game. These days, Satish can be found traveling the world to bring North Star's fun & innovative social games to the mainstream as part of the growing board game craze.
Side Note from Dominic:
Now that Satish and I have started our notorious board
game company, wild salmon is starting to make a comeback in the market. I guess
people are finally starting to learn about the quality difference between farmed
and wild salmon. Consequently, one of my Alaskan cousins, Sara, has started a company
importing salmon to the "lower 48". If you want the freshest and least expensive
wild Alaskan salmon
possible, be sure to get some fillets delivered directly to your party.