Management

Sameer K. Bhatia - Chief Executive Officer

As Octane’s CEO, Sameer Bhatia is responsible for forging Octane’s strategic course and establishing it as the leading mobile application and game developer.

Prior to founding Octane, Mr. Bhatia co-founded an electronic design automation company providing major electronics manufacturers with a software suite to slash their product design times. Serving as the VP of Corporate Development, Mr. Bhatia managed sales, raised financing, and guided the company through M&A opportunities. Earlier, Mr. Bhatia was the Founder & CEO of MonkeyBin, a leading provider of barter technologies, which he managed initially as the leading consumer swapping marketplace and later as the primary technology provider for the commercial barter industry. Mr. Bhatia raised debt and equity financing from 25 private investors and two venture funds and led the company through all stages of growth.

Mr. Bhatia started his career in management consulting and has also helped launch the American India Foundation, a non-profit foundation founded by former President Clinton. Mr. Bhatia is a member of The Indus Entrepreneurs, where he actively seeks out opportunities to mentor and be mentored. He graduated with Honors from Stanford University and has completed coursework at Oxford University and the Institute for Social Studies in The Hague.

Reena Patel - Chief Operating Officer

With more than a decade of experience managing and critiquing businesses in a variety of industries, Reena Patel is responsible for driving Octane’s operational efficiencies and ensuring that the company has a solid foundation for growth.

Prior to Octane, Ms. Patel served at Prudential, where she originated and structured $60 million in annual debt and equity financings. She monitored the social and economic impact of a $400 million portfolio and provided detailed portfolio impact analysis to senior Prudential Financial executives and to the Board of Directors. Earlier, she worked on Wall Street analyzing industries ranging from Leisure to Steel. Throughout her career, she has leveraged her strong corporate finance expertise in order to strengthen financial management of both for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Ms. Patel earned her MBA from New York University’s Stern School of Business and completed coursework at IESE in Barcelona. Ms. Patel also holds a BS in Finance from the Rutgers University School of Business with a minor in Computer Science.

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History

Octane was founded in 2003 on the belief that successful companies benefit from solutions that transcend national boundaries, conventional practices, and traditional thinking. Octane handles mobile application development and porting for some of the world’s largest mobile game publishers. The firm’s customers and partners include Namco, Gameloft, Superscape, RealNetworks, Infospace, Amp’d, Exit Games, and Skyzone. Octane is headquartered in San Francisco and maintains a studio in Mumbai as well as a testing facility in Boston.

Octane’s Mumbai studio boasts the best and brightest minds from India’s famed Indian Institute of Technology as well as developers with extensive industry experience.

Octane’s innovative development and porting techniques and technologies have been featured in leading wireless publications including RCR Wireless, Wireless Week, CNET's Wireless Gaming Review, iMedia Connection, Wireless Developer's Network, and The Hollywood Reporter.

The company has been profitable since inception and has not required any outside financing. All of its growth has been organic and based on the company’s own strengths.

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Business Drivers

Innovation:
Whatever we touch, we examine from a unique angle. And then we find a way to make it better.

Process Excellence:
We pride ourselves on having the best engineering processes in the wireless industry. Our productivity speaks for itself.

Quality:
Without impeccable quality, we’d be like any other service provider in an industry where bugs are often tolerated as par for the course. If you haven’t guessed, we don’t like being like anyone else!

The common thread that weaves our three drivers together is our ultimate driving force – our PEOPLE. Plain and simple: Octane is about growing people and about growth through people.

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FAQs

Q: When was Octane founded?

A: Octane was founded in 2003 on the belief that successful companies benefit from solutions that transcend national boundaries, conventional practices, and traditional thinking. Leveraging its global operations, Octane delivers all the benefits of globalization while removing the pain of managing teams around the world. The firm has developed domain expertise in serving customers with custom-tailored solutions that satisfy complex and evolving requirements.

Q: When it comes to porting, what's the process for a carrier to put a game on its deck. Does the carrier deal with the developer, then come to Octane and say, 'Port this"? If so, couldn't that process be streamlined for the carrier? What does a carrier look for in terms of a ported game - must it work on a certain percentage of handsets on the market?

A: Game publishers (e.g., Gameloft, Real Networks) develop a game from start to finish, but only for a basic handset, oftentimes a Nokia Series 40 or Series 60 device. Of course, no carrier will buy a game until it works on all of the handsets they are selling in the market. Therefore, the game is not marketable until it is "ported" - adjusted to work properly - on all the carrier's handsets. The publisher either processes the ports in-house (which is expensive), or outsources it to a porting company (generally cheaper), and then provides the final builds to the carrier for approval.

Q: Consolidation is fast and furious in mobile gaming, and some of the acquisitions are driven by publishers looking to do their porting in-house. Will there always be a need for third-party porting companies, or will publishers eventually be a one-stop-shop for the carriers. (And would Octane ever consider merging with a publisher?

A: Outsourcing is a seesawing trend vis-a-vis porting. Many publishers are currently trying to outsource 100% of their ports since they realize that they are not able to process ports cheaply or fast enough in-house. However, once there is consolidation amongst publishers and the land-grab is over, smart publishers will tighten their focus on costs and set up or acquire their own offshore operations for game development and porting. This has happened in all other software-related industries and will certainly happen over time in the gaming sector. As good businesspeople, we are always open to a merger should it fuel growth and allow us to further leverage our operational strength.

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